A bright spot – a student from last 9 weeks, third marking period- in March when we were still in school, has been sending me edits of his letter to get it better and better and sent me a final draft on April 5th. It was a project after working on picking a topic the freshmen felt serious about, they had to write letters to the Sussex County Revitalization Committee to tell them what they felt was important to consider.
We did this in the 2nd marking period too, to give them a sense of their writing being seen by someone outside of class.
It says something when you have students wanting to work on an assignment way past the due date, and also willing to go back to the drawing table to get it right – pretty cool- take a look –
April 5, 2020
Dear Western Sussex Revitalization Committee,
“Save Trees, Save Earth”
Trees and forests play an important role in our environment. They are rapidly disappearing all over the world and this could be disastrous for our planet. Most are unsure of how we can stop this from happening but there are efficient ways to prevent deforestation.
This quote gives the meaning that protecting the trees and forests should be a first priority in fighting climate change. Forests are critical to life on earth and they improve our quality of life by regulating the climate, improving air quality, conserving and cleaning water and supporting wildlife. Some benefits trees have on the environment are they clean the air by absorbing pollutants, prevent soil erosion, provide a home for wildlife, improve groundwater levels and provide shade for homes which reduces energy costs.
There are several things people can do on their own to help save the trees and planet. Some of the things people can do to help is using less paper, going digital with bills, reading digital books or using the library, planting trees, reuse of containers, stopping the use of paper plates and cups, preventing forest fires which are mainly caused by reckless people and educating others. Large businesses could do their part by reducing the amount of advertising mail they send out. Junk mail is received every day and normally is torn up and thrown away. That is a waste. If there could be an annual revitalization festival developed it could provide education and maybe gain the interest of people in Sussex County to help protect the future of our trees and forests in our county. If every person did their part there would be a lot of unnecessary trees cut down or damaged.
There are several regulations set to help protect the trees and forests from deforestation which are regular and planned cutting of trees, reforestation (every tree that gets cut down must be replanted) and monitoring the clearing of lands for agriculture use. The festival could also educate people on the regulations to help prevent the misuse of trees. There should be more focus on setting stricter regulations for cutting down trees because if not one day there may not be any. That probably sounds crazy but whoever would have thought we would be dealing with the pandemic we are today.
Just educating alone can help reduce damaged forests and trees in not just the county but all over the world. If people realize everything that trees provide for our environment they might take an interest in making our county and world a better place. “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Thank you for your time and considering this idea!
PAVEing a Blog 