Randy Fulk, an educator and researcher at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, visited Catawba last week.  Members of the Environmental Stewards group were able to have a less formal talk with Dr. Fulk before his official talk. During this time, Dr. Fulk talked with students about the various jobs he has done at the zoo and about the importance of educational programs on the environment.

However, Dr. Fulk also emphasized in both of his talks that the knowledge of environmental issues is not enough to make a change. Rather, environmental education should also provide tools for people to get outdoors and inspire them to make a change. One of the best ways to inspire change is to start teaching kids the importance of playing outdoors at a very young age to provide the children with a personal experience with nature. Dr. Fulk explained that adults later become wary of nature simply because they do not immerse themselves in it anymore or because they had a bad experience once.

As an example, he told the story of a nature preserve in Uganda which has a partnership with the Asheboro Zoo. Locals that lived around the preserve became fearful of entering the park and soon the only people who entered were those who used it for illegal trapping and woodcutting. To encourage people to re-enter the park, they set up guides and tours to show the people how to interact properly with nature. They now have a program set up with the community schools to show them around the park and immerse them in nature. After his talk with the Environmental Stewards at 5 o’clock, he gave a talk open to any students who wanted to come about how to talk to others about climate change. Students agree that learning what to do to make a change instead of simply being told that things were bad was a very nice change.