Bob came from upstate Troy, New York. He majored in history and philosophy at West Virginia Wesleyan College then majored in theology at Yale Divinity School. While in college and seminary, he worked small churches to support his young family. He did graduate work in intellectual history at Temple University and in theology at Drew University. He was ordained in the New York Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2006, he retired and a year later, discovered the TCUUC, where started the book club. In 2008, he began seven years of part-time ministry at the TCUUC then retired again and moved to Asheville, NC. A year later, Bob and his wife returned to the area, and the TCUUC. 
This blog will focus on the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, our progress toward certification, and what that will mean for our congregation. A quick review of the information on the program may be found here http://www.auduboninternational.org/acsp.
At a glance, it should be obvious that this program will require an ongoing commitment to excellence in environmental stewardship and that our eco-sanctuary project has many specific goals in the areas of improving our resource management (primarily energy consumption), water use (quality and quantity), wildlife habitat (birds, mammals, plants, etc.) and education and outreach programs (environmental education and community involvement).
The ACSP program is a blueprint to help organizations plan, organize, implement and document their environmental practices. The program drives many of the specific projects that you will be reading about in this blog. One of the fun ongoing projects will be to identify existing plants, butterflies, birds, reptiles, and mammals that migrate through and nest on our property. So keep reading and enjoy the adventure!
Check out the BEFORE and AFTER photos of other organizations that have participated in this program. We have also taken our BEFORE photos courtesy of Bruce Olson and others which can be viewed as well.
