Planet Walker Coming to Yosemite to Celebrate Black History Month in the Park

Dr. John Francis, who has walked around the globe raising environmental awareness, will be visiting Yosemite in honor of Black History Month. He will be speaking in Yosemite Valley and El Portal. On Tuesday, February 15th at 5:00 p.m. he will speak in the West Auditorium about his journeys. On the following evening, Wednesday, February 16th, he will speak in the El Portal Community Hall at 7:00 p.m..

Dr. Francis is the founder and principal force behind Planet Walk, an organization which fosters environmental awareness at the grassroots level. He's also a writer, artist, and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. For 22 years he refused to use any form of motorized conveyance, and for 17 of those years he didn't speak a word. That self imposed quiet did not prevent him from earning a Bachelors degree, a Masters in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Francis has walked across Venezuela, and most recently finished a walk across Cuba. His Cuban pilgrimmage was also a study of its organic farming practices. He was accompanied by a local filmmaker who recorded the journey....

Dr. Francis will also bring to Yosemite copies of his book, PLANETWALKER .

Please join us and welcome Dr. John Francis to Yosemite!

“When I began this 18-year journey in 1983, I was a lone pilgrim walking around the world as part of my own education, hoping in some way to raise environmental consciousness and to promote earth stewardship and world peace. As a pilgrim, it didn't take me long to realize that the journey's success depended on the kindness and support of many people along the way. This generosity showed through in thousands of miles of unselfish gestures — a meal here, a few dollars there, a room for the night, an encouraging word, a smile.”

To learn more about Dr. Francis's Planet Walk by visiting his website, click here.

If you are interested in attending this event and have questions, please e-mail me at mandy_vance@partner.nps.gov

WildLink Youth Summits: Coming Soon!

WildLink, in conjunction with the National Hispanic Environmental Council and the USDA Forest Service's Central California Consortium, is in the process of organizing a Youth Summit Leadership Series. These meetings will initially take place in a central point in Fresno for local alumni; but other WildLink schools will also be joining us.

We plan on holding one summit per semester to start, with a College and Career Fair, in the fall; and a Critical Thinking/Leadership workshop that will culminate in a student-run, non-partisan debate at the end of the session, in the spring semester.

Recent studies suggest that though the number of environmental education programs in our country is on the rise, the rate of environmental literacy among our students has dropped significantly overall. We hope this series will be a positive step in addressing this issue. This material will also be supported by WildLink program curriculum, and we will make the materials necessary for facilitating this workshop available on our website.

WildLink needs the support of its teachers and enthusiasm of its alumni to make this event happen. If you have any questions or ideas about the Youth Summit Leadership Meetings, please e-mail them to me at mandy_vance@partner.nps.gov

Introducing the WildLink Quarterly Newsletter

Here at WildLink every season is full of many events and opportunities, and we're always looking for better and better ways to share this information with our teachers and alumni. Our latest effort in this direction is our new quarterly newsletter, Voices From The Wilderness.

We're excited to offer you the opportunity to view our new WildLink newsletter, which will tell you not only what we've been up to this winter, but also what we're planning for the coming year! As the year goes on, we'll keep an archive of all of our old newsletters, so that you can reference WildLink history with a click of your mouse.

Click here to view the Winter 2004/2005 edition of Voices From The Wilderness.

Calling All Alumni:
The Green Needs You!

I receive a very special environmental newsletter in my e-mail, and recently an opportunity caught my eye that I wanted to be sure all of our talented artists, thinkers, and writers from the WildLink program knew about. If you've been anxious to stretch your creative wings and don't know where to start, read on!

Teen Writers, Photographers and Cartoonists-
See Your Opinions, Interviews, Poetry
or Art Online and In Print
Contribute to The Green – An Environmental Newsletter by Teens

The Green provides a place where
you (students)can voice your thoughts, ideas, photography and art about the environment and have your contributions seen by other students and adults in the Bay Area and across the nation.

The Green is sent to 2,000 people online monthly and the Anthology is printed yearly. Our goal is to have articles printed in newspapers that are local to the student contributors.

What We’re Looking For is poetry,
creative writing, editorials, interviews,
book reviews, rants and raves, photos, drawings, comic strips, anything environmentally-related you’d like to
share. We welcome all types of
writing and artwork. You don’t need
to be an expert! You just need to be
willing to contribute.

You Can Get Started By browsing
through the current issue of The Green
and the related links. Just go to www.earthteam.net/green_news/index.html. Then,
if you feel ready, contact us and start submitting your own work!!

Teachers – Take a look at the For
Teachers link on the link mentioned
above for ideas on how to incorporate
The Green into your lesson plans. Use
The Green to energize a writing or photography assignment, encourage students to publish their work, expose students to other youth writings, and
to incorporate technology into your curriculum. Please invite us to visit
your classroom.

The Green Team is made up of
students who agree to submit a
contribution every month. With 8 or
more contributions you can receive
a small monetary reward at the
end of the school year. Or, if you
would rather just submit something
every once-in-a-while, we welcome
that as well.

The Green Advisory Team is made
up of a small number of students who
meet monthly with Matt Sieving, the
Green Intern and Outreach Coordinator. They review the current issue and come up with new ideas. They may be interns but that is not required.

The Green Internship is the first and
most important step in improving The Green. A Green intern will become
editor of a monthly section as well as contributing one piece of your own
work to each issue. Some of the
monthly sections are: Rants and Raves,Ask Dr. Green, Interviews, Poetry, Opinion, Cartoon of the Month, Photography, Events or your idea.

Contact Who? Feel free to contact
either Geoff or Matt. Geoff Chandler
is the Editor of The Green. Geoff is
a retired high school English teacher
and former Director of the
Environmental Academy at Pinole
Valley High School. You can reach
him at GeoffC@earthteam.net or
925-274-3669. Matt Sieving is the
Intern and Outreach Coordinator for
The Green. Matt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania this past
May. He’ll be with EarthTeam until September 2006 when he’ll go to
law school with plans to become an
attorney for non-profits. You can reach
him at MattS@earthteam.net or
510-919-4494.

Looking forward to hearing from you!