Ecology Center

Editor’s Note: In this issue we pay tribute to William B. Stapp, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and founder of the Global Rivers Environmental Network (GREEN). Bill was also, in a sense, one of our founding fathers. He was influential in founding ENACT, a university organization that soon evolved into the Ecology Center, which in its early years was actually called the ‘ENACT’ Ecology Center". Once we were a separate organization, he was directly involved in many of our activities and helped develop our GEE-Woow! environmental education project. His wife, Gloria, served on our Board of Directors in the 1970s. Many past and former staff members and volunteers fondly recall Bill as a teacher and mentor.

[Bill and Ann Arbor Public School students in the 1960s]

By all accounts he was a remarkable person. Hailed as the founder of environmental education he was awarded over 40 regional, national, and international prizes and nominated for the Nobel Prize. Dr. Paul Nowak, a colleague, said at Bill’s retirement in 1993 that, "He has touched a tremendous number of lives." More than 200 former students attended a symposium held in his honor.

Bill Stapp’s impact was tremendous. It reached from the city of Ann Arbor to communities around the globe. Beyond his academic and environmental achievements, what emerges in the tributes that follow is that Bill Stapp was more than a mentor to today’s environmental leaders, he was also a deeply caring, nurturing person who possessed an unbounded energy and enthusiasm for life on this planet.

Bill Stapp’s Life and Legacy: A Gift from Which to Learn

Jim Crowfoot

For more than 25 years, it was my privilege to work closely with Dr. William Stapp and to know him as a good friend. I miss him very much, but I know that his spirit continues to be present through the many, many people he influenced. Students, colleagues, friends, family members – we are all his successors in the work for a better world. He has left us a magnificent vision as well as pioneering methods, many of which are documented in his books and articles. These invaluable resources are deeply entwined and infused with Bill’s personal gifts: hope, trust, persistence, and love for life and the natural environment. I am deeply thankful to him for showing us what one individual can accomplish on behalf of the natural environment : cross-cultural collaboration, expansion of opportunities for learning, and greater justice and peace. In this admittedly inadequate tribute, I wish to describe the major themes in his extraordinary legacy.

A Commitment to the Environment, Youth and Education

Bill had an amazing amount of energy, and he devoted much of it to learning and leadership. Early in life, he developed the pattern of personally relating to the natural environment and the people who were prepared to care about it. To these relationships he brought an insatiable curiosity, deep respect, high energy, and total engagement. This unique combination was very attractive – and often contagious.

Despite more lucrative opportunities after college graduation, Bill elected to teach young people about environmental protection: how humans were damaging natural resources, what they could do differently, and why. At the time, this was not a very visible or popular career choice.

Bill is known for being an engaging, challenging teacher and visionary developer of new educational programs. He began this work in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, where, in establishing an environmental program, he inspired many young people. Now in their 40s and 50s, these people remember him as an inspiring teacher whose experienced based teaching still deeply affects them today. It was here that he emphasized the importance of engaging young people and their teachers in caring for, and enjoying, their local natural environment in all its beauty, complexity and fragility. He achieved this by showing people how the environment is damaged, how we are all involved in this destruction, and what we can do differently.

It was here, too, that Bill established his life-long love of his "home place," including its birds, which he came to know so well; it was also the beginning of his long-standing involvement in efforts to protect the Ann Arbor region.

Bill transformed individuals as well as communities. His unique blend of personality, knowledge, and skill came to characterize his work and is the foundation of his legacy.

Mentor and Teacher of Teachers

Bill’s first career led him to graduate school and a second career, this time as a teacher of teachers and a developer of cutting-edge programs that came to be known as "environmental education" (EE). In time, his professional experience, doctoral study, and vision landed him a faculty position at what is now the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment. There, he had the opportunity and responsibility for creating a program to educate teachers about the environment.

