Pelican Island Audubon Society (PIAS) has been awarded a $5,000 planning grant to work with two communities in Indian River County – the City of Fellsmere and Gifford – to develop ‘quality of life’ sustainability indicators to complement each community’s own comprehensive planning programs.

The grant is from the National Audubon Society’s Toyota TogetherGreen program. Audubon and Toyota founded Toyota TogetherGreen in 2008 to foster diversity, jump start innovation and invest in conservation leaders and projects.

PIAS began to develop sustainability indicators for Indian River County in 2009, using them to mark progress in the three key sustainability categories – environmental, social and economic. Indicators show the intertwined links between the environment, the economic and social well-being of community residents.

For this project PIAS has the active support of leaders in the two community – Mayor Susan Adams and City Manager Jason Nunemaker in Fellsmere and Mr. Freddie Woolfork at the Progressive Civic League of Gifford.

Indicators provide the means to connect the present condition of a community to the ‘desired future state’ — a sustainable community. In so doing, they link community well-being and sustainability to TogetherGreen goals — habitat conservation and restoration, water conservation and energy goals.

In supporting the PIAS project Mr. Nunemaker said: “We believe there would be considerable benefit in blending elements of the city’s comprehensive plan with the PIAS project to develop very specific sustainable community indicators for Fellsmere.” He continued: “Our plan is oriented to physical facilities, land uses and processes, rules and standards. The PIAS’s identified indicator topics – though there is considerable overlap – would take us a little further in our thinking to look at more human and social measures….What is apparent to all of us as we consider indicators is the interwoven nature of the task and the outcomes – for example, jobs relate to education, to transit needs, to library and computer services available, to housing, immigration and special education services for our large Latino population…and all are supported on a need for conserving precious water resources and protecting conservation lands in our midst.”

Mr. Woolfork, for the Progressive Civic League of Gifford, supporting the project, explained: “The League … has been instrumental in getting paved roads, water and sewer facilities in Gifford. However, we know we have a way to go to regain some of the community cohesion which we enjoyed many years ago. So we ask that when you consider what kind of ‘quality of life’ indicators that are appropriate for the whole county, you recognize the special needs – the social, the educational, public health and public safety needs, for example – of this very distinct community….We are proud of the improvements we are making but we know there is much to be done.”

Dr. Richard Baker, president of PIAS, said: “This grant will enable us to conduct planning workshops with community residents; to consult with community leaders; to prepare a set of indicators unique to the two communities; to prepare targeted surveys appropriate for the communities; and develop a communications plan to reach community members not readily inclined to respond to surveys.”

Now in its sixth year, Audubon’s Toyota TogetherGreen has invested $23.5 million in community-based conservation, engaging more than 420,000 people in 295 cities and all 50 states. Toyota TogetherGreen fellows and grantees have partnered with more than 3,000 organizations across the country—from Native American tribes to schools to corporations— and have leveraged their funding to raise an additional $9.1 million to support conservation.

For more information about the local project, contact Dr. Graham Cox at glcox@audubon.org, 772-388-5394 or 518-729-6869 (cell), coordinator of PIAS’s Indian River County quality of life project. Readers are invited to complete a preliminary county-wide survey which can be found on the Pelican Island Audubon Society web site at www.pelicanislandaudubon.org.