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Nomination
List
2006
Environmental Education Awards: Educator
B Project
Program
Environmentalist
of the Year Lifetime Commitment
Special
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Please note: Nominator organization listed for
reference only.
1.
Outstanding Environmental Educator - A
Nominee:
Danny Bever, Sonoma Mountain
High School Native Plant Habitat, Petaluma
Nominator: Robert Hermann,
Principal, Sonoma Mountain High School, Petaluma
Danny Bever, science teacher at Sonoma Mountain High
School in Petaluma, is the lead teacher in the creation of a native plant
habitat on the school grounds. In 1999, Danny proposed using a third acre of
weed covered adobe ground next to the school and making it into a natural
area for students to experience nature without having to take expensive
fieldtrips.
Since 2000, Danny and the staff at Sonoma Mountain have
written grants and solicited donations totaling over $5,000. With the help
of students and parents, the area now has a pond and three separate plant
community areas planted with over thirty varieties of plants native to
northern California.
The at-risk students at the small alternative school
near Casa Grande High School use the habitat as a science lab: observing
wildlife that the habitat has attracted, propagating and growing plants for
the habitat, and maintaining the area. Many of the structures in the habitat such as a retaining wall, a
wooden bridge over the streambed, and a bench near the pond were constructed
over the years as senior projects. Other seniors have grown plants and built
birdhouses as part of their senior projects.
Students
who previously had very limited experience with natural environments, now
have the opportunity to walk out their classroom door and interact with
plants and wildlife everyday.
Background
Nominee: Erin Fender, Windsor High School
Nominator: Martha
Lindgren, Cali Calmecac Charter School, Windsor
Erin Fender is a teacher of Environmental Science for
students in grades 11 and 12 at Windsor High School. Ms. Fender is worthy of
the award of Environmental Educator of the Year due to her work in
collaboration with outside agencies to ensure that 50+ high school students
get out into the field on weekly basis working for 3 hours on hands-on
project and problem based environmental learning.
Ms. Fender has worked for the last four years in
conjunction with Circuit Rider Productions, LandPaths, Regional Parks, Cali
Calmecac Bi-lingual Charter School and most recently the Climate Protection
Campaign. The partnerships with these community agencies allow the students
the opportunity to apply what they learn in the Environmental Science
classroom to real-world field studies and application of knowledge. The 50
students enrolled in the Environmental Science course are organized into
three 10-week sessions so they get the opportunity to work on many different
projects. Each session works hand-in-hand with a community partner such as
Circuit Rider Productions. Each group highlights a different set of skills
and knowledge students need in order to be productive citizens and
contribute to a sustainable society.
The focus of the student’s field studies when working
with Circuit Rider Productions is Watershed Restoration and Biodiversity.
Students are given the opportunity to learn GIS mapping skills; seed
collection and nursery protocol and the most exciting project are the
planting days where students work to revegitate riparian corridors with
native plant species. When students work with LandPaths, which is a division
of the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, they are trained
as environmental educators. The high school students then work with
6-graders from Cali Calmecac Bi-lingual Charter school at Riverfront
Regional Park to teach environmental topics such as habitats, stewardship,
and watersheds. The students are empowered to be the teacher and mentor
while teaching their younger counterparts. Students who work with Regional
Parks engage in trail maintenance, removal of non-native species and learn
the importance of preserving open space parkland in their community.
Finally, the students working with the Climate Protection Campaign are
engaging in discussions with the town manager and council of Windsor about
smart growth and working to understand the complexities of what factors
contribute to global climate change and the steps communities can take to
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Students have planted trees in the
community of Windsor to represent how important carbon storage in plants is
to reducing climate change.
Ms. Fender is an out-going and dedicated professional
that works hard to make sure students get the opportunity to but learning
into action.
Nominee: Pamela Murnan, Marguerite Hahn
Elementary School, Rohnert Park
Nominator: Gaylene
Rosaschi, Principal, Marguerite Hahn Elementary School, Rohnert Park
Passion and expertise in teaching environmental issues.
