One Of My Cousins Many Research Projects

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GLADE: Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems

LOCATION: Springfield, MO

ORGANIZATION: Greater Ozarks Audubon Society

GRANT AMOUNT: $15,000.00

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN PROJECT

Greater Ozarks Audubon SocietyMissouri State University Bull Shoals Field StationMissouri Department of Conservation (MDC)

With its TogetherGreen Innovation Grant, the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society continues its Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems (GLADE) for the second year at Missouri State University’s Bull Shoals Field Station. This project will greatly benefit both the teen participants and the ecosystems of the White River watershed.

GLADE is a week-long, service-learning, peer-mentoring student academy that provides hands-on habitat restoration, leadership training, interaction with conservation experts, and student grants for independent conservation projects.

Giant cane and glade habitats along the White River are unique to southern Missouri, threatened by development, and critical to local wildlife species. Through participation in an innovative curriculum that includes a giant cane restoration project designed to increase biodiversity, academy recruits will learn about the special features of the Missouri Ozarks bioregion and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to become conservation leaders in their home communities and beyond.

Coming from schools throughout the Ozarks, these teens will dive into unique and enriching educational experiences throughout the entire week. While restoring important habitat for Missouri wildlife, the young naturalists will increase their overall ecological knowledge and awareness, work side by side with environmental professionals, and return to their homes with a challenge to become effective community leaders.

Greater Ozarks Audubon Society and Missouri State University are offering a generation of teens in rural Missouri a new way to “Grow Up Green.” A week in the White River Glades will inspire the teens to love, protect, and improve their natural environment.