Working for the greater good of a community takes realization, knowledge and resilience, but most of all it takes passion. Environmental educators, and community workers and leaders have these traits in common. Making people understand and realize their responsibilities, and making them do something about it, is the role of an educator or a leader, and believe me it’s not an easy job. Early experiences of our lives have an impact of extensive magnitude.
Andy Lipkis was 15 when he founded TreePeople, a local nonprofit group in Los Angeles, that has after four decades become an innovative ‘urban foresting’ movement. Lipkis has recently opened up a Center for Community Forestry at LA’s Coldwater Canyon Park. The centre aims at demonstrating to the general public how they can work together to transform their urban surroundings into sustainable ecosystems. Throughout LA, cisterns demonstrating the procedure of rainwater harvesting have been set up, intending to decrease dependence on imported water.
What plants would benefit us? Which animals will be attracted to these plants, and what will their interaction consist of? These are some of the simple questions, the answers to which will boggle our minds. Urban forestry, and all it applications, like rainwater harvesting, water conservation, composting etc are important concepts these days, and people’s participation is a significant element in their success. When people have a ‘touch and feel’ experience of how they can involve themselves, in contributing to the betterment of the environment, it always makes an impact. In recent times, exposure to a wealth of information has made people more open towards new concepts and ideas of green living.
Source: LAtimes / Image