Pam Murnane's third grade students leave her classroom with in-depth
knowledge, understanding and passion for environmental issues. Pam takes her
students on almost weekly field trips to Sonoma County parks and locations
to study the flora and fauna of our region. Inside and outside the
classroom, Pam's students describe in poetry, paint and illustrate the
wonders they see. A final book project encapsulates the year of learning.
Pam's teaching exemplifies best teaching practices and students' learning
will stay with them for a life time.
Nominee: Jeff Tobes, 6th grade
teacher, Helen Lehman Elementary School, Santa Rosa
Nominator:Genie
Lea-McKenzie, Sierra Club
Jeff has discovered that many of the children he
teaches or has taught are
unaware of their surroundings and environment. He takes his classes on walks
around the area. Early in the school term the first walk is just 5 miles.
This past Sept. for instance, the class had old survey maps of the 275 acre
Jennings Ranch which is on the west side of Santa Rosa. They had to find the
old corners of the property and walk the perimeter, which took them right
through Gottschalks in Coddingtown. Eventually they found where the Jennings
home was. This walk emphasized math, reading, history, map reading.
The 10 mile walk was around Santa Rosa where their task
was to find evidence of civilization. They noted fences, roads being
constructed, etc. The 15 mile walk was along the Joe Rodota Trail from Santa
Rosa to Sebastopol and back. They explored the Laguna and visited the museum
in Sebastopol. Many children had never heard of Sebastopol.
The upcoming 20 mile walk (March 31) will be the true
environmental walk. The class, working in teams, will visit the 5 largest
parks in the Santa Rosa area. They will take water samples to check the PH,
oxygen level, temperature. They will have a person from the City of S.R.
Water Dept. with them. Prior to the nature walk the class will attentively
listen and take notes (There will be a test.) to 5 different speakers - one
on the birds, and another on other animals we may see; another on plant
identification; another demonstrating the environscape (Why it's not a good
idea to put pollution down the storm drains.); and the person from the City
of Santa Rosa Water Dept. giving lessons on how to take water samples, and
measure the pH, temperature and oxygen levels.
Jeff has noticed 3 changes in the children. 1. They
know they can do something difficult & can believe in themselves (self
esteem) 2.They have more of an understanding of their bodies. They no longer
bring junk food on their walks. 3. They don't complain about exercising.
That's why he calls his program Building Character and More...Step by Step!
Addendum from Jeff:
Other things I do regarding health, environment, and
nutrition:
1. We exercise 4 days a week-stretching, and running .5
miles 3 days and a mile the other.
2. An American Red Cross instructor, I taught all 60 sixth graders
Basic First Aid, and Adult CPR.
3. I've been the Project Director of our school's nutrition grant for 4
years. Each year we receive approximately $4,000 to spend on extra
nutrition activities, such as, after school student cooking classes, after
school parent cooking classes, writing a K-6 grade integrated nutrition
course of study with the respective grade level California State Mathematics
Standards. (As far as I know we're the only school in the state to have such
a course of study.)
4. I've taught my workshop called, "Childhood Obesity: Be Part of the
Solution" in Sonoma County, Monterey, and Anaheim.
5. We've instituted "Breakfast with the Teachers Week", and Health
and Fitness Day at our school.
6. We even walked to the ocean from Helen Lehman School. (32 miles. We
left at 3:10 a.m.)
2.
Outstanding Environmental Educator - B Top
Nominee:
Wendy Losee, K-12 Watershed Education
Program Manager, Sonoma Ecology Center, www.sonomaecologycenter.org
Nominator: Patty
O'Driscoll, Sonoma Ecology Center
Four years ago, Wendy Losee co-founded the Sonoma
Ecology Center's K-12 Watershed Education Program. Since that time, she has
taught over 2,500 students in Sonoma Valley classrooms. The Program includes
five visits to the classroom where students participate in hands-on
activities that support the study of science and ecology. The program
concludes with a field trip to a local creek in Sonoma Valley or at the
mouth of the San Pablo Bay where students learn about a sense of place and
experience the outdoors. Students put together what they have learned in the
classroom with what they observe and experience in nature.
