Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series  09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 22: ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Peter Westover
Environmental Education Teacher/Coordinator
1971-1974

PETER WESTOVER Staff
Environmental Education Teacher and Coordinator, 1971-1974

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TAGS: Peter Westover, Environmental Education Programs, EE Programs, Pine Mountain Settlement School, environmental education, Mary Rogers, adult workshops, The Green Book, Oberlin College, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, conservation, ecology

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PETER WESTOVER: At Pine Mountain

Since its beginning, one of the missions of the Pine Mountain Settlement School was to seek ways to raise the environmental awareness of all who worked and attended the School, believing that environmental education was fundamental to civic responsibility. However, it wasn’t until the early 1970s that a formal Environmental Education Program was part of the School’s programs, one that reached out to students in regional schools. 

There were some very extraordinary staff during the formative years of the EE Program at Pine Mountain Settlement School. Among them was Peter Westover, an Oberlin College graduate who was hired in the summer of 1971 as a teacher in the then-fledgling program. According to a former co-worker, Nancy Sather, he was the son of Frontier Nursing Service doctors. She also recalls that Peter 

“got us on a good start, establishing our first trails and drawing in the community with weekly movies.… [W]e scouted out potential trail routes and helped Mary [Rogers] set up some curriculum and recruit schools while [Peter and his assistant Sunny Williamson] were sent to an Audubon training program somewhere in New England.”

Peter became the first formal EE coordinator in 1972. He and Mary Rogers were the creative force behind the success of the program, building it into a series of on-site and residential programs for schools and adult workshops that focused on a planned environmental education program.  

In 1973 Peter reported that in the first year of the program more than 80 groups, more than 2800 people, participated in the program, which included a three-week college-level January term. Enthusiastic letters from participants of all ages testified to the success of the program.

An enduring legacy of those early EE days was the publication of The Green Book in 1974, a manual used to guide instruction in the Environmental Education program. According to its Foreword:

“…Principal authors of this guide were Peter Westover and Nat Kuykendall. Also contributing to the writing and editing of the guide were Afton Garrison, Candace Julyan, Mary Rogers, and John Rupe.”

The manual, considered groundbreaking, was the foundation for the EE program and continues to be consulted and refined by the current EE staff at the School.

By the time the EE Program was fully developed it had reached out to over 3,000 children and adults each year.  Although the program evolved and waxed and waned over time due to the passage of time and changes in administrations, it maintained the original educational concept begun by the early designers and instructors.  

Peter Westover left Pine Mountain in April 1974. Mary Rogers handled the program until August 1974 when Bill Branan arrived to serve as the next EE Coordinator for two years.

Under Peter’s leadership, this early staff had used their combined experience to establish at the School one of the first Environmental Education outdoor programs in the state of Kentucky, one that continues to be as active and vital today as it was almost 50 years ago.

PETER WESTOVER: After Pine Mountain

Peter Westover earned a B.S. from Oberlin College and an M.S. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In 2005, he co-founded the Conservation Works, LL, in North Hatfield, Massachusetts, a organization that works with public, private, and non-profit landowners to enhance land conservation and ecological resilience. 

He is also an adjunct professor of ecology at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, a contractor for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, and a former long-time Conservation Director for the Town of Amherst. For more about his accomplishments in the field of ecology and conservation go to https://www.conservationworksllc.com/staff/pete-westover/

Recently (2022), Peter has agreed to become a member of the Board of Trustees at Pine Mountain Settlement. We eagerly look forward to his expertise and historical memory.

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SEE ALSO:
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION (EE) Guide 1972 – present

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Staff 1972-present

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION The Green Book 1974

MARY ROGERS EE Planning and Programming Notes

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Title	Peter Westover
Alt. Title	Pete Westover
Identifier	https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=99022
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Peter Westover ; Environmental Education Programs ; EE Programs ; environmental education ; Mary Rogers ; adult workshops ; The Green Book ; Oberlin College ; Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies ; conservation ;  ecology ;
Subject LCSH	Westover, Peter. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Education — Kentucky — Harlan County. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern.
Date	2022-06-22 hw (image, stub) ; aae (bio)
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff Series 22:ENVIRONMENTAL ED
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: Biography – Staff and Series 22: Environmental Education
Coverage Temporal	1971 – 1974
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ;  North Hatfield, MA ; Amherst, MA ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of Peter Westover ; clippings, photographs, books by or about Peter Westover ;
Acquisition	n/d
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated
Sources	Conservation Works, LL website. https://www.conservationworksllc.com/staff/pete-westover/ ; Accessed 2020-02-01. Internet resource. “Peter Westover”. Series 09: Biography – Staff. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource. Accessed 2020-02-01. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION Staff 1972 – present ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION The Green Book 1974 HISTORY PMSS Summaries 1971-72 & 1972-73 & 1973-74  NOTES – 1974 November

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