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- Author or Editor: Richard B. Weidman x
The tremendous success of the Master Gardener Volunteer Program across the country,with more than 45,000 graduates, is a reflection of the nationwide interest in plants and gardening. Programs include students of all ages from diverse social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.
The need for a model educational program to empower individuals and communities to assume responsibility for environmental stewardship has never been greater.
A new model program, The Master Gardener/Environmental and Community Stewardship Program, has been developed in order to incorporate environmental and horticultural topics and encourage successful environemntal stewardship education for adults. Combining horticultural and environmental education with related community volunteer projects provides a logic vehicle to encourage practical environmental stewardship.
In 1993, a modification of the Master Gardener volunteer program was created to focus on ecological principles for environmentally sound gardening. The new program is called the Master Gardener-Environmental and Community Stewardship (MGECS) program and addresses important environmental concerns in Middlesex County, N.J. Program participants receive more than 100 hours of training in horticultural and ecological principles and are required to share their knowledge with others through volunteer activities monitored by cooperative extension staff. Volunteers encourage home comporting, recycling of grass clippings, proper fertilization techniques, and least-toxic pest control in the home landscape and garden. Trained volunteers have helped more than 16,000 people during the past 2 years through lectures, demonstrations, telephone contacts, and newspaper articles. Since the MGECS program began in 1993, the number of volunteer hours per person during the first year has increased by 30% compared to the traditional Master Gardener program offered from 1989 to 1992. This new program is an effective model to encourage practical environmental stewardship through community volunteer action.