The NEST program is designed to promote people’s engagement with and knowledge of the nest that is Northern Virginia.  This series of talks, workshops, and outdoor adventures seeks to teach residents about the natural history of the place we inhabit, to encourage aesthetic and spiritual engagement with our home terrain, and to thereby deepen denizens’ sense of connection with the natural neighborhood and with the other beings who share it.
 
NEST is the brainchild of aquatic and human ecologist Joanna Cornell.  Like all the very best ideas, NEST is a simple concept with profound implications.  The simple part?  NEST makes use of existing public education programs offered by regional organizations and institutions and facilitates new opportunities.  The profound part is conveyed by these words from Robert Thayer’s book LifePlace:  “People who know a place may come to care about it more deeply.  People who care about a place are more likely to take better care of it.  And people who take care of places, one place at a time, are the key to the future of humanity and all living creatures.”

NEST concepts and keywords:
NEST PROGRAM, STEWARDSHIP, COMMUNITY, FREE, EXPLORATION, ADVENTURE, CONNECTION, CLIMATE CHANGE, ADULT, EDUCATION, OUTDOOR, PERSONAL GROWTH, LOCAL FOODS, PHYSICAL FITNESS, ECOLOGY, NATURE, WATER