Innovations

Ecological Reform School

IN NEW YORK, wetland violators pay a different kind of fine.

On a muggy midsummer’s Saturday morning, cars collect in theparking lot of Brooklyn’s New York Aquarium; commuters, many of them notentirely happy to be there, emerge with coffee cups in their hands andhead for the education complex.

The scene has that sour-grapes “traffic school” feeling—andthat’s not far from the truth: it is a violators’ school, not for speeders,but for violators of the federal Tidal Wetlands Protection Act (TWPA).

During the three-hour class, attendees see slide presentations,hear lectures, and tour museum exhibits—all aimed at improving their understandingof delicate tidal wetland ecosystems and the regulations that protect them.For their trouble, they receive a US$250 deduction in their fines, andthe vast majority will emerge with an understanding of how to avoid futureviolations and a far friendlier disposition toward the regulators who slappedthose fines on them.

Environmental regulations like the TWPA have been with usfor decades, says Merryl Kafka, Curator of Education Programs at the NewYork Aquarium, who oversees the project—but education has lagged far behind. “Ninetypercent of these violators are good, honest homeowners who happen to livein the shadow of wetlands and have put up a fence or extended a porch,” saysKafka. “Few people have heard of the tidal wetlands act, and evenfewer understand it.”

A partnership between government regulators and museums maybe the ideal way to tackle the problem. Although many violators arriveat the class angry about their fines, the museum provides neutral ground. “Youcan hate regulators,” explains Kafka, “but you can’t really hatecultural institutions. We smooth a lot of ruffled feathers.” The entirefamily is invited to the class, where attendees are greeted with breakfast.And with exhibits of rocky coast, sandy shore, and salt marsh, the museumcovers the range of local ecosystems protected by the TWPA.

Most attendees are there simply because they modified their property—say, added gravel to a driveway or rebuilt a porch—without realizing they needed a permit. By the end of the class, these same people understand how severely tidal wetlands have been impacted by development and what a large cumulative effect hundreds of seemingly tiny building projects can have.

The program has educated 400 individuals since 1994, when it was founded by James Gilmore, Jr., regional supervisor for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. And in 2002, Kafka and Gilmore received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s New York region to broaden the program into a more proactive venture called Project POWER.

To Kafka, the notion of bringing community members together to learn about tidal wetlands and environmental regulations all makes sense. During the first class in 1994, she says, “a guy raised his hand and asked, ‘how come we didn’t learn this stuff in high school?’”

“So,” she asks, “why don’t we?”

PROJECT POWER

Protecting our Wetlands with Educators and Regulators (POWER)offers classes at five museums and aquariums, one in each borough of NewYork City. POWER focuses on reaching individuals before they commit violations.So, in addition to violators, attendees include community leaders, constructioncontractors, teachers and the like. Merryl Kafka of the New York Aquariumbelieves this sort of approach could benefit efforts to protect other ecosystemstoo, from tundras to deserts to deciduous forests. In the future, Kafkahopes to help other educators create programs in their own regions. Formore information, contact Merryl Kafka at .

About the Author:

Douglas Fox is a freelance writer based in San Francisco, California.