Celebrating Schools for National Wildlife Week: Kids 4 LA Cougars

This week Eco-Schools USA is proud to celebrate 78 years of National Wildlife Week with the theme “Members Matter: Working Together for Wildlife.” We want to celebrate and recognize the hard-working members of our school communities near and far, who everyday are making a difference for wildlife. From Monarch Heroes to Earth Heroes, students and educators are passionate in their efforts to impact the future of the world around them.

Kids, parents, teachers and community volunteers have been engaged in many projects with real-world impacts, such as creating schoolyard habitats, tagging monarch butterflies, raising money to help build a wildlife crossing for mountain lions, and working to keep trash out of our streams and rivers. It’s these collective efforts that we would like to highlight as we celebrate this special week. This story is the first in a 3 part series focusing on the work of our school members. Join us as we take a peek at what is happening at schools around the country.

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P22 is one of the mountain lions benefiting from the #SaveLACougars campaign. Photo by National Park Service

The MUSE School in Calabasas, California has a mission of pursuing education by “inspiring and preparing young people to live consciously with themselves, one another, and the planet”. The school allows all students to use their passion as the compass for their educational journey. Every semester, each student chooses an independent learning project to pursue.

This year three classmates chose to assist with the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars campaign to build a wildlife crossing over the 101 freeway to help ensure a future for mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. As they stated on their new website, Kids4LACougars, “We LOVE BIG CATS.” When we heard about this project, we decided to help raise the money for the bridge.”

Kids4LACougars
Kids4LACougars. Photo by MUSE School

I recently brought P-22 to the MUSE School to thank the students for their help and to talk about mountain lions and the project. I was so inspired by the love these students have for the natural world and wildlife—and their wanting to make a difference for the area’s mountain lion project. These are future environmental leaders.

Learn more about National Wildlife Week and how you can get involved!

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