EPA awards $45,000 to the Gila Conservation Education Center for Binational Environmental Education

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $45,000 to the Gila Conservation Education Center in Silver City, New Mexico, for binational environmental education in elementary schools for three rural border communities. The funds will be used to provide 27 environmental sessions in Columbus, N.M., and Palomas and Janos, Chihuahua, to 225 students in grades 3-5. The center will design and stock nine educational trunks with materials and hands-on activities on three topics, with each community having three different trunks at their disposition. Gila will also identify and train teachers and volunteers to give presentations on water contamination and conservation, air pollution and Chihuahuan desert ecosystems. Gila anticipates using this model for replication in other border communities.