Greetings Friend,

Spring has arrived. I am writing to you from my desk basking in the afternoon sunshine and listening to the sounds of springtime. We are in full spring swing at the EAC office preparing for engagement events and advocating on behalf of the irreplaceable lands, waters, and biodiversity of coastal West Marin!

Please join me at our annual Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival coming up April 21st-24th. There is something for everyone in your brood, and this fantastic event helps to provide important funding for our advocacy and program work to protect wildlife habitat. You can participate by attending our field events (see schedule) or by purchasing a Virtual Festival Pass that allows you to attend our lunch & learn and keynote programs from the comfort of your home! The Virtual Pass includes: a Live-Stream Pass to watch all eight, one-hour educational webinars and keynote programs over festival weekend, and a Video Pass so you can watch the recorded programs through 2022. Check out our line up, and register today! 

We are also in the process of installing our next environmental office pop-up display featuring spring migration! Our Western Monarch pop-up was a great success. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to experience it. We had a blast engaging with our community and visitors of Point Reyes Station talking about how people can help support the monarch butterfly in their communities and in their backyards. Our new display will be live the week of the Birding & Nature Festival. If you swing by our office in the meantime, pardon our mess as we work on the next installation.

We also have several calls to action again in this month's e-news where you can act to help protect the biodiversity of West Marin by sending in comments and joining our team to clean up the roadways in April and May. We are actively engaged in several environmental issues related to the development plans for thousands of homes in unincorporated Marin County, advocating for transparency and accountability for agricultural plans in the Point Reyes National Seashore, and diving into aquaculture leasing and permitting issues in Tomales Bay. 

Thank you for your support of EAC, as a local grassroots environmental organization, our work is made possible thanks to our community of supporters, through membership and donations. If your membership has expired or you feel inspired by our work, please consider making a contribution today! Your support ensures EAC is able to engage on the issues that matter most to you in order to protect the lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin.

In gratitude,

P.S. You can also help support EAC and the Festival by becoming a sponsor! We are only $1,250 away from our $10K goal. Sponsorships help to deliver the programming of the Festival, so we can continue to advocate to protect the places you love in coastal West Marin. 

P.P.S. If you are part of an environmental non-profit, local agency, or park, please join us Saturday, April 23rd during the Festival for our Saturday Non-Profit Fair! The goal of this event is to showcase the environmental non-profits in Marin County, and we only have a few spots left. Complete this google form if you are interested in joining us on the lawn in Pt. Reyes!

MISSION

To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin. 
We achieve this goal through advocacy, education and engagement opportunities.

VISION

Our work strives to provide long-term protection and conservation of the unique ecosystems and rural communities of West Marin, and serves as a foundation of environmental protection for future generations.

Housing Plan Meetings & Workshops
Morgan Patton

March 15th the Marin County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission received an update from the Community Development Agency (CDA) about potential locations to develop more than 3,500 new homes in unincorporated Marin County. More than 130 members of the public attended, and a number of people provided public comments. EAC spoke at the meeting, highlighting areas of concern that could be squeezed into our two minutes, and we submitted a comment letter ahead of the meeting. We were heartened to hear the voices of other community members raising concerns about the housing allocation totals in West Marin.

At the meeting, the CDA and their consultants, MIG, provided an overview of the Housing Element update process; some background information on the County’s appeals to the Association of Bay Area Governments to attempt to reduce the housing allocation assigned to Unincorporated Marin County; reviewed the recommended site lists; and answered questions from the Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, and the public. Continue Reading

Community Workshop Next Tuesday, March 29th, Learn More!

Coastal Commission Rejects Seashore Request for Delay

Morgan Patton

On March 11th, the California Coastal Commission (Commission) rejected a request from the Point Reyes National Seashore (Seashore) to delay reporting to the Commission in April 2022 with water quality and climate action strategies as part of the General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) for additional public review and Commission review and approval.

The Seashore requested the delay expressing concerns that the Record of Decision (to finalize the GMPA) was not filed until September and was followed by a lawsuit that has prevented the Seashore from being able to issue long-term leases to beef and dairy ranchers, that has impacted their ability to draft water quality and climate action strategies to report to the Commission.

EAC and the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) coordinated our public testimony with other organizations and members of the public to push back on the extension request. The lawsuit does not prevent the Seashore from developing a water quality and climate action strategy that are completely within the Seashore’s current authority to manage beef and dairy operations to protect water quality.

The Commission sent out public notification on March 18th that the Seashore’s Water Quality Strategy and Climate Action Plan are scheduled for a review meeting on April 7th. We expect the Seashore’s water quality and climate strategies will be available for public review by March 25th, and the Seashore will be in attendance at the April 7th Commission meeting to uphold their commitment made to the Commission and the public a year ago.

