Auburn, April 4, 2002---Throughout her career, 4-H educator Emily Kling has been a strong believer in environmental education.

Kling, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System 4-H natural resources specialist at Auburn University, believes environmental education is an effective way to help young people develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that can benefit them throughout their lives.

(Above: A student at the 2002 4-H Environmental Stewardship Conference listens as an Alabama Power Company employee discusses the function of the Lay Dam complex. This year's conference attracted 40 high school students throughout the state.)

Much of her work has centered on the 4-H Environmental Stewardship Conference, a three-day workshop that provides young people with intensive, hands-on training in environmental stewardship.

This year Kling offered something new: an approach that combined environmental stewardship with a lesson in democracy. It made perfect sense to her and fellow organizers: If the young people of today are the voters and policy makers of tomorrow, why not instill them with a better understanding of the public policy process?

Like previous conferences, young people took part in field experiences and simulated planning activities. But this year’s conference, held March 27 through 29 at the Alabama 4-H Youth Development Center near Columbiana, took the process a step further: Students were not only challenged to be good stewards but to defend their rights as environmental stakeholders.

This year’s conference dealt with humanity’s impact on watersheds and the related issue of re-licensing dams by public utilities, such as Alabama Power Company. These utilities are required to operate these dams in the public interest. And federal regulators, as part of the re-licensing process, are required to hold a series of public meetings to solicit views of stakeholders affected by the dam.

"Part of the process involves a meeting between individuals and stakeholder groups and the company that is seeking re-licensing," Kling says. "It turns out to be a compromise situation: Every stakeholder group is trying to push something."

Kling saw this process as an effective way to demonstrate to her students how complex issues are typically debated and resolved within the public arena. With this in mind, they were divided into four groups involved in the re-licensing process -- landowners, environmentalists, governmental officials and industrial leaders -- and challenged to hold a mock public meeting.

"They get to see that re-licensing involves more than just economics," Kling says. "There are also environmental and public policy issues to consider."

Before discussion could begin, students first had to learn to work as a team. So the first night was devoted to team building.

Even then, discussion could not begin until the students were steeped in all of the complex issues associated with watersheds and re-licensing. So the next morning, young people embarked on a tour of nearby Lay Dam, one of three Coosa River Dams operated by Alabama Power Company scheduled for re-licensing by 2007.

"I got a better picture of the dam, who started it and why it started," says Pike County student Sean Maldon, who says he also left with a "better idea of how these dams are operated, how they supply power, and how Alabama Power functions as a publicly owned cooperation."

To further enhance this big picture, students later attended workshops dealing with Coosa River basin wildlife, water quality assessment, the history of the Coosa basin and vegetation patterns within the watershed.

"They are taking the field work to learn how to make sound judgments," Kling says. "They’re learning the same sorts of things, but they’re also starting to think in terms of how these facts affect their particular stakeholders."

The next day, the four groups came together to determine whether Lay Dam should be re-licensed and whether Alabama Power Company deserved the license. Each student was encouraged to express how his/her group would be affected.

"We wanted them to focus on an issue that is real," Kling says. "If they have fun acting all this out in a relaxed setting, that’s great, but our goal is to teach them something that will benefit them in school projects, group projects and, most important, when they get into the real world."

"We’re assuming many of these kids will go to college. So we’re giving them positive educational experiences to help them prepare for their careers," she adds.

"That’s what 4-H is all about."