During the past three years, the Sonoma
Valley Unified School District program was broadened
to include middle school students who participate in hands-on restoration of
Nathanson Creek, the creek that runs through the town of Sonoma and is
located adjacent to a middle school. Since the inception of the Student
Restoration Project, students have planted nearly 4,000 square feet with
native plants under Wendy's guidance.
Since graduating from Sonoma State's Environmental
Science program, Wendy has developed her skills in scientific inquiry and
brought a special passion to the field of environmental education. She
enthusiastically shares her knowledge and love of the environment and
wildlife with all of the students who have participated in the program.
Wendy has a passionate love for the outdoors and spends some of her spare
time skiing, teaching children to ski, and traveling.
Background
Nominee:
Tina Poles, School Garden Teacher
Training Program, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, www.oaec.org/schoolgardenprogram
Nominator:Philip Tymon,
Administrative Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Tina Poles has been the Director of the School Garden
Teacher Training program at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center since
1999. During that time she has taken this fledgling program and developed it
into a nationwide model for hands-on environmental education in schools.
Hundreds of teachers, parents, administrators, and volunteers have been
inspired by their participation in this program to create school gardens,
which are well-integrated into the school curriculum, at dozens of schools
throughout Sonoma County and beyond, even to some schools in southern
California.
Additional achievements have included: 1. The Sonoma
County School Garden Network has grown out of this program and blossomed
into an independent organization of its own, 2. Numerous School Garden
Symposiums have attracted an even wider range of interest and participation,
3. In 2004, Tina extended the program to focus on including urban schools,
especially in San Francisco, and to fully subsidize the participation of
those schools. Tina's energy, focus, and vision has allowed the School
Garden Teacher Training Program to grow from a kernel of an idea to a
significant force in environmental education in Northern California. I am
happy to nominate her as an Outstanding Environmental Educator.
Background
3.
Outstanding Environmental Education Project Top
Nominee:
The Student Commute: Realities and
Solutions for Analy High School, Analy High School AP Statistics Class and
Cool Schools / Climate Protection Campaign, Sebastopol
Press Democrat Article, Feb. 2, 2006: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/NEWS/602020334/1033/NEWS01
Nominator:
Keller McDonald, Superintendent, WSCUHSD
This project is an outstanding example of
action-based learning that results in increased community awareness and
involvement in a significant environmental problem. Students from the
Advanced Placement Statistics class researched the contribution of the
student commute at Analy High in the production of greenhouse gases, and the
related impacts of the student commute on the school environment. The
students communicated their findings to elected officials (Sebastopol City
Council and West Sonoma County Union High School Board of Trustees), in a
public forum,an through the regional news media. They then planned and
implemented solutions within their sphere of impact and influence to solve
the problem at a local level (20% targeted decrease in greenhouse gas
emitted by the Analy High School student commute in Spring 2006).
Some of the project findings:
* 40 percent of students who live within one mile of
school drive to campus alone every day.
* Students and parents use 2,500 gallons a week driving
to and from campus.
* Weekly commutes to and from campus produce 50,000
pounds of greenhouse gases.
* Students and parents drive 42,000 miles a week
traveling to and from campus.
* Fewer than 20 percent of students walk to school.
* Fewer than 5 percent of students ride a bike to
school.
Background
Nominee: Oak Grove Union School District
Environmental Pilot Program, Graton and Santa Rosa,
http://homepage.mac.com/willowside/Menu1.html
Nominator:Noel
J. Buehler, Superintendent, Oak Grove Union School District, Graton and
Santa Rosa
Educators are pressed now more than ever before to
increase test scores by teaching from state approved text books embedded
with state standards. This leaves little classroom time to explore the
natural curiosity and concern that our students have about our world.
