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New
Academy for Nature and Culture: Guiding the Next Generation
of Restoration Ecologists
A
new program is being developed nationally to provide college-level
training for leaders of community-oriented conservation
efforts. It has established its first regional center in
Chicago and will begin offering courses in partnership with
two Chicago-area universities in the upcoming academic year.
The
aim of the program, called the New Academy for Nature and
Culture, is to assist participants in the development of
the skills they need to help others benefit from activities
such as ecological restoration, habitat management, community
gardening and community-supported agriculture, according
to Director Bill Jordan III. Formerly editor of the journal
Ecological Restoration and a founder of the Society for
Ecological Restoration (SER), Jordan recently left his position
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to devote full time
to development of the New Academy.
"Chicago
makes an ideal home for the first of several planned regional
centers," Jordan says, noting that this area has a long
history of leadership in community-based conservation and
a well-developed "conservation culture" that provides virtually
unlimited resources for a program of this kind. Jordan says
that collaborators are currently developing additional centers
in Texas, Arizona, and California, and that the New Academy
is also working in close partnership with SER.
"Restoration
as an academic discipline becomes one-dimensional because
it is shoehorned into an existing department," comments
John Rogner, Chair of Chicago Wilderness and supervisor
of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office in Barrington.
"Restoration as practiced by laypeople on weekends is rich
in experience and social interaction, but often lacks the
solid underpinnings of ecological science. In fact, much
of the human experience can be captured through the art
and science of restoration, and the New Academy will explore
this richness."
Chicago’s
New Academy program will begin this fall, with courses in
geography and environmental studies, philosophy, and English
offered at the Master’s Degree level at Northeastern
Illinois University. A program leading to a Bachelor’s
Degree from Loyola University is expected to begin in Spring
2002. The program will offer work in the field with experienced
practitioners supplemented by courses in the social sciences,
humanities, business, and leadership, in addition to the
natural sciences.
For
further information contact Bill Jordan III at (773) 508-8992
or (847) 328-8389; Tom Simpson at Northeastern Illinois
University, (773) 442-5642; or Alanah Fitch at Loyola University,
(773) 508-8992.
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