Georgia Green Landscape Stewards Protect Our Natural Resources
Extension Education
Jessica Warren
County Extension Coordinator
University of Georgia
Woodbine
Abstract
The Georgia Green Landscape Stewards certification program provides educational resources that teach Georgians about protecting natural resources, increasing plant and animal biodiversity, conserving soil and water, providing wildlife and pollinator habitat, and improving public and environmental health. After learning about sustainable land management practices, participants can measure their own activities with the program metric scorecard and earn certification status for their landscape.
With a small start-up grant from the University of Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture, the Georgia Green Landscape Stewards program was developed by UGA Extension to provide fact-based information to property managers and help them implement sustainable resource practices in their landscape. A Georgia Green Landscape Stewards website and YouTube video channel were developed for participants with presentations that cover ten educational components of the program: Composting at Home, Invasive Plants in the Home Landscape, Mulching in the Landscape, Encouraging Biodiversity at Home, Protecting Water Quality, Stormwater Management, Water Conservation, Welcoming Wildlife, Welcoming Pollinators to Your Landscape, and Native Plants and Low Maintenance Landscapes.
Since the program launched in March of 2021, 93 landscapes in 32 different counties have been certified through the Georgia Green Landscape Stewards Program (as of March 2022). There have been more than 2152 views of program educational components through the program’s YouTube channel, and more than 2981 unique views of the program website (https://site.extension.uga.edu/georgiagreen/). Educational components were also offered as a live webinar series following the program launch. Evaluations from the webinar series stated that 100% of respondents had an increase in knowledge regarding sustainable landscape management due to the series.
Poster has NOT been presented at any previous NACAA AM/PIC
This poster is being submitted for judging. It will be displayed at the AM/PIC if not selected as a State winner. The abstract will be published in the proceedings.
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Authors: Jessica Warren, Martin Wunderly
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Warren, J. County Extension Coordinator, University of Georgia, Georgia, 31569
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Wunderly, M. Area Water Agent, University of Georgia, Georgia, 30677