Intro/Mission 

The Pottawattamie County Conservation Environmental Education Mission is to promote environmental literacy by building relationships between people and the natural world. Our working definition of environmental literacy is: An environmentally literate person is someone who, both individually and together with others, makes informed decisions concerning the environment; is willing to act on these decisions to improve the well-being of other individuals, societies, and the global environment; and participates in civic life.

Pottawattamie County Conservation provides year-round environmental education programs in four main target areas: field trips at our county sites, outreach programs, public programs, and summer camps. The Pottawattamie County Conservation Environmental Education county-wide program is headquartered at Hitchcock Nature Center in the Loess Hills Lodge Interpretive Facility.
 

Pottawattamie County Conservation Education Program Core Values:

Impact
Wonder
Integrity
Teamwork
Excellence
Fun


Pottawattamie County Conservation Education Program Guiding Principles

All Pottawattamie County Conservation Education Programs will strive to:

• Be mission driven
• Encourage a sense of place and a sense of wonder
• Provide direct interactions with the natural world
• Make nature a part of people's everyday lives
• Reflect best practices as they apply to nature center and environmental education
• Be process oriented; not content oriented
• Embrace the fun factor and appeal to emotional response
• Focus on Iowa's native species
• Consider seasonality
• Promote stewardship for our natural resources
• Connect and engage people with nature through all of their senses

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher."
--William Wordsworth

These environmental education programs are designed to develop an appreciation and understanding of our local environment, the communities within, and the inhabitants of those communities as well as to foster positive attitudes and patterns of conduct toward the environment. We believe that one is never finished learning. Each day offers the opportunity to observe and discover something new and to reflect and share our learning with others.

Annual Review