A dedicated group of 15 OGUSD teachers volunteered to
develop units of study that had state standards embedded in them naturally,
provided opportunities for students to experience service learning as a way
to give something of benefit to the community. These units captured the
interest and passion of our students. Teachers received training during the
summer on the EIC Instructional Unit Model and met through out the year to
refine their units. They implemented awesome environmentally based units of
study that captured the imagination of our students, were aligned with state
standards and brought learning alive. Students practiced what they learned
in the classroom with service learning in our community. The units focused
on sustainable gardening, storm water run off, creek restoration, salmon
life cycles, and our Laguna Santa Rosa habitat and delta protection. These
instructional units demonstrated that our students could master state
standards in the classroom while supporting their community through service
learning projects.
Nominee: Sonoma Mountain High School Native
Plant Habitat, Danny Bever
Nominator: Robert
Hermann, Principal, Sonoma Mountain High School
An ongoing, multi-year, hands-on, outdoor
environmental science lab for continuation school teens.
Sonoma Mountain
High School is a small alternative school for students at risk of not
graduating. It struck me that most of the students coming to the school had
spent little time in contact with "nature". During the early years
of the school, I would take small groups of students on regular field trips
to Crane Creek Canyon Regional Park and the Native Plant Garden at Sonoma
State University. When we moved to
our new facility in 1999, I proposed to the staff that we use a part of the
area around the school as a native plant garden. The goal was to create a
space that would allow students to have a natural environment
without having to drive anywhere, and with the bonus that they would be
major participants in the design, construction, and ongoing maintenance of
the area. The staff was enthusiastic about the idea and threw their
full support behind the project.
By January of 2000, we obtained
permission from the district to use the area. At that time, Dr. Carl Wong
was the superintendent of our school district. We received a grant from the
Petaluma Educational Foundation to build a tool shed and buy tools and we
started to design the garden. To be a true habitat for wildlife, we needed a
water source. Another grant from PEF in 2001 allowed us to build and
landscape a pond with a dry streambed to accent the landscape and to use the
ton of rocks that were embedded in the site. We started planting native
grasses and shrubs while we made plans for a path and bridge over the
streambed. By 2003 we had a bridge, built by a student as a senior project,
connecting a path through the garden. By then, the various chaparral plants
such as coyote bush, manzanita, and ceonothus that were planted along the
fence to act as a windbreak were reaching maturity.
At the beginning of 2004, we decide to
stabilize the mound of earth by the path, and thanks to sizeable donations
from local landscape companies we were able to build a forty-foot block
retaining wall. As
his senior project, another student built the wall. Near the pond, another
student built a bench as a senior project. Along with the landscaping,
plants were added with contributions from PEF again, as
well as from Kendall-Jackson, the Petaluma Valley Rotary, and local
businesses. Even the school student body has donated some of its hard-earned
money to help fund senior projects. Although the school was
always prepared to use funds from the school budget as needed, so far the
habitat has grown and survived completely on the generosity of the
community.
Besides the physical labor of building a
garden from a bare piece of ground, students have benefited from the garden
experience in other ways. Some of the classroom curriculum is designed
around the habitat.
While most of the initial plantings were bought from local nurseries, many
of the plants are mature enough to provide seed for future plantings.
Students are learning how and when to collect seed or take
cuttings, how to grow the seed or root the cuttings, and how to transplant
the growing plants. All the students have a personal nature journal. They
regularly spend time in the habitat, making observations,
recording and sketching those observations in their journals. Once we had to
travel ten miles to be able to observe native plants and wildlife, now we
only need to travel ten yards. Our students know the value of preserving the
native habitat. They see nature as a collection of individual plants -- not
just lumps of green--that supply specific needs for a variety of wildlife
they once barely knew existed.
The habitat is also giving students,
whose previous environmental awareness may have been limited to reluctantly
putting old newspapers in the recycle bin on garbage pick up day, new
opportunities to become
more sensitive to, and knowledgeable about, their own environment. This
includes learning that not all plants need to be heavily watered all summer
long like the lawns at their homes do; and that those old
newspapers can actually make a good weed barrier and mulch base. The habitat
provides a meaningful context for additional rich discussion about how we
can become better stewards of the natural world in which we live.