Bill was passionate about understanding and protecting the environment. At that time, education involving nature was confined to "conservation education" and "outdoor education." But Bill realized that that students needed a new kind of education – one that would help them understand the environment, the root causes of environmental destruction, and how such threatening patterns could be changed. Bill saw that this new kind of "environmental education" had to be problem-focused as well as interdisciplinary and participatory. He began engaging undergraduate and graduate students with the principles and practices he had pioneered in the Ann Arbor School System.

Bill placed a high priority on direct experience and observations of nature, including people. His new direction in education dealt with the total natural environment, from wilderness to rural to urban. The natural and social sciences had to be integrated, along with the humanities. To learn about human impact on the environment, their individual, household, organizational, and community behaviors had to be studied. For Bill, humans were a huge source of inspiration, knowledge and wisdom.

In Bill’s pioneering work to define and shape environmental education, protecting the environment was an integral and necessary element. Wanting to know how different groups were affected by environmental destruction, he addressed social, economic, and environmental justice. This required knowledge of political and economic systems and interactions with government and industry. In turn, such interactions required advocacy, mass-media communications, and, overall, a spirit of collaboration.

In these collaborations, Bill challenged his students to quickly learn and assume their own teaching and mentoring responsibilities. He, too, learned from these collaborations and was inspired by his students’ visions and energies. But that spirit was only one of the things that made Bill such a sought-after mentor. He gave his students a level of respect and attention that is rare at a large research university. His patience, humility, and unique talent for seeing the potential in very different individuals spurred their growth and development.

Academic Innovator, Activist, and "Father of Environmental Education"

Many today refer to Bill as "The Father of Environmental Education." But in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the academic and professional field he was developing was unfamiliar and, in many ways, a great challenge to prevailing notions of education and to academic foci in natural resources. Bill and his students espoused an environmental education that required collaborating with more traditional academic areas like ecology, civil engineering, psychology, and political science. This new discipline, as he explained, also had much to offer the social sciences and humanities which have natural interdependencies with the natural world and with people. As an academic leader, Bill displayed patience and courage, as well as tolerance for being misunderstood and sometimes discounted. When encountering the occasional professional jealousies and resentments, he was unusual and exemplary among his peers in that he rose above them, engaging in neither envy nor negative judgment.

Bill was also unstinting in his support of new faculty members like Bunyan Bryant and myself who placed a premium on student involvement in environmental advocacy. Indeed, we would have never been hired if Bill had not recognized the legitimacy and necessity of advocacy and social conflict.

International Pioneer and Leader

In the 1960s and ‘70s,clearly perceived the global character of environmental problems and the need for environmental education. He envisioned the needs and possibilities for global commitments and international policies and programs to establish EE throughout the world. He recognized that EE needed to take many different national and local forms in the different countries and cultures of the world.

In the early 1970s he acted on his insights and ideas by becoming the first Director of Environmental Education for UNESCO. In this role he exercised the international leadership that established through the United Nations the foundation for a global environmental education program. His collaborative and problem solving abilities, exceptional understanding of the environment and passion for EE were applied to leading international EE projects and major meetings such as the historic UN Conference on Environmental Education in Tiblisi, Soviet Union.

During this period, he and his wife Gloria traveled throughout the world as ambassadors of environmental education. Their representations were ones rooted in face-to-face friendships and collaborations. Their actions and commitment demonstrated a deep respect for local conditions.

Focus on Rivers, Water Quality and Watersheds

On his return to the university, Bill brought back with him an informed vision of connecting local environmental education programs throughout the world while at the same time remaining involved in issues in Washtenaw County. He worked with both graduate and high school students, along with other interested parties, on a pollution problem in the Huron River.

This project expanded into the Huron River Watershed Project and then into other watersheds in Michigan including the Rouge and Saginaw Rivers. These projects together, along with others, evolved into the formation of the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network.

At the core of this model teachers and students learned to assess water quality, as well as, the environmental and social practices that influenced water quality. The learning process integrated direct experience, reflection, and the use of multidisciplinary scientific and local information to inform the students. With teachers serving as coaches and facilitators, collaboration within, and between,classrooms was promoted. The process included taking action to improve water quality.

