Aquidneck Land Trust and Local High School Students Team Up

The  (ALT), a land conservation nonprofit based in Middletown, announced that it has signed a Conservation Collaboration Agreement with the Paul W. Crowley East Bay Campus of the Met School, a local charter school with 120 high school students from Aquidneck Island and neighboring communities.

The agreement includes several initiatives aimed at increasing awareness and participation in land-use plans. According to an ALT statement: “[Y]oung people in particular have a major stake in what Aquidneck Island’s environment will be like and that the future quality of our environment is in the process of being determined now.”

Key provisions of the Conservation Collaboration Agreement between ALT and the East Bay Met School include:

• Miantonomi Park Cleanup: ALT and East Bay Met will collaborate on an Earth Day 2012  (April 22) cleanup of Miantonomi Memorial Park and Sunset Hill in Newport, both of which are located next door to the East Bay Met location. 
• Young Friends Membership Program: East Bay Met will engage in fundraising so that its students can become members of ALT through ALT’s Young Friends Membership Program.
• Curriculum Initiatives: ALT staff will provide educational presentations to East Bay Met students about land conservation, and will provide natural science lesson plans related to the Sakonnet Greenway Trail in Middletown and Portsmouth, the largest nature trail on Aquidneck Island.

East Bay Met's campus is near Miantonomi Memorial Park and Sunset Hill, two properties that ALT conserved with the City of Newport. Students and faculty of East Bay Met utilize these public open space areas for educational and recreational purposes, according to ALT.

ALT is reaching out to all local schools in an effort to engage students in awareness of conservation issues. ALT signed a Conservation Collaboration Agreement with The Pennfield School, in Portsmouth, in April 2011.