The habitat continues to be a work in
progress. About a third of the area is still undeveloped to allow future
classes to be a part of the project. With our emphasis now on observation,
we are starting the
process of compiling lists of the variety of wildlife that is being
attracted to the habitat. One would expect frogs and dragonflies around the
pond, but we have been surprised to find a western pond turtle
sunning itself on a rock and mallard ducks floating there on occasion. Such
observations lead to subjects for research papers and descriptive writing in
the English class.
While
the habitat has enriched our learning opportunities in almost every subject
area, I believe that the habitat is fulfilling my initial vision. That
vision is the creation of an accessible place where students have a chance
to spend quality time in a natural setting that they have had a hand in
creating, from what might otherwise still be an unsightly and uninviting
weed patch.
Nominee:
Valley Vista School Teaching Garden,
Petaluma
Nominator: Maureen Vieth,
Principal, Valley Vista School, Petaluma
The Valley Vista Teaching Garden is a magical place
where our K-6th grade students are learning to take better care of
themselves and their environment. Just four years after the first earth was
turned, the Teaching Garden has become a regional resource to other schools
seeking to foster nutritious eating habits through gardening with children.
Each of the 375 K-6th grade students at Valley Vista
Elementary in Petaluma has enjoyed nearly four years of regular, hands-on
lessons in the garden. Our garden coordinator delivers a broad curriculum
covering all academic areas with an emphasis on nutrition, science, math,
and language arts. Students regularly prepare and eat a variety of produce
from their garden during class time and at the weekly salad bar. Our
students have become more compassionate toward their environment and each
other as they have worked and eaten together in the garden.
We doubled the production of greens, prepared entrees
for our salad bar, and shared our abundant harvest with the Petaluma
Kitchen, an organization that prepares nutritious meals for those in need
from community donations. Twenty five percent of our students qualify for
the free and reduced price lunch program, and many of them have benefited
from the Petaluma Kitchen themselves. This gives all of our students the
satisfying experience of sharing our bountiful garden with others in need
and raises awareness of world hunger.
We introduced students to new tastes through membership
in a nearby Laguna Farms Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and
purchases from local “Let Us Farm”. This allowed us to expose children
to a variety of seasonal flavors, textures, presentations and preparation
methods. Hot entrees prepared by our 4th and 5th grade students have become
a standard feature in our weekly salad bar. Other students often prepare
fresh produce in the outdoor kitchen during their garden class. Our
greenhouse and production beds enabled us to maintain steady salad green
production through the winter and grow seedlings for our spring plant sales.
We are continually expanding our curriculum
integration. We have created a team approach with teacher-coordinator
planning sessions that have significantly increased teacher participation in
outdoor classroom instruction. A
curriculum chart has been developed to ensure that necessary topics aligned
with State Standards are covered. Our
teachers have embraced the Teaching Garden to a new level this year,
requesting additional garden time. Our teachers are actively talking to
staff at other schools about the value of the program and circulating
literature among their peers on the relationship between student nutrition,
behavior, and school performance.
We are a hub of expertise for school gardens throughout
the North Bay Region. Teachers
from as far away as Chico, California have visited the Teaching Garden to
seek inspiration and advice. Our Garden Coordinator is active with the
Sonoma County School Garden Network that includes 22 schools. Monthly
meetings leverage their collective enthusiasm and expertise as they develop
school garden and nutrition strategies and plan joint fundraising events.
Sixteen of these schools recently adapted our plant sale/Garden Party model
to May Day events at their schools armed with our templates for promotional
materials, plant signage, and event checklists.
Background
4.
