The Legacy Water Resource Education Program is a cooperative educational venture among the St. Johns River Water Management District and area schools in which the District works with educators and their students to make public lands more accessible. Public lands serve as living laboratories where students take the lead in managing land for their community while learning about natural resources.

The program is a way to get the most out of Florida’s public lands by using them as classrooms, using them as recreation areas, and making sure they remain safeguarded for Florida’s future.

It began in 1993, when a St. Johns County high school approached the District for assistance in creating a new environmental education academy. A 288-acre tract of land just five miles south of the school became the hands-on medium, allowing an abstract concept to take form.

The first year of the Legacy Program encourages exploration and discovery of the land used by the school. Students learn basic data collection techniques and use disciplines like botany, forestry and soil science. By the third year, each school practices “cascade learning.” This means that students absorb enough information to master it, then share it with others by becoming the primary teachers of other students.

Today, 15 schools in 11 counties use Legacy on 23 different tracts of public land, with 100 teachers and more than 2,500 students participating.

Educators learn how to use public lands as classrooms and how to guide students through interactive, educational activities. Students learn about natural processes while developing and implementing improvements to public lands, or performing service-learning activities. There are countless possible activities, including

• Flora and fauna inventories
• Exotic species identification and removal
• Forestry studies
• Wildlife habitat enhancement projects
• Water quality and stream flow monitoring
• Species population studies
• Trail development
• Mapping technology
• Video, Web site and print material production

In the process, students improve their grades, raise their awareness of water resources issues, and develop leadership skills that benefit them, their schools and their communities.

A 2004 independent assessment said that Legacy programs have changed students’ lives and significantly improved their grades, and Legacy has “rejuvenated” teachers participating in the program. Over the years, several Legacy teachers and programs have received state and national awards recognizing their educational excellence.

Because of Legacy’s success, the District was recognized by the Florida Department of Education in 1996 and 1997 as an outstanding business partner for schools. Each year, schools throughout the District’s 18-county service area join the growing number involved in the program.

Programs are designed to be long lasting, so students involved can come back throughout their lifetime and enjoy the resources they helped protect.

In the end, everyone benefits from the program with improved land, better-informed citizens and a brighter future for Florida’s natural resources.

For more information about Legacy, contact the District’s education staff at
(386) 329-4291 or e-mail Youth Education Coordinator Dan Hayes at dhayes@sjrwmd.com.