Wild City Project

Student Conservation in Action: Wild City Service Learning Program

Defining a Wild City

Look around and you will find pockets of wilderness throughout Vermont's cities, towns, and villages. From Burlington's waterfront to Williston's abandoned farm fields, from the Winooski River in Montpelier to the floodplain forests of Colchester, Vermont's urban centers can provide valuable habitat for wildlife. Through the Wild City Project, the Green Mountain Audubon Center is connecting students with urban natural areas and facilitating service learning projects that aim to protect and enhance wildlife habitat. Our goal is simple - to help raise awareness of local habitats while fostering an understanding of conservation action.

Creating a Wild City

Green Mountain Audubon Center partnered with several schools as well as the Burlington Parks Department to begin piloting a number of Wild City projects. One of our partners, Rock Point School, quickly jumped on board and, together, we have created opportunities for students to monitor wildlife habitat in an early successional forests, collect data on priority bird species, map core habitats, and share information with other students and community members. We have done this all within walking distance of the school's campus and less than 2 miles from downtown Burlington. Through Rock Point and other school programs, students, teachers, and community members are realizing that wilderness can be found throughout our city, we just have to know where and how to look.

Participating in a Wild City Project

Each year we involve new schools in one of our Wild City projects. The following information gives an overview of the types of projects we will be pursing.

Where?

Through a partnership with the Burlington Parks Department, we are fortunate to have a number of conservation projects ready to go in any number of Burlington's "Urban Wilds." Click here to learn more about these parks. While we do not provide transportation to these parks, we hope that many teachers will find them easily accessible.

When?

Wild City projects can begin as early as August or as late as May. Schools can sign up for 2 or 4 hour programs, although we are flexible about timing and happy to work with you to make the program fit with your schedule.

What?

Each Wild City project will focus on one area: mapping, monitoring or management. Teachers can choose a specific project that fits with their curriculum. The different projects incorporate different types of technologies such as GPS, trail cameras and Google Earth. Detailed descriptions of all of our programs will be available soon.

Who?

We engage students of all ages, K-12.

How?

If you are interested in becoming involved in our Wild City project, or would like to learn more, please contact:

Jamie Montague
Education Manager
(802) 434-3068