Eagle Eye Institute

CONTACT:

14 Chapel St.
Somerville, MA 02144
617-666-5222
www.eagleeyeinstitute.org

Renee Toll-Dubois, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

The Eagle Eye Institute is a different kind of environmental education institution, founded in 1990 for under-served urban youth whose schools tend to overlook environmental science, issues, and values. Eagle Eye’s approach has been clear, positive, and direct. Its “Learn About the Forest” (LAF) Program, begun in 1992, has introduced over 1,000 multi-ethnic youth to the “beauty and care of trees and forests in both rural and urban settings”, from Boston through Groton, the Harvard Forest in Petersham; Belchertown, Sunderland, all the way to Peru (MA) in the Berkshires, where EEI leases 180 acres of forest. In 1995 it launched a 3-day camping experience to train tree stewards in tree identification, care, inventories, soils, composting, landscap-ing, gardening and urban wildlife; the students become paid interns caring for and teaching their peers about street trees. In 1997 EEI began a “Learn About Water” Program, and wrote a play about trees. EEI is a national model. Participation in its programs helps college admissions and job placement. That’s philanthropy.

(1999: NATURE: Environmental Education)