Development of the Northwest Environmental Education Center (NEEC) is described in this two-part narration. Part One outlines its 13 year history, starting with the need for setting aside a 600-acre site as an educational reserve on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound, Washington. Procedures followed and resulting problems associated with fund raising, state and private organization endorsements, eventual state and federal funding, development of proposals, and interdisciplinary planning of site, facilities, and programs are recounted. Part Two enumerates the program, its evolution, and its present status. Philosophical objectives of environmental education are described together with their position in the NEEC program. Major outcomes occuring in the areas of in-service teacher training, pre-service education, learning packages focusing on environmental encounters, identification of regional sites suitable for examination of specific problems and criteria for their selection, study of the impact of man on the natural scene within a geographic area summarized from an historical perspective, and future plans for administrators, teachers, and students are delineated and program activities indicated. (BL)