On Earth Day, April 22nd the House Education and Labor Committee held a Congressional field hearing entitled: Environmental Education: Educating our Children, Preserving our Future. This hearing highlighted the Federal role in supporting environmental education in our nation’s schools, in particular the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act.

The hearing also showcased learning opportunities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Environmental Education as a tool to help children lead healthier lives and become environmental stewards and the work of Maryland School System as a leader in Environmental Education.

Before the field hearing, more than one hundred children from Maryland schools took part in on-site environmental activities including aquatic sampling, water quality testing and planting native plants.

Refuge Manager Brad Knudsen: “This hearing coincides with current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiatives of "Connecting People with Nature" and a strong emphasis on outdoor environmental education; so we are very pleased to have been selected as the site for this field hearing.”

Participants included Congressman John Sarbanes; Congressman Dale Kildee; Governor Martin O’Malley; Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker; Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Nancy Grasmick and many other Maryland educators and special speakers.

Video (15 MB file)
(c) Video Courtesy of CTV -
Prince George's
Community Television

Photographs Courtesy of
FWS Volunteer Steve Noyes