Outstanding Environmental Education
Program Top
Nominee:
Russian River State Parks Environmental
Education Program,
Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, Duncan Mills,
www.stewardsofthecoastandredwoods.org
Nominator: Dave Horvitz, California State Parks, Armstrong Redwoods
State Reserve, Guerneville
Stewards provides quality environmental education
programs for 5,000 K-12 students a year. Programs include education about
redwood ecology, tidepools, and watersheds. Each program stresses the
importance of stewardship for our natural resources. Service learning
opportunities are also available for students and youth groups as a way of
reinforcing stewardship values.
Stewards has also developed teacher and docent manuals
and provides environmental education programs for the general public
year-round in our State Parks. Seal Watch and Whale Watch docents have
educated the public about our threatened marine mammals for over 20 years.
Docents are also available for tidepool explorations on low-tide weekends.
In addition, docent-led interpretive hikes, paddles, and rides are provided
seasonally for the public in the state parks in the Russian River area.
Nominee: Bouverie Preserve Docents of Audubon
Canyon Ranch, Glen Ellen, www.egret.org
Nominator: Diane
Hichwa, Madrone Audubon Society
This is a premier program, training docents in local
natural science area plus nature journaling, Native Americans and
storytelling. For each school the docents will do a classroom visit,
presenting hands-on materials, then lead 5 students per docent on the trail
for 3 ½ hours of exploration. Last year they served 159 3rd and
4th grade classrooms - reaching 3,330 Sonoma County students with
their program. (Last year the docents volunteered 4,579 hours of time to
environmental education!) They
have put well over 200 docents through a broad class series so the docents
have flexibility to work with children in a variety of educational
approaches. Through their lifetime these people continue to share a personal
environmental ethic and environmental education with everyone they meet.
Nominee: daily acts, Sustainability Tours,
www.daily-acts.org
Nominator:Bruce
Hammond, Hammond Fine Homes and US Green Building Council, Redwood Chapter
daily acts is a membership organization which provides
the inspiration, tools and education that empower people to transform the
social, ecological, and economic impact of our actions as they ripple out
into our communities, ecosystems, and world.
In 2005, Daily Acts presented 8 highly successful
Sustainability Tours, connecting over 200 Bay Area residents with nearly 50
social, economic and environmental Sonoma County visionaries while building
vital social networks. Volunteers, contributing over 10,000 hours enabled
the organization to spread awareness at numerous events including the
Harmony Festival, North Bay Eco Fest, Salmon Creek Watershed Day, Youth
Activist Convergence, and the Green Festival in San Francisco.
Additionally, members of the organization gave 12
talks, workshops, and performances at events such as SolFest, Crested Butte
Colorado Sustainability Conference, the Green Festival, and the Build It
Green Home Tour Awards Ceremony. The organization continues to grow and
holds a unique place in the community where one can learn about local and
global urgencies while being inspired and empowered to take action.
5.
Environmentalist of the Year Top
Nominee: Keith Kaulum, Santa Rosa Plain
Conservation Strategy Team and Sierra Club, Redwood Chapter and Sonoma
Group, Santa Rosa
Nominator:Anne
Hudgins, Sierra Club
During a period of 19 months in 2004 and 2005, Mr.
Kaulum served as a member of a Team charged with writing an innovative
strategy for endangered species on the Santa Rosa Plain. The purpose of the
Conservation Strategy is to create a long term conservation program to
mitigate potential adverse effects due to future development on the
endangered California Tiger Salamander, and several listed plant species
found on the Santa Rosa Plain. The Team was composed of representatives of
Federal Wildlife Service, and other federal agencies State conservation
agencies, Sonoma County and affected cities, and stakeholders from the
development and environmental communities. Mr. Kaulum represented three
local environmental groups interested in development of the Conservation
Strategy, including the Sierra Club, the Madrone Audubon Society, and the
Milo Baker Chapter of the Calf. Native Pant Society. The Final Conservation
Strategy was completed in December.
