Stewardship
2008 Stewardship Week: "WATER IS LIFE"
Stewardship Week is officially celebrated from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in May. It is one of the world's largest conservation-related observances.
The program relies on locally-led conservation districts sharing and promoting stewardship and conservation activities. Districts provide conservation and stewardship field days, programs, workshops and additional outreach efforts throughout their community to educate citizens about the need to care for our resources. Many district activities extend beyond the one week observance to include an entire year of outreach.
The Stewardship concept involves personal and social responsibility, including a duty to learn about and improve natural resources as we use them wisely, leaving a rich legacy for future generations.
One definition of Stewardship is "the individual's responsibility to manage his life and property with proper regard to the rights of others." E. William Anderson suggests stewardship "is essentially a synonym for conservation."
Stewardship Week helps reminds all citizens of the power of each person to conserve natural resources and improve the world. When people work together with their local conservation district, that power grows and grows. As these good deeds multiply across the nation's network of conservation districts, the results are spectacular!
Additional Resources:
Stewardship Success Stories - Districts share information on how they successfully celebrate Stewardship.
Poster Contest - The annual National Conservation Poster Contest provides kindergarten through twelfth grade students an opportunity to convey their thoughts about soil, water and related natural resource issues through art. It also highlights the educational outreach efforts of conservation districts and their state associations, auxiliaries and agencies. The contest follows the annual Stewardship theme.
Clip Art - Clip art that follows the conservation theme isn't always easy to find. This page contains a collection of clip art, including many that go along with the 2008 Stewardship theme: Water is Life.
2007 Stewardship Materials - Materials following the 2007 Stewardship Week theme "Today is the day to be a part of Conservation's Power" are available to download on the 2007 Stewardship Week website. These resources include an educator's guide, clip art, a brochure on renewable energy and more.
