Mission & Purpose
To manage and develop The Gerald L. Baliles Center for Environmental Education at Hull Springs as a compelling model of conservation and stewardship to educate the students of Longwood University, other institutions, and the greater community about their role in creating a more sustainable planet.
The Baliles Center for Environmental Education is supported by five goals representing a long-term statement of the aspirations for the Baliles Center. The goals are further defined by current Strategic Goals that represent a roadmap for the next 3-5 years.
The goals are facilitated and supported by the following principles, which run throughout the strategic planning and implementation process.
- Foster collaborative partnerships in the environmental community and beyond.
- Implement natural resource plans leading to an integrated model of conservation.
- Improve and expand capacity to host and deliver educational programs.
- Establish sustainable educational programs using the features at Hull Springs.
- Ensure financial stability.
Goals
- Create a model of conservation and demonstration site for best management land and water use practices using the unique resources at the Baliles Center.
- Coordinate, develop and deliver educational programs using the unique features at the Baliles Center in the context of a model of conservation to educate many constituencies about sustainable land and water management and stewardship.
- Provide adequate facilities and support for undergraduate research, a scholar-in-residence program, and for use by other members of the conservation research community.
- Renovate existing buildings and construct new facilities necessary to deliver education and research programs using green design and construction principles that could be reasonably replicated by the public.
- Be an active good institutional citizen of the Northern Neck, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.