As
a volunteer, Mr. Kaulum attended over fifty full day meetings of the
Strategy Team, held numerous meetings with the environmental groups involved
to keep them informed and coordinate their input to the Strategy Team, and
attended public hearings on the Strategy. He has spent over 500 hours of
effort over the last two years on the Conservation Strategy. His
participation has resulted in substantive influence on the final strategy by
the environmental community. If the Final Strategy is now faithfully
implemented by the County and cities, it should potentially preserve nearly
4000 acres of Salamander and listed plants habitat and insure the future of
these endangered species on the Santa Rosa Plain.
Mr. Kaulum has been active in Sonoma County
Environmental and conservation issues since about 1998 when he joined the
Sonoma group of the Sierra Club. Since then he has been a leader in the
Sonoma Group, serving on the Executive Committee from 1998 thru 2004. In
addition he has been an active member of the Group’s Conservation and
Political committees from 1998 to date. In addition, he has served as the
Group’s representative to the Russian River Watershed Council since it’s
formation in 2000. Among his many conservation interests, water issues have
been primary, including gravel mining in the Russian River and drafting of a
new water element for the Sonoma county general plan update.
In
2000 Mr. Kaulum extended his Sierra Club interests by representing the
Sonoma Group on the Redwood Chapter Executive Committee. The Redwood Chapter
encompasses six north coast Groups including the Sonoma County Group. He was
subsequently elected as an at-large member of the Chapter Executive
Committee in 2002 and continues to hold this office. He has been active
participant for the past several years on the Chapter’s campaign to limit
forestlands conversion for Intensive agriculture. In addition Mr. Kaulum
serves as the Chapter Legal Chair and as Chapter representative to the
California-Nevada Regional Conservation Council and the Council of Sierra
Club Leaders.
Nominee: Tam Smith, Volunteer Leader, Valley
Vista Teaching Garden
Nominator: Maureen
Vieth, Principal, Valley Vista School
Ms. Tam Smith has been at the center of the volunteer
core of parents bringing a model science in the garden program to 365
students. Tam has provided leadership and direction for multiple district
and site level projects that include improved health and environmental
awareness for students and staff alike. She works tirelessly to find
creative solutions to problems and understands organizational needs for
district wide committees.
Tam has help sustain the teaching garden at Valley
Vista and now is at the center of providing the same for all the sites in
the district. Students are given a hands-on opportunity to impact their own
environment and understand ramifications of their own actions as a result.
Environmental studies is a natural outcropping of gardens within the
classroom, but at the heart of Tam’s work is the desire to assure students
gain a strong awareness of their environmental impact upon the world. She
strives to create ways to enhance the school’s curriculum to assure we
limit and control waste using student knowledge and energy to accomplish
that. Valley Vista has reduced daily lunch waste from seven trash cans daily
to two. We use corn-based recyclable trays instead of the Styrofoam provided
by the district to decrease daily waste. Students gain knowledge that is
transferred to homes and waste reduction occurs throughout our community.
Tam’s work has assured this program stays focused and
is sustainable with the very difficult financial and academic pressures
existing for all schools. Tam’s work has been ongoing for five years and
she is still striving to expand the work to the community. Tam has written
grants, advocated in social settings, produced Powerpoint presentations,
been on multiple panels within the community, at the college level, at a
California State Science Teachers Conference and wherever a willing listener
is available. She does not quit; she is the “Ever-ready” bunny that
every school needs to create programs that deliver the knowledge and
understanding necessary to improve our environmental habits. Tam truly is an
example of someone who will not stop, does not look for recognition, but
drives forward to assure students gain the tools necessary for change.
Background
Nominee:
Dave Henson, Executive Director,
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, www.oaec.org
Nominator: Daniel
Solnit, GE-Free Sonoma County, Santa Rosa/Sebastopol
Dave Henson is perhaps the single most effective
activist working for environmentally sustainable agriculture in Sonoma
County. His work has dramatically transformed local agricultural and land
use practices. As an organizer and leader in numerous local groups, Dave has
forged crucial strategic alliances between farmers and environmentalists,
and as a teacher, he has significantly deepened the understanding and
effectiveness of our local environmental movement. Dave has educated,
trained, mentored, and inspired hundreds of Sonoma County activists, (many
of them young), through his teaching at New College and OAEC, his work in
numerous local campaigns and grassroots groups, and his personal example of
highly effective organizing and dynamic, empowering leadership. Participants
in his workshops often praise his clarity, insight, and contagious passion,
and the extent to which Dave helps them develop a more systemic “big
picture” understanding and deeper analysis of existing power structures
and social change methods.
