EUSTIS, Fla. — More than 30 years ago, Congress passed the Environmental Education Act of 1990, which required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help with environmental literacy in schools.

In Florida, while some schools offer environmental education as an elective, rarely is it required. One lifelong Floridian is hoping to change that.

Feeding the future through environmental education is something Eileen Tramontana, executive director of Trout Lake Nature Center, has a passion for.

“I grew up playing in the woods as a kid, liking the outdoors, loving what’s here, and started working for a soil and water conservation district many, many years ago," she said. "I worked for a private industry and realized it was a nice job, but I was putting money in someone’s pocket and I wanted to make a difference."

For her, it’s teaching the community about the environment, like feeding their gopher tortoise, that gets people engaged with what’s around them.

“We need to understand how to make the connections between our green spaces," Tramontana said. "How to keep our air clean? How to keep our water? How do we reduce our water?”

As she steps into her environment, Tramontana said the Trout Lake Nature Center has been key to opening the minds of kids and adults.

“This resource is really important because a lot of the times you wouldn’t get to see the animals or the plants that come here in Central Florida," she said. "They’re often times nocturnal or you just can’t get that close to them."

But Tramontana hopes to make a statewide difference. While she teaches groups and individuals visiting the center, and she brings her lessons outside the classroom in an engaging way.

“This is a lesson plan about wetlands, the main functions that are important for wetlands," she said. "Florida used to have a lot more wetlands and we’ve destroyed them."

While Tramontana is working to make a difference, she knows she’s only one person. Now she’s advocating to reinstate the Environmental Education Act, which allows schools to receive more resources when it comes to teaching the topic.

“One of the things we are hoping for the legislature and the citizens will support is going back and creating an environmental education act," she said. "It would have people going back supporting teachers in the classroom and teach about the environment, the science concepts we need to know about natural systems and all of that, that goes with it."

But her education doesn’t just stop with kids — she also engages adults to take part in environmental lessons.

“The environment is here — it’s always going to be here and we are at crisis level in some areas and we really need to have that understanding to go forward,” she said.

Tramontana believes by learning more about the environment, Floridians can address and prevent real-world problems.