Students from different schools and communities throughout the watershed, as well as students from different racial and socio-economic backgrounds, interacted via computer- based linkages and occasionally met as a team. Students’ appraisal of multiple factors affecting water quality led to action to improve water quality. Responsible individuals and the general public were presented with the projects’ findings.

Bill’s approach to EE was exceptionally visionary and challenging while at the same time being eminently practical. While he demonstrated the viability of both of these aspects, he sometimes met criticism and resistance. His path- breaking work challenged many proponents of EE who resisted using knowledge to bring about change. Some teachers and administrators frequently considered environmental work beyond their knowledge and responsibility as well as beyond the capabilities of students. Employing patience, information, and persistence, he typically prevailed.

Partnerships for Cross-Cultural Exchanges and Peacemaking

In collaboration with his graduate students Bill created a watershed -based environmental education program for communities around the globe. This visionary process cultivated cross-cultural sharing and collaboration by pairing EE watershed programs from different countries and cultures.

In this role, Bill became an advocate for peace in watersheds politically and culturally divided. He provided leadership for what has become a model of peacemaking. For example, he established a program in which teachers and schools in Israel and Palestine collaborated to establish a joint EE program focusing on the Jordan River and its watershed. At the time of his death he was providing leadership to help initiate a comparable program involving both North and South Korea.

Founder and Leader of a New Organization

Bill was not content to develop only models, materials, and training. He founded the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network first as a project within the School of Natural Resources and Environment, then as a free-standing non-profit, (GREEN), and eventually as a major and ongoing program of Earth Force, a new and innovative environmental organization focused on serving youth. Throughout this developmental quest, Bill exhibited his unfailing hope, high energy and extraordinary determination. His positive nature perceived the good and the possible even in difficult to impossible situation. His unique qualities enabled him to bring a locally and globally relevant EE to local young people, and their adult partners, and communities on rivers and in watersheds throughout the world.

Friend and Family Member

In his life, Bill accorded the highest priority to the roles of family member – husband, father and friend – in work and community settings. Bill and Gloria had a deep and distinctive relationship of mutual, loving respect. Together they worked on behalf of their children and the future of the environment. As many have observed, Gloria played a very major role in Bill’s work and effectiveness. Gloria, and their three children, Debbie, Richard and David –were central to him and the meaning of his life throughout the period that I knew him.

In recent years this family circle widened to include the spouses of his children as well as his grandchildren. Bill’s capacity for caring and sharing were very evident in these relationships as wells as in his many friendships. He was continually giving positive feedback and expressing interest in the lives and well -being of the people in this circle. As a recipient of Bill’s friendship, I am grateful for what we shared and for his support throughout my career.

I deeply miss our conversations and the regard and respect that Bill expressed to me. Moreover, I will forever miss the front-row seat he allowed me in viewing his extraordinary life and his inspired, visionary and widely influential work on behalf of our planetary future. Dr. William Stapp gave us so much and now it is up to us to use and extend his gifts and infuse them with our creativity and passions on behalf of the environment and all of the people, plants and animals on which they depend.

Jim Crowfoot is Professor and Dean Emeritus of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan where he continues to teach part —time on the topic of local and global environmental and social sustainability. He lives in Sunward Cohousing Community in Scio Township with his spouse, Ruth Carey. Locally Jim serves on the board of the Washtenaw Land Trust and Community Resources Limited and is active in the Sustainable Washtenaw initiative and a member of Friends Meeting and the Ecology Center. He is also a board member of the Institute for Local Self Reliance (Washington, D.C. & Minneapolis, MN) and the Neahtawanta Research and Education Center (Traverse City, MI).

