PULLMAN, Wash. — Representatives of Native American tribes throughout the region will attend an environmental education conference at Washington State University April 9-10 to discuss environmental issues with WSU faculty and students.
The conference will focus on integrating the cultural, social, political and historical dimensions of environmental and watershed management as they relate to policy issues such as land use, timber, fisheries, environmental health, infrastructure and water quality, said Steven D. Stehr, interim director of WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service.
The long-term goal of this meeting is to develop a model program on tribal environmental issues that the Center for Environmental Education, in the Foley Institute, can administer throughout the coming years, Stehr said. This event is funded by a grant from the Edward R. Meyer Fund of the WSU College of Liberal Arts.
Darin A. Saul, director of the Center for Environmental Education, said all of the tribes invited to attend the conference were previously involved in developing a Memorandum of Understanding between WSU and regional Native American tribes. The memorandum, signed by WSU administrators and tribal members last fall, was developed to create a structure for strengthening the relationships between WSU and Native Americans and to improve educational opportunities for Native American students at WSU.
For the past three years the Center for Environmental Education has developed numerous programs focused on watershed education and environmental restoration.
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