Leopold Education Project

The Science Center & Minnesota Zoo to Host LEP Educator/Facilitator Workshop July 27, 2007
Click here for information & registration

Maltby Nature Preserve Signs Partnership with the National Leopold Education Project

The Science Center at the Maltby Nature Preserve is the new Minnesota partner organization with the nation-wide Leopold Education Project. The partnership is a natural, considering that the mission of Pheasants Forever's Leopold Education Project is to educate individuals to develop a personal land ethic.

In 1935, Aldo Leopold, renowned ecologist, conservationist and author; purchased a worn out farm with an abandoned chicken house on the banks of the Wisconsin River to use as a family retreat.

He soon began the grand experiment of returning the land to a healthy natural state. Many of Leopold's adventures in restoration are detailed in his classic book, A Sand County Almanac.

Carved by water and glacial ice, the Maltby family property was traversed by the railroad, mined for gravel (some of which perhaps forms our State Capitol building), grazed, plowed, dirt-biked, four-wheeled, and used as a local dumping ground. Tons of trash are now gone from the riverbanks, native woodland trees are being re-planted and Buckthorn removal is an ongoing battle.

For more technical restoration, the Maltby family sought scientific expertise from USFWS, Minnesota DNR and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership. Now the gravel pits have been transformed into wetlands. In another grand experiment, these wetlands receive and filter agricultural runoff diverted from a neighboring farm before the water is discharged into the Cannon River. Students at Carlton College collect data to determine the success of this river protection project.

In 1999, Patricia and Wendell Maltby established a non-profit foundation, donated 37 acres and provided a long-term lease to an additional 53 acres, thus establishing a nature preserve, science research site and learning center focused on teaching the natural science of watersheds. An advisory team of 14 prominent scientists serves as mentors for education and on-going research. Science curriculum is developed in partnership with local school systems to provide professional development opportunities for area teachers and provide student field investigations that support state academic standards and classroom goals and objectives.

Six years ago, with support from the Goodhue Chapter of Pheasants Forever; 12 acres of alfalfa field were restored to native prairie habitat. Now, the partnership with Pheasants Forever --the habitat organization, progresses to another level as The Science Center becomes the partner organization with the Leopold Education Project; ushering Aldo Leopold's sound ecological principles and philosophy of conservation into the classrooms of Minnesota.





About the Leopold Education Project

The Leopold Education Project (LEP) is an innovative, interdisciplinary, curriculum with an emphasis on careful observation, critical thinking, and problem solving. The curriculum, "Lessons in a Land Ethic," encourages the use of the outdoors as a learning laboratory providing students with direct experiences in the natural world. LEP receives its financial support from, Pheasants Forever.

In the format utilized by other national curricula like Project Wet, Project Wild or Project Learning Tree; the Leopold Education Project employs a train-the-trainer format of conducting teacher workshops as well as training facilitators to train others.

To find out more about LEP in Minnesota, call Sil Pembleton at The Science Center at 507-664-0770 or go to the National Leopold Education Project web page at www.lep.org