Bill Stapp’s Influence on My Life

Nancy Stone

Bill Stapp began his influence in my life through his involvement in Earth Day. Bill’s interdisciplinary approach to environmental problem-solving on the University of Michigan campus was a catalyst for faculty and students to organize meetings with legislators in Washington, DC in 1968. These discussions set the groundwork and funding for the first Earth Day.

I was a freshman at U-M in 1970, the site of the first "Teach-In on the Environment." The extent of my environmental studies prior to that first Earth Day consisted of reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in the 8th grade. Carson’s eloquent book left me feeling moved but helpless to affect change. The weeklong Teach-In changed that impression quickly. I saw environmental concerns pro-actively discussed throughout the community. Local and national speakers shared the podiums to identify issues and solutions, which lead the way to building a new environmental awareness, changing personal habits, and passing laws.

The interest awakened during the first Earth Day took years to develop within me. After receiving a liberal arts degree, I returned to Detroit to work for a publishing company. One day as I previewed an environmental education book edited by Bill Stapp, I found myself re-inspired to action. I researched several colleges, but after my first conversation with Prof. Stapp, I decided to attend the School of Natural Resources & Environment in Ann Arbor and study environmental communications.

At SNR&E I was able to take a field trip class with Bill that used some of the units he developed for the Ann Arbor Public Schools. In both the classroom and in the field, I felt as if Bill gave us x-ray vision to see the world simultaneously through time and space. The Earth became a dynamic organism. We could see how the creeks were carved by glacial ice. We found dragonfly larvae hidden under rocks and learned to respect and protect flood plains. Each trip was an adventure that provided practical information about the world around us. Today, when I get passionate about saving these field trip experiences from public school budget cuts, it is from a personal sense of having been inspired by this method.

It is exciting to me that Bill’s field of ‘environmental education’ explores areas beyond ’outdoor education.’ such as public health, transportation and energy issues. In the late 1980s I helped assemble Bill’s case study on "Famine in Sudan" for the Ecology Center and the Washtenaw Intermediate School District Library, narrated by radio personality Ted Heusel. The slide show follows how a village worked with researchers to track the life cycle of the tsetse fly, which causes sleeping sickness. Once the biology was understood, the villagers were able to select affordable and culturally acceptable measures to reduce the incidence of this debilitating disease. Bill’s work in Sudan followed this model: to involve a broad spectrum of people, talents and resources on a meaningful issue, to identify a shared set of values (addressing discordant beliefs and attitudes), and to work towards mutually respected goals. The beauty of this process is that the programs Bill has helped create worldwide continue to have a life of their own by others who share the enthusiasm of discovery. His environmental education process has an inherent humanity that I find to be inspiring and effective on a daily basis.

Nancy Stone, MSNR ’84 in Environmental Communications, coordinates public information and education for the City of Ann Arbor’s Solid Waste Department. She worked for the Ecology Center between 1985-87.

William B. Stapp and the Ann Arbor Public Schools

W. Scott Westerman Jr.

I first met Bill Stapp in the fall of 1960, when we were both new hires working for the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Bill’s title was Outdoor Education Consultant. Mine was Social Studies Coordinator. His assignment was to create an environmental education program. The confidence that he could do this successfully was reflected in a grant made to the school district by an activist environmentalist, Eunice Hendrix, and her husband. The schools provided the additional funds needed to support his position.

Bill and I discussed the opportunities social studies might offer to incorporate environmental education concepts. He met more frequently with the Science Coordinator, John Rosemergy, whose office was adjacent to mine. Bill’s vision, tact, commitment, and powers of persuasion were undeniable. Those early conversations provided the foundation for an enduring friendship and a lasting respect for his cause.

The influence of Bill’s leadership on the school district was evident early, preceeding his official employment and continuing after he resigned to serve full- time as a professor in the School of Natural Resources. As an interested citizen he worked with others in defining and creating an educational role for the Eberwhite Woods. His interest in identifying, developing, and preserving nature centers as laboratories for learning was reflected in Pioneer Woods and the Thurston Nature Center. When Seventh Avenue was extended from Stadium Boulevard to Scio Church Road, Bill and environmentalist Douglas Fulton drew the routes, curves included to protect as many trees as possible. Bill also recommended the plantings to keep the resulting embankments from eroding.

