The Art of Ecology
Building visual connections between people and nature.
Iesha has a deep passion to protect the environment and to create ways to effectively solve environmental issues. Her experience working and volunteering has given her a well-rounded skill set to create solutions and to have a positive impact on low income communities… She has helped protect the environment by using her experiences to spark others to converse about environmental issues and helping minority groups become aware that what happens in the environment has a huge impact on their life.
North American Association For Environmental Education
On May 13th-15th, 2022, Environmental Educator, Iesha Baldwin implemented a Bald Cypress Environmental Education & Natural Habitat Restoration program in Georgia, partially funded by The Art of Ecology’s 2022 Conservation Mini-Grant.
The Bald Cypress Restoration Project
During this program, students from kindergarten all the way through seniors in high school learned about the Bald Cypress tree, it’s relationship to water, and how to restore habitat. These students of color were from low-income and low-literacy communities. They learned more about general restoration processes, which was especially important due to the rapid depletion of old growth cypress forests, the history of the Bald Cypress, how to protect current populations, as well as how to collect and analyze environmental samples. It was wonderful that they were able to spend their weekend outdoors exploring the natural world through science and service.
While this project was a 2 day event, Iesha has hopes to implement some long term environmental education and restoration. The goal is to grow this restoration project into a year long project, then into an ongoing program focusing on teaching students of color from low-income communities about becoming environmental stewards using the bald cypress species as a teaching tool.
Thank you Iesha for leading the next generation of environmental stewards during your Bald Cypress Restoration Project!
Interested in completing a fully or partially funded Wildlife Conservation or Habitat Restoration project of your own? Learn more about The Art of Ecology’s Mini-Grants!
