| | Greetings Friend, I hope this email finds you and your family in good health. This newsletter is packed with updates about protecting our coast and oceans, our community outreach and education, and opportunities to help us this summer. I am also happy to share that we just welcomed our summer cohort of interns including our Coastal Advocates (Ben, Cate, and Jessie) and Legal and Policy team (Carston and Chris). We also have exciting news to share that our Communications Associate, Grace Milstein, has just graduated from the University of Southern California! Way to go, Grace! We are thrilled she will be joining our team in person in June. On a personal note, I want to share some reflections from the Civil Rights trip I took with my daughter’s 8th-grade class to Georgia and Alabama at the end of April. We spent four days touring areas along the Civil Rights Trail and meeting with community leaders who were part of the 1950s-60s Civil Rights Movement. The trip was emotionally difficult, as we were confronted with some of the most shameful and violent aspects of our nation’s history in the birthplace of the Confederacy and the Civil Rights Movement. If you find yourself in Montgomery, Alabama, I highly recommend taking a day to visit The Legacy Museum, from Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the nation’s first monument dedicated to the more than 4,000 victims of racial terror lynchings, both of these landmarks were created by the Equal Justice Initiative. I look forward to KWMR’s story that will be released about the trip. Amanda Eichstaedt joined the class for this field trip, and you can read about her perspective in the KWMR newsletter archive here. I am grateful to Lagunitas Middle School social studies teacher, Katherine Sanford, for her perseverance to ensure we will have informed and compassionate future leaders in our communities. You can donate to sponsor students for the 2024 trip at the Lagunitas School District nonprofit, LEAP. The students fundraise throughout the year with the goal to raise enough funds for the entire class to attend. Be sure to make a comment that the donation is for the Civil Rights Field Trip in your one-time donation. I am taking all I learned on this journey, reflecting upon my privilege, and what I can do in my personal and professional life. I purchased some of the reports and books from the Equal Justice Initiative and will lend them to EAC if anyone would like to stop by and read through the publications. I also encourage you to consider a donation to EJI if you have the ability. At EAC, we will review our diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives. We are currently planning the installation of our Climate Crisis educational exhibit at our office and integrating themes of environmental justice. There is an intersection between our nation’s racist history and the unfair burden of environmental pollution on communities of color. Professor Robert Bullard, considered to be the founder of the environmental justice movement said, “whether by conscious design or institutional neglect, communities of color in urban ghettos, in rural 'poverty pockets', or on economically impoverished Native-American reservations face some of the worst environmental devastation in the nation." Here at EAC, it is important to us to raise awareness about environmental justice issues and encourage change where we can. If the environmental movement is pushing for environmentally sustainable communities, we have to embrace people and communities with love and respect if we are going to achieve a healthier environment and change harmful systems. I hope you will join us in learning more about our climate crisis and environmental justice crisis, two things that are intertwined. It’s the most vulnerable communities that the crisis will impact the hardest, and we must all stand up for equitable climate planning and truly sustainable, inclusive communities. Thank you for being part of EAC’s community. Our work is made possible and enhanced by our relationships with each and every one of you. Thank you for ensuring that West Marin continues to have a local, grassroots, environmental non-profit to advocate for the lands, waters, and biodiversity in the Bay Area’s backyard. In Community, |
|  | P.S. You’re Invited! Save the Date for our Annual Membership Meeting and Appreciation Potluck Picnic on Saturday, June 24th at Bear Valley Picnic Grounds! This event is a time for our community to gather, share a meal, reflect on our work, and honor individuals in our community who are working to protect the special places you love. This year, we will be honoring Joe Mueller with our Peter Behr Steward of the Land and Sea Award; Max Korten and Samantha Hamovitch from Marin County Parks and Open Space with our Public Service Awards; the California Young Birders with our Next Generation Award, and two surprises for our volunteers of the year award. More information is coming soon on our event and potluck sign-up! Learn more |
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| | A Decade of California MPAs, What's Next...?
