Dr. Jane Goodall has come and gone, and the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network is ready to move on to its next exciting project.
There isn’t much bigger in environmental education than Jane Goodall, but Duncan Whittick, executive director of CBEEN said he’s pretty excited about what the group has coming up next.
“CBEEN isn’t skipping a beat, and is already in the planning stages for another very big event,” he told sponsors, partners and supporters this week.
The group is moving ahead with a proposal to host the 2014 Environmental Education and Communication National Conference in the area.
The conference is usually hosted in bigger locations, but Whittick said the area is more than fitting for such a large gathering of environmental leaders.
“This conference has never been hosted by a smaller region such as ours, but we are confident that this area has the capacity and community support to pull an event like this off in style,” he said.
The annual conference is put on by the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication. The 2012 edition was held at the Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. from May 30 to June 2.
CBEEN is now looking for letters of support to launch the bid to have it held in the Kootenays in 2014. Those letters are due by Oct. 21 to ensure they are part of the package sent in by CBEEN.
“We are looking for letters of support from businesses, organizations and elected officials who believe that hosting this kind of event on the national stage would benefit our region,” Whittick said.
CBEEN has officially launched its new Action website this week, located at cbeen.org/action, to cap off the Goodall visit and provide a place to learn about exciting ongoing environmental projects happening in the Columbia Basin.
