Virginia Resource Use Education Council

• Who is the Resource Use Education Council?
• Member Agencies
• A Business Plan for Environmental Education in the Commonwealth of Virginia
• Meeting Minutes
• Resolution

Who is the VRUEC?
In the mid 1950's, representatives from Virginia's state and federal natural resource agencies, along with professors in the colleges of education and resource management, came together as the Virginia Resource Use Education Council (VREUC). For 35 years, the VRUEC sponsored a summer conservation course for teachers at four of Virginia's colleges. The "short course" lasted three weeks and trained hundreds of educators about Virginia's natural resources. Today, the VRUEC continues to embrace new ideas and projects in the field of resource education by bringing together state and federal agencies to benefit the educators and students of Virginia.

A subcommittee of the VRUEC is the Virginia Interagency Education Workgroup (VIEW). The Council's VIEW members are tasked with coordinating Virginia's Chesapeake Bay Education Implementation Plan. In addition to VRUEC members, VIEW includes representatives from:

• Virginia Science Educational Leadership Association
• Virginia Association of Science Teachers
• Chesapeake Bay Foundation
• Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom
• Representative teachers

VRUEC Member Agencies

Meeting Minutes/Agency Reports

• May 24, 2007, Virginia Museum of Natural History
• January 10, 2007, New Kent Convention Center
• Agency Reports 2006
• May 23, 2006, Library of Virginia
• January 30, 2006, Longwood University
• May 5, 2005, Library of Virginia
• January 19, 2005, Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center, Front Royal
• June 3, 2004, Wintergreen

In 2000, to support of former Governer Gilmore's Virginia Naturally education initiative the council adopted the following resolution:

Resolution
Whereas:
The Virginia Resource-Use Education Council (VRUEC) was established in 1952 to promote a better understanding of conservation education throughout the Commonwealth; and

Whereas:
The VRUEC has a long standing record of coordinating the educational efforts of Virginia's resource agencies and educational institutions on behalf of the Commonwealth citizens; and

Whereas:
The VRUEC since 1955 has produced educational resources to inform Virginians of the importance of our Natural Resources; and

Whereas:
The VRUEC subscribes to the following principles:

• That the natural resources of the state and nation should be used wisely and with due consideration for the future;
• That the wise use of these resources should be the concern of government at the local, state, and national levels;
• That all people benefit from the natural resources of the state and nation: hence, they have citizenship responsibility in the safeguarding and judicious utilization of these resources; and,
• That all citizens, public or private groups, charged with the management of natural resources or education or both, have added responsibilities in promoting understanding of conservation needs problems and ways to resolve them.

Whereas:
The Honorable Governor James S. Gilmore has asked the VRUEC to:

• Coordinate the development and consistent delivery of environmental education programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia by linking current environmental education efforts to creative, innovative approaches;
• Nurture and promote alternative methods of reaching and educating our citizens from all sectors of the public; and,
• Promote sustained life-long learning and professional development based on Virginia's academic standards.

Let it be resolved that: The VRUEC fully supports and will spearhead Governor Gilmore's Virginia Naturally 2000 Initiative on this date, January 31, 2000.