On November 7^th, 2007 leaders from across the state came together to collaborate on the E3 Washington Comprehensive Plan for Environmental Education.  The Summit was scheduled to kick off the EEAW Annual Conference which convened the following day.  It was a day to reflect and work on Core Sector Strategies as well as orient the process towards cross perspective exchange and partnership building. (see E3 Structure Diagram)

Kathleen Drew, the Governor’s Executive Policy Advisor for Sustainability, asked this question to welcome the group, “How do we create that within our community where people continue to have special connections and values to the natural world”?  Throughout the day this challenge was reflected on by the many perspectives of sustainability and environmental education.

Shelly Vendiola facilitated a day that highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion.  There was a strong voice from the environmental justice and tribal education community as well as from youth participants. Roberto Maestas, Director of El Centro de la Raza added, “We have to build the mightiest movement in history to keep our leaders and businesses accountable to the people.” Each sector team benefited from these discussions and is moving towards consensus in this highly iterative and participatory process.

Participants were updated on the progress of the planning process and heard from Keynote speaker Billy Frank Jr., Chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and Co-Chair of the E3 Advisory Council.   He spoke as an elder encouraging us to remember that we not forget the severity of the situation, and that, “We better start talking about it or we’re going to be in a mess!”  It was a reminder that the dialogue happening is not only timely, but absolutely necessary.  He went on to conclude, “Don’t ever forget about the big picture.  You can talk about the negative things all you want, but there’s hope when we come together like this.”

The work commenced by breaking out into sectors to reflect upon prepared concept papers.  Concurrently, youth leaders from around the state participated and determined the most authentic and integrative way for their input to be included in statewide and regional planning. They are now planning an E3 Youth Summit.

By the end of the working day, each sector had determined the ‘Lay of the Land’ and prioritized aspirational and institutionally powerful ‘Goals and Strategies’ for implementation.  Time was set aside for reporting on the Regional Planning Process successes.  The final portion of the day was left to reflect on how to enable and enhance the E3 Network and determine next steps after the plan.

The sector discussions addressed issues specific to their strategies but commonly expressed the need for a highly developed network that compliments and adds to the overall mission of making environmental education foundational to learning, living and playing across Washington State.  There was an overall strive towards community based and interdisciplinary learning from a systems perspective.  By building committed and long-term ‘non-traditional’ partnerships that share common intention, the participants felt we could achieve environmental and social sustainability.

Jeff Keonings, Director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, praised the day’s work by highlighting the importance of seeing the system as a whole. “It is very heartening to see the wide diversity of people in front of me working together to do the difficult but rewarding work of educating our children and local communities about change.” 

During the E3 Regional Updates, highlights from each region were presented.  Lynda Paznokas from WSU reported on a successful Regional Summit the previous weekend in Pullman.  Bev Walker, from the City of Vancouver Water Resource Education Center excitedly reported on their post summit planning that will incorporate into a larger community wide plan for sustainability. Karen Janowitz, Thurston / Mason Regional Coordinator, presented the first developed draft E3 Regional Plan.  The TME3 Steering Committee worked feverishly to get a draft prepared out of many post summit, sub-committee planning meetings.  Congratulations to all the regions developing plans and coordinating summits to come.

We concluded the day with the essential question: “How do we strengthen and enable the E3 Network?”   After tables discussed and collaborated, the ideas brought forth ranged from pragmatic to reflective.  This was an opportunity for the process to continue its constant reassessment supporting this ever evolving and highly iterative process.

As Keonings expressed; “E3 approaches education from a statewide multiple sector viewpoint. It’s like moving from single species management to ecosystem management; from the simple to the complex.  That’s the same thing that this process has to move through as well.”

The input from the summit is being evaluated, incorporated into the statewide plan and compiled to offer regions opportunity to reflect on them from a local perspective.  The E3 process is stepping up to a pinnacle of activity including; roundtable summits for youth, state agencies and tribal leaders, and regional summits and developing plans. E3 Washington, the network, and the possibility of sustainable communities around the state are building stronger each time we meet. By undertaking something like ‘education as change’ we are both tuning our systems to adapt for change as well as supporting long term, transformative learning.