Conservation Foundation: A Next Gen Approach to the Environment

By Ryan G. Van Cleave 

Saving land for endless generations is the goal of Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast. One great way for Conservation Foundation to have a lasting impact is to create a sense of environmental responsibility and stewardship in young people. How they’re making that happen is via their Next Gen Conservation initiative, a two-pronged approach for connecting more kids to the wonder and fun of nature.

Environmental Programs Coordinator, Sabrina Cummings, points out that Conservation Foundation has been doing a version of this since 2017 through their Youth in Nature program. Conservation Foundation works with local youth partners to get at-risk kids into the great outdoors for a variety of nature experiences. “With our spectacular parks and waterways, it’s not too difficult to create ‘Wow!’ moments that stick with the kids. The main goal is to keep things very experiential.”

“Parents asked us to have more programs for kids, so we responded to this need and launched the Nature Explorers program this past summer,” explains Cummings. “It’s a K-5 science-based program that’s free and open to the public. It really opened doors for families who want their kids to experience the outdoors, but don’t quite know what to do, or just want a bit more structure. They want to go out as a family, but sometimes they’re not quite ready to venture out on their own.” One example of these cool events is Nectar Connectors on March 19, 2020, where Cummings will take 30 children and their adults to conserved land to learn about nectar sources for various pollinators and discover why certain pollinators are attracted to specific plants. The observations the group will make together can help experts like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protect and promote these pollinators more effectively.

Cummings adds that Next Gen Conservation was born of Conservation Foundation’s commitment to youth and the future. It means giving kids knowledge and experiences with nature in their own comfort zones and at their own pace, with an eye toward helping even more youth understand and appreciate the environment. Conservation Foundation wants the awe to last a lifetime. “I want them to understand the underlying science behind what they see. Sure, it’s cool to go out on Sarasota Bay and see beautiful birds there, but why are those birds here for only part of the year? What about 10 years from now?” she says. “We want kids to be able to enjoy and appreciate nature on an emotional level, and also back that with actual science and facts.”

The list of area residents who similarly celebrate and champion what the Conservation Foundation does is long, but local Realtor Julia Montei is especially excited about all they do. Her first introduction to the organization came when she was a Site Team Lead for Impact 100 SRQ. “My volunteer role for Impact was to coordinate a visit to the organization’s headquarters along with fellow Impact 100 SRQ volunteers to meet with the staff and learn about their role in the community.” Along with her fellow volunteers, she was very impressed by the program presentation, which clearly showed the opportunities and experiences it would offer to so many additional children as well as the positive impact on the environment.

“Because of that initial introduction to the Next Gen Conservation initiative through the Impact 100 process,” she says, “I was able to assist in securing funding from a private foundation that Conservation Foundation may have not otherwise received. It was fate.”

Montei gets it. Like many adults, she had what Cummings calls a “dirt-covered childhood” thanks to access to a big, wooded backyard. Montei spent a lot of her childhood seeing firsthand the beauty of nature, from birds and wildlife to tranquil water systems, nests and burrows. She knows how pleasurable Mother Nature is, and that’s not even taking into account the growing body of research indicating that contact with nature is important for the cognitive, emotional, social and educational development of kids.

Montei admits that a common misconception about conservation is thinking it’s simply too late to save our environment—that we can’t possibly make a positive difference. “But our children are our environment’s future,” she explains, “and, the Next Gen Conservation initiative has very real statistics that, yes, it is making a positive difference, one child at a time.”

Something that both Cummings and Montei emphasize is that the Next Gen initiative is open and available to ALL children in the community. The benefits of these experiences will have a positive impact on the youth for a lifetime.

While Cummings thought she was going to have a career in archeology, she loves the path she’s found herself on. “I find that much of what I do each day is a type of public archaeology, or public naturalism,” she says. “And none of it gets old. Every day, every time I go out with the kids, I learn things too. While I know Oscar Scherer State Park like the back of my hand, we were out there the other day with a group from Girls Inc., and we saw an oak tree that didn’t grow its trunk in a traditional way. I found out that for this specific type of oak, the whole trunk and root system is underground—all you see above is just sprouts, but the rest is under there. It’s so cool.”

When you have trip leaders who are interested in discovering and appreciating nature, it’s easy to see why kids start to pay attention, ask questions, and get excited as well. “We want to raise a generation of conservation-minded people,” Cummings says. “Maybe they’ll have a job as a teacher or at a bank, but they can still choose to be part of a community that cares about the outdoors. We’re all in this together.”

For more information on Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, please visit www.conservationfoundation.com or call 941.918.2100.