Environmental Education

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Southeast Ohio is diverse in ecosystems that interact and affect the world we know. 

Morgan County OSU Extension Educator Sophia Whisman explained the importance of understanding the environment and how little actions can lead to large impacts.

“It could be things like protecting species,” Whisman said. “So we could be talking endangered or just regular species. Just making sure we don’t extirpate any. Keeping in mind of, sort of habitat. We want to make sure we keep habitat habitable for those species and just things like that.” 

Whisman travels to 4-H meetings throughout Morgan County to inform the members of what nature holds and the importance of keeping human and wildlife habitats in balance.

“The biggest thing that I know just… and it’s not even specific to Morgan County is just habitat loss for all these species,” Whisman said. “And one of the biggest things right now is just A-I. and building those data centers and taking land from species to build these data centers and we won’t get into the water usage. But that’s a huge portion of it too, right? So that’s where environmental education comes into play here. Here’s the cons to having this big step. It… they’re not going to have the pieces to put the puzzle together and look at all aspects of what this is doing.”

Whisman emphasized the importance of 4-H and how it supplements school education by providing kids a more diverse range of curriculum.