Bill’s leadership in developing the Thurston site resulted in national recognition for him and the school district in 1967. The school district was one of only two in the nation to be represented at the National Youth Conference for Beauty and Conservation held at the White House and hosted by Ladybird Johnson. Thurston was featured in the premiere showing of "We’re on Our Way."

After the site was chosen for Huron High School, Bill established a close relationship with the architect, Charles "Wes" Lane to determine where the building should be located. The goal was to protect as many trees as possible and establish an on-site nature center. Locating the biology classrooms to provide visual access to the woods and a small stream was another objective. Mr. Lane attributes the placement and several design features directly to Bill.

In addition Bill gave leadership to a policy statement adopted by the Board of Education which would guide the acquisition and maintenance of future school sites, with special attention to the potential for environmental education.

Bill’s major contribution to the school district was the outstanding environmental education program which he developed, initially conducting the field trip dimension on his own, but soon being joined by an assistant and a group of dedicated volunteers. In 1969, Bill Browning assumed Bill’s responsibilities as Outdoor Education and Conservation Consultant serving with distinction in that role until his retirement. The program remains today as a vital component of the district’s curriculum.

Our families’ friendship extended to sharing a car on one occasion and later even sharing a child. The car was shared in order to avoid driving both ways to California with our young children. The Stapps drove the car out and took the train back. The Westermans followed the opposite pattern. Several years later, when Bill and Gloria were living in Paris while Bill served as Chief of the Environmental Education Section at UNESCO, their son Richard lived with us during his senior year at Pioneer.

Rarely a day goes by that I don’t think of Bill. He was truly an extraordinarily gifted person. He communicated his love of life and nature in ways that made our land and all of us better.

W. Scott Westerman, Jr. is a former Superintendent of the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

My Years with Bill Stapp

Bunyan Bryant

Over the years I grew to admire Bill Stapp because he was the only person I knew personally who practiced nonviolence. I never heard him say anything negative or use violent language against anyone. He was always positive, reassuring, and supportive in the face of adversity. He radiated warmth and kindness in his words by embracing and calling others "friend". He always observed the bright side of things and would not become caught up in malicious gossip. Bill Stapp practiced nonviolence in action and in deed, a strength that people often did not recognize at the time.

Bill would always look on the positive side. Even when I said to him there is another dark and seamy side, he refused to see those dark and seamy sides. He looked for the good in every situation, and things would somehow work out with Bill becoming even stronger. Embracing nonviolence as a philosophy and never saying anything violent against friend or foe is indeed difficult.

Bill changed my life in other ways too. His persistence motivated faculty members to hire me into the School of Natural Resources. Bill worked harder than any other faculty member to get me into the School. He set up two speaking engagements for me in the School and consistently called to keep me informed of the hiring process. Bill played a key role in making history by helping the School to hire the first person of color faculty in almost 100 years.

I remember when Bill became interested in action research. In the early 80s he decided that quantitative research failed to provide all of the answers, and so he began to teach his students the importance of value clarification, planned change, and the problem-solving approach to teaching and learning. Doing this in a University which prides itself on number crunching was risky because "good" knowledge is knowledge that can be quantified. As a full professor who had accomplished so much, Bill decided that number crunching was not needed for the changes he sought. Bill continued to be successful, and many faculty grew to respect his work and his accomplishments. I only wished they could have done more to show their appreciation.

When I came to the School I knew nothing about the environment, and I viewed this job as a stepping off point for something better in the future. As you can tell, I was wrong. As I began to prepare for teaching, I became more interested in the subject matter and more excited about working with Jim Crowfoot, Peter Sandman, and Bill Stapp. We formed very personal relationships with our students, and we included them in the building of the program. We organized retreats where we would spend the weekends with students participating in workshops and in activities like hiking, swimming, and boating. I vividly remember Bill lecturing at the Fresh Air Camp and interacting with students in small discussion groups. Students really loved Bill Stapp as an educator and as a friend. We used these retreats to plan extra-curricular activities for the academic year.

