The Massachusetts Keystone Project [3] has been awarded a prestigious Environmental Service Award by the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions [4].  Led by UMass Extension a 3-day training workshop at Harvard Forest has been held every April since 1988.
The award, given for outstanding environmental education, is well-deserved. Since 1988, Keystone Project leaders David Kittredge [5] and Paul Catanzaro [6] have led 26 training workshops, with over 500 Massachusetts community members participating as Keystone Cooperators.

Cooperators are expected to volunteer a minimum of 30 hours after the training workshop to advance conservation at the local level.

Recent evaluations show that in a one-year period, Keystone Cooperators made contact with 15,033 people about forest conservation, and 1,742 referrals to conservation information resources. Keystone Cooperators contributed 44,636 hours to conservation-related activities, 63% of which were volunteer hours. This is equivalent of more than 22 full-time conservation positions, of which nearly 14 positions were volunteer.

Learn more about the Keystone Project [7].