Keystone Project Honored for Outstanding Environmental Education

The Massachusetts Keystone Project, led by UMass Extension since 1988 and involving a 3-day training workshop at Harvard Forest every April, has been awarded a prestigious Environmental Service Award by the Mass. Association of Conservation Commissions. The award, given for Outstanding Environmental Education, is well-deserved; since 1988, Keystone Project leaders David Kittredge and Paul Catanzaro have led 26 training workshops, with over 500 Massachusetts community members participating as Keystone Cooperators.

Cooperators are expected to volunteer a minimum of 30 hours after the training workshop to advance conservation at the local level.

Recent evaluations show that in a one-year period, Keystone Cooperators made contact with 15,033 people about forest conservation, and 1,742 referrals to conservation information resources. Keystone Cooperators contributed 44,636 hours to conservation-related activities, 63% of which were volunteer hours. This is equivalent of more than 22 full-time conservation positions, of which nearly 14 positions were volunteer.

• Learn more about the Keystone Project.