Morgan Patton, Executive Director and Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, Legal and Policy Director It’s been 10 years since California’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were established. California’s ambitious plan to establish an interconnected network of 124 MPAs along the coast is an international example of adaptive conservation and management, and we are proud to have been part of the process from the very beginning stages of community meetings. Here in Marin County, we are fortunate to have six MPAs, two State Marine Parks, and three Special Closures at some of our favorite coastal areas like Drakes Estero, Drakes Beach, and Duxbury Reef. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Marin Resources Committee has launched a series of public meetings to review their Decadal Management Review. Click here to continue Reading about our goals to work with local partners and flag Drakes Estero and Duxbury Reef for increased protections within the MPA Network. Continue Reading |
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|  | Stinson Beach: Planning for
Rising Sea Levels
Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, Legal and Policy Director Do you love to sneak away for a day at Stinson Beach? Marin County is embarking on a planning process related to coastal adaptation (planning for sea level rise) at Stinson Beach, and inviting all who love and care about Stinson Beach to get involved. The County of Marin has started the Stinson Adaptation and Resilience Collaboration (Stinson ARC) that builds upon the County’s earlier C-SMART (Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team) sea level rise planning process from 2016. This project, supported by grant funding from the California Ocean Protection Council, includes substantial engagement and outreach to stakeholders and the more than annual 750,000 visitors of Stinson Beach, including groups that have traditionally lacked coastal access in Marin County. The project’s success depends on significant community engagement and a data-driven approach to evaluate adaptation options that could ensure Stinson Beach remains available and accessible to everyone. Do you visit Stinson Beach? Do you live in Stinson Beach? Do you recreate in the waters off Stinson Beach of Bolinas? Do you recreationally or commercially fish in the ocean? Your participation and voice matters and needs to be included. The decisions that are made today will impact the future of Stinson Beach and whether the beach will continue to be publicly accessible as sea levels rise and the beach migrates inland. Sea level rise presents a challenge for public agencies, as areas like Stinson, have private property development very near the shoreline or constructed in hazardous areas, like the entire community of Seadrift. It’s essential to get involved in public planning processes to ensure that coastal species and habitat areas, public access, nature-based restoration, and real discussions about managed retreat (removing human development from hazardous areas) are prioritized and discussed. Actions You Can Take Keep Reading to Learn More |
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 | California's Sea Level Resilience Planning & the Public Trust
Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, Legal & Policy Director Engaging on climate resilience and adaptation planning is a key priority for EAC. Part of our resiliency work includes participating in the local and state public planning processes and sharing key climate research and policy updates. We wanted to share with you a wrap-up of two recent California Coastal Commission (Coastal Commission) meetings this year: one on sea level rise planning and the second meeting was related to guidance on the public trust doctrine and sea level rise. Sea Level Rise Workshop On January 27th, we participated in a local government sea level rise working group stakeholder workshop organized by the Coastal Commission. The focus of the workshop was to discuss options for further development and implementation of sea level rise adaptation options, including through Local Coastal Program (LCP) updates. The goals of the workshop were to: 1) Describe areas of convergence, divergence, and key questions for phased and local/regional approaches to sea level rise adaptation that comply with the California Coastal Act, and 2) Explore opportunities and challenges to "neighborhood-scale" adaptation planning. We focused on raising the below key priorities: - Regular updates to planning documents like LCPs,
- Funding the Coastal Commission to work on coastal planning,
- Protecting public access to the coast and the coastal public trust lands,
- Protecting coastal resources
- Consistency with the voter-supported California Coastal Act.
California Coastal Commission Adopts Final Public Trust Guiding Principles and Action Plan At the May Coastal Commission meeting, the Commission unanimously adopted Final Public Trust Guiding Principles and Action Plan's 10 principles. As our mission is to protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin, this includes protecting our coastal resources and public access under the California Coastal Act and public trust doctrine. What is the Public Trust, and Why Does it Matter? As the guidance states, “The California Coastal Act and the public trust doctrine are both central to the protection of public interests on the coast of California.” California’s waterways and beaches where the tide ebbs and flows belong to the people for public access and recreation... Keep Reading |
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|  | Join Our MPA Watch Team - Summer Training Dates are Here!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Program Director People love to spend time on our beautiful California coast doing a variety of activities including walking, surfing, fishing, collecting, wildlife watching, and relaxing. Though we treasure those opportunities, visitation, and use can also put stress on coastal marine life. So it’s important to know how people use the coast, especially our marine protected areas (MPAs). Marin MPA Watch is part of a statewide MPA Watch community science program that engages volunteers to help track how people use California’s MPAs. Volunteers conduct surveys that contribute to a long-term dataset that informs resource managers, agencies, NGOs, and community members about trends in MPA use. The data also helps managers understand potential impacts occurring to habitats and marine life, and is used in management decisions to protect habitats and marine life, while also providing opportunities for people to experience and enjoy these treasured coastal areas. Each year since 2014, EAC has trained MPA Watch volunteers to conduct surveys on-site at our monitoring locations. The training sessions provide background on MPAs and MPA Watch and lead volunteers through the survey protocol. Volunteers are then free to schedule their twice-monthly surveys according to their schedule. If you love walking along Marin’s beautiful shoreline AND you would like to contribute to community science, this volunteer program is for you! You can join this effort by visiting our Marin MPA Watch page to learn more about the program and to register for a training session. Training dates are scheduled for June, July, and August. We hope to see you this summer at one of our Marin MPA Watch volunteer training! |
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 | Weekly Water Quality Sampling is Back!
