In densely populated Salt Lake County, it’s easy to forget that nature—active and unbridled—exists amongst us. ReAwakened Beauty: Outdoor Classrooms aims to develop active stewardship of a vital portion of Utah’s Jordan River by providing opportunities for K-16 students and their families to participate in the restoration of a 132-acre parcel, located in South Jordan Outdoor Classrooms is an outgrowth of CDEA’s 13-year-old environmental-education program titled, “ReAwakened Beauty: The Past, Present, and Future of the Jordan River.” Developed in 2009, in conjunction with TreeUtah, Utah Audubon Society, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “ReAwakened Beauty” originally introduced environmental-education activity to K-12 students in order to connect them to the human and natural history of the Jordan River, while engaging them in restoration and documentary-arts style field reporting.
Currently, CDEA and the Utah Reclamation, Mitigation, and Conservation Commission, (https://www.mitigationcommission.gov/ ), the owner of the 132-acre site, are partnering to provide K-16 students a new, site-based, multi-disciplinary, environmental-education program. ReAwakened Beauty: Outdoor Classrooms will introduce students to recent efforts made to restore this ecosystem, invite them to participate in hands-on restoration activities, and orient them to the roles they can play to improve the river’s health.