Conservation through Participation Programs
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The AEF, Conservation through Participation Programs encourages people from all walks of life to participate in positive, non-confrontational, community conservation projects. Hands-on service activities offer opportunities to learn about our environment while you protect and preserve it for future generations. AEF has worked with government, state agencies and private landowners on environmental projects throughout the northern Sierra Nevada mountain region since 1996. In December 1999 the volunteer program was expanded to serve the central and southern regions of California. The program was developed to be available Nationwide This program is designed for people of all ages and is ideal for families, school, youth groups, community organizations and company volunteer day. Participates also have a chance to see themselves on TV when they are caught on film by AEF’s “R Environment” film crew.

The AEF Conservation Volunteers Program accomplishes three important goals:
 
  • To bring people of all ages together to learn about the environment through “hands-on” participation.
  • To provide trained volunteers to agencies in need of people power to implement important conservation programs, especially during labor-intensive times such as recovery from environmental disasters
  • To provide opportunities for people to learn about the value and rewards of community service. 

AEF Junior Rangers
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The AEF Junior Rangers youth program is clearly our pride and joy. Starting in 1996 the program quickly grew to thousands of kids 8 through 15. With Spring and Summer outdoor hands-on activates combined with environmental education. Year around classroom programs activities such as environmental education, recycling, video programs was available nationwide. With tens of thousands of seedlings planted combined with countless hours of volunteer work on a wide range on vital conservation projects.

Children compose 25% of our population and 100% of our future. When kids get out and provide stewardship of the lands in “their” community, they develop pride and respect for the environment while learning to work together to accomplish big tasks. We are proud of the opportunity the Junior Rangers program offers to build leadership and responsibility skills in a non-competitive, physically active setting. Junior Rangers also have a chance to see themselves on TV when they are caught on video by AEF’s “R Environment” film crew.

Program Goals:

  • To increase environmental awareness, concern and the stewardship among young people
  • To provide youth with hands-on Conservation through Participation activities
  • To help youth develop pride and respect for the environment while building leadership and responsibility skills in a non-competitive, physically active, settings
  • To lend a helping hand to meet the ever-growing demand on our forests and open lands while preserving the enjoyment and health of those resources for generations to come
  • To provide and coordinate a volunteer network able to support groups and individuals (public and private) with natural disaster relief assistance
  • To build cooperative working relationships with existing youth programs and environmental education programs
  • To increase the capacity for communities, businesses and government to come together in positive conservation projects

Environmental Conservation Educational Television Programs
 
In the Spring of 1996, AEF started producing its own television series, R-Environment an environmental/conservation education program. This programs also highlights AEF’s various conservation improvement projects and allows participates to view the results of their labor in the popular media. R-Environment “the show about the environment that surrounds us” Is the only show currently airing that showcases people of all ages working together to participate in conservation projects. This television series is broadcast weekly throughout AEF’s current project area reaching into over 5 million households in three states. R-Environment is also broadcast via streaming video to a worldwide audience.
 
Programs Goals:
 
  • To provide environmental conservation education to educational broadcasting stations, classroom application and to a national and worldwide audience. 
  • To showcase as an example the efforts young people are making in the stewardship on the lands that surround us. with the goal of encouraging participation. 
An Evening at Sunset Ranch, Showcasing Music, Nature, and Wildlife 
 

The idea for what would end up being an award-winning program, “An Evening at Sunset Ranch” was just loose talk on a break between filming a conservation project in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The talk between an AEF Director and a few film crew members was the idea of a program showcasing music, nature, and wildlife with a goal of reaching out and enlightening a whole new audience to the environment. With no funds in the budget but a sound idea in hand, the Sunset Ranch project became a labor of love volunteer project. The artist and AEF staff all happily volunteering their time, talent, and skills for a noble cause.