Representatives from the Colorado Department of Education will visit Durango on Wednesday to gather public feedback about the department’s draft Environmental Education Plan.

The plan is the outcome of a 2010 law that emphasized the benefits of outdoor education for Colorado’s residents, especially children, and required the Education Department adopt a statewide plan for environmental education.

The law also created the Colorado Kids Outdoors Grant program.

Both the statewide plan and the grant program aim to “improve young people’s knowledge of the environment and increase young people’s opportunities for outdoor educational experiences,” according to the CDOE’s website.

The plan will create an outline of goals and standards for environmental education across the state.

The over-arching goal is to help students understand how their actions and decisions affect the environment and use that understanding to be responsible residents.

The draft plan says that in Colorado, with its world-renowned natural environment, students need to confront environmental issues and challenges, which have the potential to affect the state’s ecosystems, economy and communities.

“Developing an ‘environmentally literate’ population has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of all Coloradans,” it said.

ecowan@durangoherald.com