Morgan Patton, Executive Director You may be surprised to learn that Tomales Bay is an impaired water body, from pollution that generally comes from agriculture, septic systems, and road runoff, causing our watersheds at times to be unsafe for recreation and shellfish consumption! Every year, the County of Marin samples the Tomales Bay watershed April through October as part of a Beach and Ocean Monitoring Program, to check for high levels of harmful pathogens that may cause people to get sick. We have partnered with the County of Marin and Point Reyes National Seashore to collect weekly spring and summer water samples at Drakes Beach and Drakes Estero. The 2023 weekly sampling season kicked off on April 1st, and we are looking forward to training our new cohort of Coastal Advocate interns to help us collect samples when they start working with us in the coming weeks. In addition to collecting samples at Drakes Estero and Drakes Beach, we share the overall water quality results for the waterbodies in West Marin on our social media pages to keep the community informed about beaches and creeks to avoid when bacteria levels exceed California Public Health Standards. If a sample exceeds public health standards, then a warning sign will be posted at the location and the California Department of Public Health advises beach users to avoid contact with the recreational waters where warning signs are posted. People in contact with the elevated bacteria levels in recreational waters may become sick from ingesting bacteria Our weekly sampling will continue through October 31, 2023. If you are interested in learning more about the program, check out our webpage and please consider making a gift to help support the costs of this program each year. Learn More about the Program Consider a Gift to Our Public Lands Fund Today! Gifts to our public lands fund help to support programs like our Recreational Water Quality Program. Costs for this program include mileage and personnel costs for staffing to collect samples. Samples are collected by our interns and trained EAC team members. In 2022, program costs = $1,500.00 |
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|  | Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival was a Hoot! Thank You!! Jessica Taylor, Development Director From all of us at EAC we want to thank the guides, volunteers, sponsors, and attendees from across the Bay Area, California, and beyond for making our 14th annual educational fundraiser, the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival a huge success for our mission in coastal Marin. The event took flight over Earth Day weekend April 21st-23rd across three counties, with 351 attendees, 130 volunteers, 69 new members joined EAC, and we raised $68,500 to support our grassroots advocacy that protects our unique lands, waters and biodiversity in coastal Marin County. View our infograph online to see our overall stats. A highlight of the weekend was bringing back our Saturday Social & Keynote at the Dance Place Community Center, after three long pandemic years. This was a time for the Festival community to meet and greet over music, a spring taco bar, drinks, and to hear from local Bolinas-based artist, author, and birder, Keith Hansen about his upcoming book, Birds of Point Reyes. Overall, we had a hoot of a time sharing our passion for this beloved place, which is home to a spectacular array of flora and fauna along the Pacific Flyway. We are so grateful for your support, and stories from the field. None of our work, including this event would be possible without our Friends of the Festival including the guides, volunteers, sponsors, and all of our attendees who flocked to the event in support. Check out our quick links below to learn more. We hope to see you at another event this year, but please save the date for the 15th Annual Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival, slated for April 19th-21st, 2024. Festival Quick Links & Event Reminders Did you miss your chance to fill in a Festival Evaluation survey? Festival Questions or Interested in Joining our Festival Committee? Please email Jess Taylor or call (415) 663.9312 for more info. |
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 | Litter Bugs Me Spring Clean Up & Thank You Volunteers!!!
Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook, Program Director Thank you to everyone who helped make our 2nd spring Litter Bugs Me a great success! Despite the springtime rain during Litter Bugs Me week, we were fortunate that 19 volunteers, including from the Rotary Club and San Geronimo Valley Lions Club, braved the conditions to help clean up trash and debris from our West Marin roadsides! Thanks to our eager and conservation-minded volunteers, 234 gallons of trash, 68 gallons of recycling and 55 gallons of oyster shells (at Millerton Beach State Park), were removed from the environment. Most of the recycling items were beer cans and plastic bottles. The trash included varied items like numerous small bits of plastic, take-out containers, some previously shredded bottles and cans, construction and auto debris, and other random items. Litter Bugs Me was founded 20 years ago and gifted to EAC in 2009 by two locals, Rigdon Currie and Dennis Rodoni. It’s an important way to prevent trash from entering our creeks, bays and ocean, and protects wildlife and human health by getting trash to where it belongs - into municipal trash and recycling systems. Last year, EAC expanded Litter Bugs Me to include a spring event. We host Litter Bugs Me in March/April and September around Coastal Cleanup Day. By cleaning up our roadsides during this time of year, we prevent the trash from getting shredded by spring and summer roadside mowers which trim grass and shrubs to ensure community safety. A heartfelt THANK YOU to our new and recurring volunteers who worked hard to keep our roadsides trash-free, and to Marin County for helping to support this important program! Ultimately, this event helps to remind us all to use less, recycle, and avoid single-use plastic items as much as possible. There are lots of ways to reduce waste. You can help by purchasing in bulk or at your grocery stores by reusing containers and bags. Bring your own container to the coffee shop and keep an empty one in your car for leftovers at the restaurant. Another way you can get involved is to support the County’s Reusable Foodware Ordinance which is in effect in unincorporated areas of Marin County. Other cities and towns in Marin have or are on track to adopt it, too. It is a great step toward reducing our use of plastic and throw-away single-use items. We are looking forward to our September roadside clean up and Coastal Clean Up Day! Sign up forms will be out in August for you to join in the fun to keep our watersheds and ocean clean. Learn more about our trash clean up volunteer programs on our website. We will be sponsoring beach clean ups this summer. Contact us if you or your company are looking for volunteer opportunties. |