Learn More...

Team Up with EAC to Clean Up our Roadsides This Spring!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook

West Marin is a hot spot for Bay Area recreation. After the busy summer season, we also notice we get a lot of trash piling up along the roadsides and in the watershed. Since 2009, in an effort to clean up the watershed before the winter rains, we have coordinated groups (nonprofits, associations, clubs, friend groups) to join us as Team Up to Clean Up crews by adopting a West Marin roadside to clean up during the third week of September.

This year, we are piloting a partnership with the Marin County Department of Public Works to expand our program to help keep trash out of the watershed by coordinating the timing of trash pickup prior to county mowing of roadway right of ways. Every spring and summer, the County mows the roadways and shreds plastic and other trash making it difficult to remove and creates microplastic pollution.

We are building a list of volunteers who are interested in being "on call" with a 2-3 week notice to help us pick up trash region by region in West Marin when we get notice of the mowing schedule. Cleanups will start in late April and run through September and will include county roads in the following regions:

• Chileno Valley
• Inverness/Inverness Park
• Point Reyes / Olema
• Samuel P Taylor / Platform Bridge Road
• San Geronimo Valley

Sign up here!

On a related note, California’s Ocean Protection Council recently released the updated Statewide Microplastics Strategy. Way to go California! In addition to getting our hands dirty, EAC also advocates for plastics reduction statewide and locally.

MPA Watch 2021, It's a Wrap!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook

The productivity, wildness, and beauty of California's coast and ocean are central to California's identity, heritage, and economy. In 1999, California passed the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) to create a network of interconnected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to protect the state's marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems and marine natural heritage, and to improve recreational and educational opportunities.

During the implementation of the MLPA, a new statewide community science program, MPA Watch, was launched to train community scientists to collect unbiased data on human activities in and near coastal MPAs. MPA Watch data allows us to see how human uses are changing as a result of MPA implementation and informs the management, enforcement, and science of California’s MPAs. 

EAC launched our Marin MPA Watch program in 2013 in partnership with Point Reyes National Seashore and the California Academy of Sciences. We collect data about onshore and offshore activities including types of recreation and fishing activities in and around MPAs in Marin County. We conduct surveys from access points at Drakes Beach, Limantour Beach, Duxbury Reef, and the Corte Madera Marsh. Volunteers say they love having the time to walk in nature along our shores while contributing to community science.

Since 2013, Marin MPA Watch has collected more than 1,550 surveys, and trained over 180 volunteers. In 2021, 283 surveys were conducted by 27 volunteers who observed 3,631 activities over 429 survey miles! Additionally, this program supported four internships, giving young people an opportunity to participate in coastal community science and advocacy.

Our Marin County 2021 report is now available for download from the statewide MPA Watch website. 

Learn more about our program and volunteer opportunities!

Intern with Us as a Coastal Advocate!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook

We believe in providing training and educational opportunities to students that build environmental leadership skills to empower and inspire future environmental advocates in our community. We are currently accepting applications to our Coastal Advocate Internship program through March 31st at 5pm.

Thanks to funding from the Goodman Family Foundation and a private donation to create Lloyd Scholars, our Legal and Policy and Coastal Advocate internships will be paid this summer! Our Legal and Policy interns have been hired, but we are accepting applications for Coastal Advocates until March 31. 

Our internships are designed to provide meaningful and applicable experience that can be applied to future education and career goals. Coastal Advocates work with the Marin MPA Watch program and learn how to manage our program, work with volunteers, collect data, develop reports, and work with our partners. 

Interns learn about the coastal environment, become "community scientists" and stewards of the area, while providing monitoring data that contributes to a statewide database and informs future resource management decisions. Each intern also takes on a capstone project that advances EAC’s mission, while providing in-depth experience working on a specific issue.

This year, three internships will be considered Lloyd Scholars and receive generous stipends for their work that helps to lift EAC's mission.

Learn more about the program, apply, and share with your network to help spread the word!

Past Copies of Print and Email Newsletters

Western Monarchs - Videos, Working Group Update, Resource Library 

Healthy Tomales Bay

Marin MPA Watch Volunteer Program

Protect the Pacific - Fight Against Offshore Oil and Gas

Safeguarding our Coast and Ocean Blog

Did you know you can set up a recurring gift online? 

Whether you choose to set up an annual recurring gift,
or want to spread out your giving monthly or quarterly, a recurring gift is
a great way to provide stable income to our nonprofit, so we can stay focused on our environmental protection advocacy work and impact on our community - thank you! 

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