Bill had a tremendous impact on my life. I credit much of my success to Bill Stapp because if he had not been persistent in getting me into the School I would not be lecturing and consulting on the world’s stage. Environmental justice, formerly Environmental Advocacy, is now known widely throughout the country and throughout the world.

Dr. Bunyan Bryant is a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural resources and Environment. He is an internationally recognized leader of the Environmental Justice Movement.

A Tremendous Gift

by Mark Mitchell

Everyone should be able to claim someone who has profoundly shaped the arc of his or her life. For me that person was Bill Stapp. I may have been the only graduate student ever admitted to the School of Natural Resources Environmental Education Program who really knew very little about Bill. The year was 1983. I remember about a week into the program Bill approached me on the steps of the Dana Building and shared with me how much he appreciated me as a person. This encounter was to be one of many enduring memories of an extraordinary individual.

The years to follow led me closer to Bill and to Gloria, his wife. At the School of Natural Resources, Bill and other faculty attracted some of the most talented and thoughtful people I have ever met, including my future wife and Ecology Center staff person Tara Ward. By 1985, Bill and I had written and published the first edition of the "Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring.". This small book was an outgrowth of intensive work with schools along the Huron River and described a model for student-based water quality monitoring.

This marked the beginning of an explosion in the growth of student-based monitoring programs around the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 1989, Bill proposed a global network of water monitoring programs in a graduate seminar and GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network) was born. For myself and for many others it was a very intense and satisfying journey being on the ground floor of a rapidly expanding global environmental education program.

Along the way, I remember Bill for his sense of humor, his quiet intensity, his devotion to his family and to his students, and his expansive and visionary worldview. Whenever an opportunity arose, Bill would point his index finger into the air and with his other hand sweep by his upraised finger. He would say, "This is an opportunity, friend, and if it passes by it may never come again".

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Bill Stapp Scholarship Fund
The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAEE) has a Bill Stapp scholarship fund which pays for students, from anywhere in the world, to attend their annual conference. For more information contact NAEE at 410 Tarvin Road, Rock Spring, Georgia 30739. (706) 764-2926.

William B. Stapp Scholarship Fund
SNRE has established a scholarship fund for Environmental Educational students. If you wish to contribute or obtain more information about the fund please contact David Mitchell, Development Office, School of Natural Resources and Environment, 430 East University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1115.

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Today, GREEN exists under the umbrella of Earth Force–a dynamic, national organization dedicated to students taking responsibility for environmental stewardship of their communities. The Field Manual is now in its second printing of the 12th edition and is used in hundreds of watersheds around the world.

Through Bill’s tireless work and vision, the world is a better place. What a tremendous gift for those of us who worked alongside Bill. The last time I ever spoke with Bill, I had called him on May 7th, the day before he was honored with a special dinner to let him know that I had pneumonia and was fearful of giving it to him if I were to attend. As we ended the conversation, I told him that I loved him and had tremendous respect for him and for Gloria.

He told me the same, not unlike our first encounter on the steps of the Dana Building.

Mark Mitchell received a Masters Degree from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and co-authored with Bill Stapp, "The Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring" and, "The Field Manual for Global Low-Cost Quality Monitoring". Currently, he lives in Traverse City with his family and is regional coordinator for the Michigan Rural Systemic Initiative, an NSF funded program to improve math and science achievement in rural schools.

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Remembering Bill Stapp 1929-2001

Features

Columns

Bill Stapp’s Life and Legacy: A Gift from Which to Learn

Bill Stapp’s Influence on My Life

William B. Stapp and the Ann Arbor Public Schools

My Years with Bill Stapp

A Tremendous Gift

Remembering Bill Stapp
1929-2001