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| | |  | From the Desk of our Spring Legal & Policy Intern On April 11th, our team participated in the 18th annual California Ocean Day! This was the first Ocean Day back in person after the past few years of being remote due to COVID-19 measures. This annual event brings together advocates, leaders, experts, and students together to lobby in support of protecting California's coast. At the state’s capital, multiple lobby groups were able to meet with Assembly Members and Senators to advocate for the support of bills that will aid the ocean in a variety of ways. Read our Blog Post by our Spring Legal and Policy Intern Miranda Glisson |
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 | Don't Miss Our Advocacy Office Display! 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. This display highlights six locations and their conservation history. Our current educational office exhibit will be open only until July 2023. If you have not had a chance to check it out, swing by our office at 65 Third Street, Suite 12, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956 Fridays and Saturdays 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Learn More |
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 | Join Us For Western Weekend Join us for Western Weekend in Point Reyes Station on June 4th! Our team will be walking in the parade to raise awareness about plastic pollution and single-use plastics. We would love to have you join us! RSVP online to let us know if you are interested in walking with us. If you have ideas for costumes or displays of plastic awareness art, mark on the RSVP form for us to contact you. RSVP by June 2nd to join in the fun! |
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| | ~ Three Actions For Climate ~ |
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|  | Expand Your Knowledge on Rising Sea Levels Marin’s coastal communities are vulnerable to sea level rise impacts. A new tool was released late last year by Marin County Flood Control District, which provides an interactive way to explore potential future sea level rise impacts to Marin. A statewide tool was also developed in fall of last year called California California Coastal Adaptation Planning Inventory, a project of the Ocean & Coastal Policy Center (OCPC) at UC Santa Barbara We are also increasing knowledge on emergent and shallow groundwater flooding concerns in Marin and the broader Bay area. |
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 | Reduce Your Home Energy Carbon Pollution Impact Policy to change our systems is paramount, but we also believe in individual actions for change too. Here are a few tips/ideas of ways you might be able to make a difference in lowering your contribution to greenhouse gases. Did you know cooking with natural gas is bad for your health and contributes to climate change? Switch to all-electric cooking: learn more info. and check out these rebates and find out more about other electrification options. Reducing home energy use and switching to solar or MCE is another way to draw down greenhouse gases. Learn more about getting enrolled in MCE, which offers options for clean energy sources. EAC's office is powered by Deep Green. Do you know any contractors, consultants, or program managers that might want to take a home energy survey? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is asking for people to take a Home Energy Upgrade Cost Reduction Survey on cost reduction opportunities for home energy upgrades. Take the Survey. Want to find out more information and your compare options? Check out your home energy score. Considering an energy upgrade option? Check out rebates. Find out if you qualify for savings under the Inflation Reduction Act. |
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 | Join a Resilient Neighborhoods Group The Resilient Neighborhoods Climate Action Workshop series will help you create a resilient, efficient, healthy, and low-impact household. There are five meetings and it’s free for residents of Marin County. Wednesdays 4:00-6:00 pm starting June 14, 2023 online. When you join a climate action workshop, you will become part of an online team that meets five times over ten weeks. Learn More and Sign Up |
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| | | We endeavor to keep our website up to date with the latest information on our campaigns and included some quick links in case the topic you're most interested in isn't featured in this month's e-news! Some links to campaigns are below or click on the images to view those pages directly. |
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| | | |  | Did you know you can set up a recurring gift online? Whether you choose to set up an annual recurring gift or spread out your giving monthly or quarterly,
a recurring gift is a great way to help provide consistent donations, so we can focus on protecting what you love in West Marin. |
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| | | Shop Our Advocate Store Online - Giving with Purpose Give a gift to the advocate in your life and support our mission.
Shop hats, totes, tees, sweatshirts, and more in a variety of styles. Shop Now |
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| | MISSION To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and
biodiversity of West Marin. |
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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. |
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| | Contact Us Environmental Action Committee of West Marin (EAC)
PO Box 609 | 65 Third Street, Suite 12
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
(415) 663.9312 | info@eacmarin.org |
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