SUN to Join Foces with EarthCorps!
(Seattle, WA ---June 19, 2009) EarthCorps, a Seattle-based environmental nonprofit, today announced it will join forces with Seattle Urban Nature, the preeminent urban forest mapping and monitoring organization in the region.
EarthCorps, established in 1993, engages youth and community volunteers in restoring natural areas. SUN, an 11-year-old organization, uses GPS and GIS to survey, map, and analyze habitats. The joining of forces will combine SUN’s scientific expertise with EarthCorps’ proficiency as restoration practitioners, educators, and volunteer managers.
According to Sharon London, SUN Executive Director, the combination will provide clients with a one-stop shop for forest restoration solutions, as well as strengthen the combined organization’s presence and outreach in the community.
“Joining forces with EarthCorps will help us make the science behind forest restoration more accessible to the public, and especially volunteers involved in local restoration,” said London. “We are excited to share our mapping and monitoring skills with EarthCorps staff and corps members, and ensure our efforts to restore our local forests are truly making a difference.”
Steve Dubiel , the Executive Director of EarthCorps, added, “Integrating our two organizations will create a powerful combination of ecosystem restoration services, leadership development, civic engagement and habitat monitoring and science. EarthCorps has aimed to move into the mapping and monitoring realm to meet growing demand from our partners and through SUN we now have that capacity.”
Sharon Rodman, Education & Outreach Specialist of the Green Kirkland Partnership, applauded the move. “SUN and EarthCorps are two great organizations and they complement each other wonderfully. It’s a pleasure working with both of them at Kirkland’s Juanita Bay Park. The synergy that they generate together will strengthen both organizations and their missions, as well as help restore both ecological and social communities.”
The agreement between the two organizations was signed today and is expected to become effective August 1, 2009. The combined organization, which will be named EarthCorps, will include a science program that continues SUN’s work. All current SUN employees will be joining EarthCorps, which will operate out of its existing premises in northeast Seattle.
About EarthCorps
EarthCorps is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building global community through local environmental service. EarthCorps trains young people and leads 10,000 volunteers in providing 100,000 hours of service in the region annually including salmon habitat, shoreline, riparian, and wetlands restoration; hiking trail construction; invasive plant removal; and native plantings. For further information, please visit www.earthcorps.org
About SUN
The mission of Seattle Urban Nature (SUN) is to create tools to empower stewards for healthy urban ecosystems. SUN was founded in 1998 to survey and map the vegetation and wildlife habitat on 8000 acres of Seattle’s public land. Currently, these data serve as a resource for the Seattle Parks Department and community groups working on restoration efforts throughout the city. Today, SUN assists community groups, government agencies, non-profit organizations and private citizens in their efforts to survey, map, restore and maintain urban forests in the Puget Sound region .
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