November 2002

280 pages

Funded and published by the Environmental Protection Agency -- with Your Taxpayer Dollars.

This training guide was funded and published by the EPA in November 2002 with taxpayer dollars: "Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place."

Quoting from Page iii of the Guide: "This Guide was prepared by EPA's former Office of Policy and the Office of Water, with support from EPA contract 68-W5-0054 and 8W-2690-NASA, and numerous social scientists and environmental professionals. For ... copies of this Guide, call the National Center for Environmental Publications and Information at 1-800-490-9198 or by email to: <ncepiwo@one.net> If you want to cite the Guide, please refer to it as Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place, 2002, U.S. EPA (EPA 842-B-01-003), Office of Water, Washington, DC. Permission to copy all or part of it is not required."

It is Publication Number 842-B-01-003. You can get a copy of your own by requesting it from It is one of the many 'connect the dots' publications that help us to show others that this is NOT simply a 'local plan.' It is 'free,' all 280 pages of softcover, although, believe me, you have paid for it!

Hazel Henderson, author of many enviro 'bibles,' including 'Our Global Neighborhood' (Hillary and Bill, and Algore, just love her!), said this: "Think Global, Act Local." Four words, but they spell out the intent.

Page 75: Information about property ownership -- describe who owns the land, private, state federal. Who rents or owns who lives in apartment buildings or owns that one-quarter of an acre -- who has control over land planning and future use. What has contributed to economic growth, industrial and/or commercial? Who is responsible for managing the land ...

Collect data on religious beliefs in a community...

Recreation -- who, why, what does the community engage in----fishing, boating, skiing, etc.

How to set up easements on private property --

How to get churches, organizations to become stewards of "God's" creation -- earth.

Churches: A source of volunteers...

How to address: Politicians, developers, and every organization within a community --

Collect data on the behavior of the people in a community -- unobtrusively ...

Keeping sources secret --

Setting up mass transit plans: (buses)

Sustainable Development: Smart Growth -- winning over developers

Page 101: What do people in a community use their land for? Farming, mining, lumber industry? Implement grazing, logging practices on private/public lands -- Farmers, ranchers using the land and the water ... Is the water used also for migrating birds? Reduced levels will negatively affect the habit at of migrating birds. These groups must come together ... (ahem)

Sources for extra help are available -- for getting started, focus groups, moderators and facilitators ... Several are named with numbers and addresses.

Getting groups started in your community -- how to interview -- what to look for -- questioning techniques -- add comments after the interview is over.

How to get media attention; including checking newspaper articles in a particular community: what to look for. Develop codes in writing and in speaking: i.e.," non-point source pollution" or runoff

Develop ways to make the community "feel" that they have a sense of ownership ...

Page 77: Public safety -- personal safety use of trails after dark, etc... Quality of air and water, lead exposure, toxic waste -- ask what government is doing to protect you ...

Page 241: The back of the book gives examples from all over the US.

For instance: The Tangier Island Waterman Community Stewardship 20/20 Initiative.

A religious community -- Covenants made between watermen and God for protecting all of His creations, Commit to brotherly accountability -- setting a high standard to Obedience and therefore God's law and to civil law and to pursue a selfless life to lead in the Holy Spirit.

The "Covenants" were made between these watermen, as part of this plan.

This is all about a blue crab fishery and the manner in which these islanders make a living -- but it "threatens" the blue crabs. Therefore a "sustainable development" and fishery stewardship must come into play.

Surveys were given to the school children for their parents to fill out and return ...