Welcoming our Newest Docents to Duxbury Reef
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Program Director

We are excited to announce our 2023 cohort of volunteer docents at Duxbury Reef! A fantastic and curious group who are enthusiastic and looking forward to taking shifts on the Reef. 

Our docent program started in January 2022 and has now grown to a team of 21 people. Our volunteers generously donate their time to provide outreach and education to visitors to the reef during low tides and days we estimate will have high visitation. We were thrilled to learn that some of our new docents joined the program this year because they engaged with our docents on the Reef in 2022!

Keep Reading, Support the Program

Volunteers Needed
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Program Director

It’s time for a roadside cleanup! We are seeking volunteers to help us pick up trash and litter from county roads. If you care about clean water and healthy watersheds, this is a great opportunity to help.

This is an important time for roadside cleanup since there has been so much rain and the runoff carries trash toward the creeks.

In addition, the County is gearing up for roadside brush and grass mowing later this spring to keep our road sightlines visible and safer from fire risk during the dry season.

Cleaning up the roadsides before mowing helps prevent shredded trash from washing into the creeks and eventually into the ocean. When mowers pass over trash, it gets shredded into finer pieces, contributing to microplastic pollution, which is much harder to clean up and threatens the health of terrestrial and marine wildlife.

CLEANUP DETAILS:

• Spring Litter Bugs Me cleanup will take place beginning on Monday, March 27th, and wrap up on Saturday, April 1st.
   
• We need volunteers to help clean up the county roads in Chileno Valley, Inverness & Inverness Park, Point Reyes & Olema, Samuel P Taylor & Platform Bridge Road, and San Geronimo Valley.

If you are interested in getting involved, please complete this online sign-up form and Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook will circle back with you to get you everything you need to help.

If you are already running a community roadside cleanup effort in West Marin, please contact Leslie at leslie@eacmarin.org so we can coordinate our efforts.

It’s a gratifying experience to spend a couple of hours on a nice day picking up trash! We have all the supplies needed available to lend. Please join us!

Learn More and Register

Action Alert! Reduce Plastic Pollution
Morgan Patton, Executive Director

Looking for an opportunity to help reduce plastic pollution and you live in the cities and towns of Marin County? The May 10th deadline for the cities and towns in Marin County to adopt the Reusable Foodware Ordinance is coming up and your help is needed to get these over the finish line. 

The reusable foodware ordinance requires restaurants to provide reusable utensils and plates when customers dine in, and fully compostable take-out containers and utensils. The County of Marin led the way by adopting a Reusable Foodware Ordinance in May 2022, and it’s time for the cities and towns to take steps to adopt the same ordinance.

Requiring businesses to use reusable foodware and compostable takeout items that can be processed in Marin’s Organic Compost Facility is an important step to reducing the amount of toxic waste and microplastics making their way into the environment and our bodies.

You can help by checking out our website which lists the towns and cities and the current status as shared by Plastic Free Marin which is leading the charge on this outreach effort. Plastic Free Marin created a Fact Sheet and we created postcards that can be printed and mailed (or used as a template to get you started in sending an email to your city or town council).  

For the month of March, we are featuring this advocacy-in-action campaign for the general public with information and materials about plastic pollution, including preprinted postcards you can fill out and we will postmark and mail for you! 

Let's get this done for our environment, our communities, and our children!

Learn More

Hiring Season for Summer Coastal Advocate Internships
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Program Director

Each summer we invite high school and college students to join our team as coastal advocates to gain experience in environmental community science, education, and advocacy. These mentoring opportunities provide a meaningful and applicable experience for education and career goals. Our internships help to foster the environmental stewards of the future who will help protect the resilience and health of the natural world.

We have extended the application period until March 17th.

Previous interns have gained experience learning about community science through Marin MPA Watch (a program that tracks user trends in MPAs), helping to train volunteers, conducting scientific surveys in the field, and entering data into the statewide portal.

Community education is an important part of advocacy. The interns have found it very rewarding as they share information they’ve learned about coastal and marine protections during the summer through tabling at Duxbury Reef and other outreach opportunities.

Learn more about what it's like to be an intern with EAC by reading our intern's blog posts.

Check out our Internships webpage for more information about and apply to our Coastal Advocate Internship program and spread the word to aspiring environmental advocates you know!

Learn More, Complete Your Application by March 17th

Visitor Stewardship Guide
Morgan Patton, Executive Director

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our long-awaited visitor Stewardship Guide, Discover, Connect, and Respect, Marin County Coast! This is a project of our newest team member, Grace Milstein, a former intern who is now our Communications Associate.

