This year Governor Gilmore launched a new initiative in environmental and natural resource education called Virginia Naturally 2000. Environmental education is an important key to the stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Suffice it to say that if we fail in our mission of environmental education, if we do not foster in the people of the Bay region an ethic of environmental stewardship, if we do not convey the knowledge to our students, and to all our citizens, necessary to make informed decisions on environmental matters and to weigh carefully and thoughtfully the options available for environmental protection, and to assess their relative merits, costs, and benefits, that however well we discharge our other responsibilities in environmental protection, we will surely fail in the long run. The choices an informed and energized people will make in their daily lives for environmental protection will be even more comprehensive and effective than any regulatory scheme that any lawgiver, however enlightened, could devise. Virginia's comprehensive environmental education initiative will help to meet our Bay Agreement commitment by integrating technology and scientific analysis into the fabric of formal and non-formal learning.
Individuals can make a difference.
They have the ability, it is our job to ensure necessary tools for their success are readily available. This mission becomes all the more critical when you consider what is at stake. As Governor Gilmore has said, the Chesapeake Bay and its great tributary rivers represent a way of life, a place of recreation and of refuge, and an essential resource for the prosperity of our entire region. From the Bay has flowed the lifeblood of our people for nearly four centuries. Today's agreement is the surest step towards ensuring that this the most precious of our natural resources remains healthy for the next generation and well into this century.