EDENS LOST & FOUND: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great American Cities - a four part “common carriage” PBS documentary series and outreach program that highlights practical solutions for transforming and sustaining urban environments and ecosystems. EDENS LOST & FOUND travels to four American cities to showcase how ordinary citizens, working with professionals and governmental officials, have developed innovative approaches to the environmental problems facing many of our urban areas today. This special PBS documentary series is the centerpiece of an extensive, multimedia, national outreach project, which also includes a PBS educational companion book, community action guides, activities-based learning curricula and a resource-rich website, town hall meetings, and other components.

EDENS LOST & FOUND is scheduled to premier in spring and fall 2006. During its 4-year license period to PBS is expected to reach more than 15 million PBS viewers. It will devote one hour to each of four American cities that include Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle. An official web site (http://www.edenslostandfound.org/) has already been established, with down-loadable Community Action Guides, Teacher’s Guides, and tools for enlisting additional outreach partners. The PBS companion book is published by Chelsea Green Publishers and will be available in bookstores and online beginNing in April 2006. A high school environmental science curriculum based on the series will be available in October 2006. Bullfrog Films, the distributor of the ELF Video Resource Library, will be marketing the curriculum and companion video resources to schools across the country and more than 10,000 science and environmental organizations.

Another key element to the project is the creation of the Edens Lost & Found Video/DVD Library, consisting of approximately 20 non-broadcast titles, 20-30 minutes in length, with accompanying guides for use by stakeholders, community organizations and leaders, and educators. Each video and guide will focus on one of the major environmental issues raised in the four-part PBS production, such as environmental justice, green building practices,  watershed management, and other urban sustainability issues. The PBS series will raise awareness of the importance of environmental stewardship and help motivate citizens to assess their local needs and enact appropriate community based conservation initiatives.