This informational guide is designed for visitors to Marin County’s coast and includes information to reduce impacts to amplify Leave No Trace messaging and provide resources to reduce the amount of trash, pollution, and human waste accumulating along our roadsides, creeks, and beaches. We are also developing a social media toolkit that will be available to anyone interested in promoting responsible visitation practices in coastal Marin County very soon!

You can download your digital copy of the Stewardship Guide on our website. We will have print copies at our office and will be giving away copies to partners throughout coastal Marin in April. We are currently translating the print Stewardship Guide and social media toolkit into Spanish, thanks to a grant from the West Marin Fund, that will be available by June 30th.

We continue working with Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties, and Leave No Trace to develop coordinated messaging strategies across the three coastal counties to reduce trash and litter. The strategic planning process wrapped up in February, and EAC and Leave No Trace are continuing to work with the County of Marin to move the project forward through June 2023 with the development of the website and initial communications materials.

Later this spring, we will co-host a set of community meetings with Leave No Trace to expand our partnerships and roll out a series of grassroots outreach and educational programming this summer about reducing trash and litter.

Learn More

Come Have a Hoot with Us This April at the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival

The Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival tickets have taken flight. Online registration is now open through April 16th with proceeds supporting our grassroots nonprofit mission in coastal Marin. 

Thank our Festival guides, sponsors, and membership for helping the festival take flight on February 27th with our special member week of advance ticket sales! 

Planning Your Earth Day Weekend Field Events Adventure at the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival, April 21-23rd

• Start with the schedule at a glance and descriptions for a review of field events and ticket availability. 
• Read the Event Descriptions (hint, use the event number to find your event) to learn the event details, location, etc.).
• Register online.
• Add yourself to the waitlist if your preferred event is sold out.
• Consider becoming a friend of the festival sponsor.

Some Schedule Highlights

• Additional tickets have been added for our Saturday Social & Keynote (Event 33), and Birding the Outer Point with Dan Singer (Event 1). 
• Accessibility walk with Jayah Faye Paley to learn how to use trekking poles for exercise (Event 41)
• Check out our newest guide, Sebastian Schmid, to learn about bird language at Santa Rosa Creek (Event 19). 

Sunday Family Fun Day! 

• Families with chicks 3+ are encouraged to join us for our FREE Sunday Family Fun Day. on April 23rd in Point Reyes Station. Meet live bird ambassadors, participate in bird and wildlife activities, make art and crafts, hear stories with Marin-based educator and storyteller Ane Carla Rovetta, get our face painted, and more. 
• RSVP and consider a donation to support our Winged Friends at Amigo Alados, a pen pal program connecting schoolchildren to migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway. 

Additional Festival Links & Ways to Get Engaged:

• Volunteer with Us
• Become a Friend of the Festival Sponsor 
• Grab Your Festival Tees, Hats, and a Limited Edition Backpack
• Take Action: Earth Day & Dark Sky Night
• Spread the Word - Press Kit

Exhibit: Advocate, Protect What You Love

Marin County is a biodiversity hotspot and thanks to community advocacy, nearly 84% of the county consists of lands protected as open space, water district lands, tidelands, and more than 164,000 lands designated for agricultural use.

Do you know the conservation stories of coastal Marin County, the reason why we have such a variety of wild and open spaces? 

In our experience, many folks are unaware of the legacy of conservation and community action that resulted in the protection of the irreplaceable lands, waters, and biodiversity of coastal Marin County.

Unfortunately, these designations that protect our lands and waters may be taken for granted. As we have all learned in the last year, legislation can be changed with the stroke of a pen. Conservation advocacy is not a lesson in history, it is alive. Today, we need vigilant environmental advocates to protect the places we love now and into the future.

We invite you to visit our office to learn about the environmental advocacy and conservation history of Coastal Marin County and how you can act today to protect the places and species you love, reduce pollution, and stand against carbon pollution.

Each month, we will host an advocacy in action event. This month we need your help to get the cities and towns in Marin County to pass important ordinances to reduce the amount of single-use plastic foodware being put into our landfills. 

Our office display is open Fridays and Saturdays12 pm - 4 pm.

You can also swing by our office Tuesday - Friday at any time to say hello to our team and ask questions. We just won’t have the multi-media displays up and running during those times. 

Learn More

Past Copies of Print and Email Newsletters, Publications, and Blogs

Point Reyes Ranching: Water Quality Program

Visitor Stewardship: Cleaner Marin County Coast

Take Action: Volunteer or Intern with Us

Save the Date: Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival

Bookmark: Community Resources Pages

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MISSION

To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and
biodiversity of West Marin. 

VISION

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