by Morgan Burks, CAEE Volunteer & Sarah Grove

Tending the Garden: Growing our CommunitEE

Our environmental education (EE) community, like a garden, needs tending! If you are interested in gathering with Colorado’s EE community, then the 2025 Advancing EE Conference is perfect for you!

Join the hundreds of educators and the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE) on Thursday, September 18th - Friday, September 19th, 2025 at the YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park when we will be leaning into Tending the Garden: Growing our CommunitEE.

Environmental educators grow the roots of stewardship and foster a connection to the land, inspiring a desire to protect our natural resources. As an integral part in the environmental movement ecosystem, a flourishing EE garden depends on community members who are contributing, supporting, and co-evolving. This year’s Advancing EE conference creates a space for educators to cultivate a thriving community and amplify our impact.

How will Tending the Garden: Growing our CommunitEE Conference strengthen your EE ecosystem?

1. Cultivate New Connections
   Just as a thriving garden relies on diverse plants, this conference brings together a rich variety of environmental educators. You'll network with peers, mentors, and partners to cross-pollinate ideas and grow your professional network.
    
2. Plant Seeds of Innovation
   Discover fresh teaching methodologies, cutting-edge research, and creative program ideas that will inspire you to try new approaches in your own patch of environmental education.
    
3. Tend to your own Growth
   Participate in workshops and sessions designed to nourish your professional skills, offering new tools and strategies to help you flourish as an educator. Learn more about earning one graduate credit for attending the full conference.
    
4. Enrich the Soil of Knowledge
   Engage in deep discussions and share best practices that add vital nutrients to our collective understanding of effective environmental education.
    
5. Water your Advocacy Roots
   Learn how to advocate for stronger support and policies for environmental education, ensuring our garden continues to receive the resources it needs to thrive across Colorado.
    
6. Prune for Resilience
   Explore strategies to address challenges like burnout and resource scarcity, learning how to "prune" for sustainable growth and long-term vitality in your programs and career.
    
7. Harvest Shared Successes
   Celebrate the achievements of the environmental education community in Colorado, drawing inspiration from collective impact and understanding how individual efforts contribute to the larger bounty.
    
8. Spotlight Unique Blooms
   Showcase your own program successes and unique approaches, offering valuable insights that can help others cultivate similar blossoms in their own communities.
    
9. Support the Ecosystem
   By attending, you directly contribute to the health and vitality of Colorado's entire environmental education ecosystem, ensuring a fertile ground for future learning and action.
    
10. Grow Our CommunitEE, Together
    This conference is specifically designed to foster a stronger, more interconnected environmental education community, empowering us all to grow side-by-side towards a greener future for Colorado.

Whether you’re a long-time cultivator of community or just sprouting into the EE space, the Tending the Garden: Growing your CommunitEE Conference is your invitation to root deeper, branch wider, and grow with intention. Be sure to REGISTER TODAY and BOOK YOUR LODGING by July 14!

About the Author, Sarah Grove

Sarah (she, her) joined the CAEE team in January 2025. Sarah grew up exploring the outdoors in Vermont and Central New York; this is where her love of nature began. Sarah earned a degree in Wildlife Ecology & Management from Auburn University, where she learned about the unique Longleaf pine ecosystem. She has dedicated her career to nonprofits, working in Early Childhood Education, Environmental Education, and Outdoor Education for the past ten years. When she is off the clock, Sarah enjoys reading, gardening, and seeking out new nature experiences. Remember Baba Dioum words, "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught."

About the Author, Morgan Burks

Moving from The Ozarks to Denver in 2023, Morgan (she, her) holds a strong reverence for nature instilled from roaming the Missouri woods on her grandparent's property as a child. Morgan is an advocate for inclusivity in the outdoors and reaching diverse audiences with fun and effective science communication.

Morgan holds a B.S in Wildlife Conservation and Management with a minor in Sustainability from Missouri State University and is currently enrolled in the Communications for Conservation Graduate Certificate program at Colorado State University. She also holds the Women in Leadership Professional Certificate from Case Western University. With a love for impacting her local community, Morgan works as the Community Engagement Manager for a local non-profit. In her free time, you can find Morgan reading, crafting, or hiking with her partner and two dogs.