The ecological realities of many communities are desperate but not determined. As teachers inevitably encounter these realities in their communities, they can respond by activating students' imaginations to conceive of better alternatives. Greene (1995) outlined how the imagination has the power to envision alternative realities and better states of affairs. Through these visions, one is alerted to the severity of one's current situations, awakened to other possibilities, and inspired to begin the process of working toward a better world. While Greene focused on the imagination's power applied within the social realm, through her conception of the social imagination, author Joy Bertling suggests one should not neglect the imagination's potential within an ecological context where new ecological realities desperately need to be constructed. An ecological imagination is needed. Through the ecological imagination, students can envision different ecological realities--different ways of being in relation to the natural world. In this article, Bertling presents one approach to cultivating middle school students' ecological imaginations to envision different ecological realities as they participate in a critical place-based art education program.