Wayne and I went to New York City for a conference at the Bronx Zoo. The conference was about a new program called Teens for Planet Earth, which is a teen service learning project started by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Teens do a project concerning a local environmental issue and help educate the community about the issue. The conference was free and we got a BLM grant to pay for our hotel and flight. The Bronx Zoo was awesome. It was great and upsetting to see what can be done if your institution has funding…


There were around 40 environmental educators from all across the US and two gents from Scotland. The conference was held in the classroom at the Congo Gorilla Forest, a new multimillion dollar exhibit. "This 6.5-acre African rain forest habitat is home to 400 animals of 55 species, including the largest breeding population of western lowland gorillas in North America."

This was one of the team building exercises we covered where four people sitting in chairs leaned back on each others laps. Then the chairs were removed and they didn't fall down. Bill, one of the Scots, kept complaining that Wayne was crushing his knees.