Puerto Rican educators visit Bay Area
Exchange program helps to define common environmental issues
By RICK OLIVO,  The Daily Press, Ashland, WI-- Thursday, July 28th, 2005

Even though the distance that separates the Chequamegon Bay area from Puerto Rico is over 3,000 miles, the two regions share many of the same environmental problems.

Issues of water pollution, growth of human populations and loss of habitat are as matters of major concern in San Juan as they are in Ashland.
 

It is this commonality of environmental interests that is at the heart of a pilot program, partially funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region Five Office and organized by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point's Center For Environmental Education.
 

The effort is the Wisconsin-Puerto Rico Environmental Education Exchange Project. According to the project's director, Dr. Dennis Yockers, the idea is to bring top environmental educators from both areas into each other's regions to learn, share and expand their knowledge about the earth's biosphere.
 

"Two years ago we decided that we had a wonderful environmental education program for teachers, but it was missing a key element," Yockers said. "We felt that was the international perspective."
 

Working with the Puerto Rico Department of Education, the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, what evolved was The Global Environmental Teachings Program (GET).
 

"This past summer we brought down 11 Wisconsin teachers and hooked up with these Puerto Rican Teachers and traveled around their island for two weeks, learning about their natural resources and natural resources issues and how they teach about them in the classroom."
 

This year, Puerto Rican teachers were among 16 organizations in the six-state EPA region that spilt $194,900 in environmental education grants money this year. More than 130 proposals were received from groups in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Yockers says he hopes the pilot program will be expanded to include teachers from Mexico, South Africa and China.
 

"The number one thing is that even though we think of the earth as a huge planet, we see now how much more closely related we are, in our air resources, our water resources, our wildlife resources," he said. "We share these resources and this is a wonderful opportunity for people to see those connections."
 

Yockers said through the teachers, younger generations would learn this sense of the interconnectedness of nature. "As these teachers visit either place, they can learn another perspective that shows how their little place in the world is connected with this other place in the world. Plus there are relationships that have developed. Students communicating via e-mail, the Internet, sharing materials back and forth. Puerto Rican teachers teaching about Wisconsin species, Wisconsin teachers teaching about Puerto Rican species and how they are interrelated," he said.

 
The Puerto Rican teachers have been in Wisconsin since last Thursday; their visit is set to last until Saturday.
 

According to one of the teachers, Luis Crespo, the places they have visited thus far have been "peaceful and beautiful."
 

"The teachers we have met have been excellent teachers. You have beautiful natural resources, and a very good program to conserve and preserve those resources."
 

"There are many differences; I live on an island, and my point of view is so different," said Myriam Rivera, another visiting teacher. "You live as a part of a continent and everything is huge. For me to see the huge pine forests, and Lake Superior, it's like an ocean, it is so amazing."
 

School systems are also different, said Crespo, but although there were many differences, the environmental issues faced by both communities had common threads, Crespo said.
 

"Basically the problems, in the big picture are the same problems. We are having problems with the water resources, problems with growth, the cities are growing, there are pressures on different resources."
 

Rivera said the issue was one of maintaining biodiversity and preventing habitat loss. "We all just live in one house that is planet earth, so we need to think globally and act locally," Rivera said.
 

That too is something the guests and hosts share, a desire to pass on what they have each learned about their respective home's ecosystems.
 

"We are having a wonderful time with the people from Wisconsin," Crespo said. "They are excellent teachers."
Americans who have visited Puerto Rico say the same things about the hosts they had, the same teachers they guide through the state. Mary Schiefer of Rosholt was one of the American teachers who went to Puerto Rico.
 

"Besides meeting many new and good friends, when we went to Puerto Rico they took us to their very special places in the environment and taught us about them," she said. "They were so excited, and to see almost all of them come here, and now we can show them our very special places, it makes us look at our own world through inspired eyes. There are so many connections between the two places. We have birds that breed here and winter in Puerto Rico. We can see differences and commonalties and make those connections."
That is at the heart of the GET program Yockers said.
 

"I think international experiences change people's lives. They are never the same when they come back," Yockers said. "It's more than just being aware and knowledgeable about the environment. We need to develop those attitudes and values and feelings that will then change our activities as we relate to the environment."