BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A federally funded program through Nurture Nature Center focuses on the idea that climate action requires a whole community approach.
“It’s not just something that the city, just the sustainability manager alone, can implement, or that just one entity can implement by themselves,” Lauren Fosbenner, NNC’s project specialist, said Thursday.
“But it really takes lots of different actors doing lots of different parts — so helping everyone in the community to find their role within climate action.”
Fosbenner gave a presentation on the center’s CREATE Connections program during the city Environmental Advisory Council’s monthly meeting.
“We’ve been focused on a vision of resilience in many of our past projects, and now we’re looking at turning that vision, turning that plan that we have, into action with CREATE Connections."Lauren Fosbenner, Nurture Nature Center’s project specialist
The program seeks to engage residents through outreach, events and education centered on climate action plans both in the city and Easton.
Started in 2023, it's funded through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Environmental Literacy Program.
“We’ve been focused on a vision of resilience in many of our past projects, and now we’re looking at turning that vision, turning that plan that we have, into action with CREATE Connections,” Fosbenner said.
Climate past, present and future
In addition to NNC’s annual Youth Climate Summit, center staff over the past year also held eight programs at libraries in both the city and Easton and, in October, organized 18 different events during Climate Action Week.
NNC also recently launched a Sustainable Holiday Guide, highlighting Valley businesses that have participated in the center’s Sustainable Business Program, Fosbenner said.
To participate, business owners fill out an application on NNC’s website, reporting actions that they’ve taken in six categories: energy, water, food, waste, transportation and community.
“Depending on how many actions they’ve already attained, they’re recognized in four different tiers of sustainable businesses,” Fosbenner said.
“We also have a business network, where business owners can come learn from one another, discuss their challenges in being more sustainable [and] the things that they’ve done that have worked really well.”
Moving into the new year, the next event will be the Youth Climate Summit, set for April 24 and 25 at Northampton Community College, as the center’s 518 Northampton St. location is closed as construction continues on the new Earth & Sky Dome.
The theme is “Climate Past, Present and Future,” a nod to the 250th anniversary of American independence.
“That's aiming to kind of dovetail with the 250th anniversary celebrations and encourage students to look at a place that's significant to them and how it's changed in terms of climate or environment from the last 250 years to the present and how they'd like to see it change in the next 250 years in the future,” Fosbenner said.
‘Implementing, educating, doing outreach’
In the final year of the grant, NNC staff will create a final report “that hopefully can serve as a model for other communities who have a climate action plan or resiliency plan or a sustainability plan to move from having the written plan to implementing, educating, doing outreach and putting those things into action.”
While describing NNC’s efforts over the past year as “fantastic,” EAC member Steve Olshevski, noted many of the programs were geared toward youth, and asked about plans to engage more adults.
“I would say, when our center is open, at least, a lot of the people that we engage with at Nurture Nature Center are adults,” Fosbenner said.
“The thing that can be challenging is you get your kind of usual suspects, the typical audience that's interested, that knows you, that comes to many different events, and then branching out into, ‘How do you get new people?’ is more challenging.
“And I think one thing that we've found to be successful is just working with more partners, which is kind of why the create connections project is called CREATE connections.”
A ‘truly remarkable’ elm tree
Also during the meeting, members unanimously voted to accept a nomination for the EAC’s heritage tree program — an elm tree on Moravian University’s campus.
“Moravian University has an elm tree on its southern campus that is around 250 years old,” Olshevski said.
“If you haven’t seen it in all of its glory, when springtime comes around, you should definitely visit it next time you’re on Main Street and go back there and see it. It’s truly an amazing tree.”
Olshevski also noted how Dutch elm disease decimated elm trees across the country.
“I think most people are aware that Dutch elm disease killed most elm in the United States about 100 years ago, so to have this one still in our presence is truly remarkable,” he said.
A fungal infection, the disease was in the 1930s first introduced to the United States, and cut through healthy tree populations.
It is the fourth tree to be accepted into the program. In early November, members unanimously accepted the first three trees — a persimmon, an American beech and a tulip poplar — on Lehigh University's campus into the program.