Dave has also built strategic new alliances between the
local environmental and agricultural communities. In 2000 Dave was a
co-convener of an extensive dialogue between grape growers, local farmers of
other crops, environmental groups, no-spray advocates, and Sonoma County and
state officials around the problem of the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter (GWSS)
insect. His visionary leadership and mediation skills played a key role in
the resulting agreement - a Sonoma County and CDFA approved alternative GWSS
Work Plan to use least-toxic methods to insure a GWSS-free county. This
breakthrough agreement laid the groundwork for future cooperation, and
serves as an important model for other agricultural communities.
Most recently, Dave organized and led the largest
grassroots campaign for a local environmental initiative in county history:
Measure M, which would have created a ten-year moratorium on genetically
engineered crops. In authoring and promoting the measure, Dave worked
closely with many dozens of local farmers, educating them to the risks and
building new alliances. Though Measure M did not pass, under his leadership
the campaign mobilized thousands of residents (many of them with no prior
activist experience) and educated tens of thousands of voters on this issue,
building the groundwork for future environmental campaigns. Dave’s
organizing and leadership is a remarkable example of linking the local and
the global. He continues to play a key role in both local and national /
international organizations challenging the genetic engineering of seeds and
crops (serving on the steering committees of Californians for GE-Free
Agriculture, Genetic Engineering Action Network, and Wild Farm Alliance),
and corporate globalization and corporate personhood (Program on
Corporations, Law, and Democracy). By teaching and organizing at the local
level on these global issues, he has brought seemingly “out-of-reach”
problems down to the community scale, empowering local activists to take
them on in more thoughtful and effective ways.
Dave is a founder and the Executive Director of the
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, an education and training institute set
on 80 acres of organic gardens, orchards and wildlands in western Sonoma
County. Dave’s responsibilities at OAEC include coordination of OAEC’s
25 staff, program development and fundraising, and directing OAEC’s
Ecological Agriculture Program. Under Dave’s leadership, OAEC is making
many significant contributions to Sonoma County’s environmental quality
and restoration. Their Horticultural Biodiversity Program curates a living
seed collection of some 3000 varieties of food and medicinal crops; their
School Garden Program has trained teachers for and helped establish 85
school gardens and accompanying curriculum in public schools; their Water
Institute has trained local community members for and helped establish 25
watershed restoration groups throughout Northern California; and their
Permaculture program has trained and certified over 400 permaculture
students.
Background
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6. Ernestine I.
Smith Lifetime Environmental Commitment Top
Nominee:
Carol Vellutini, Sierra Club Outings
Chair
Nominator: Anne Hudgins,
Sierra Club
Though
very honored, Carol declined the nomination.
Carol led the
campaign to save Tappaan Lodge in addition to bird-dogging creek violations
in the city and county and calling public meetings about potential threats
to creeks and bike paths. Carol’s recent work has been extraordinary, most
notably her leading 75 people along Santa Rosa Creek where it goes under
City Hall! Her dedication and courage are unparalleled!
Nominee: Peter Leveque, Madrone Audubon Society,
Landpaths and CoastWalk, Santa Rosa
Nominator: Diane Hichwa,
Madrone Audubon Society
During 35 years at SRJC, Peter Leveque taught thousands
of students about the environment, caring about it and for it. He taught
Field Biology, Marine Biology, and short courses in the biologic sciences.
For nine more years he reached community residents interested in spring and
fall classes about Birds of Sonoma County. In "retirement" he
continues to work with adults, students and children through several
organizations leading walks in nature for Landpaths, for PeeWee Audubon and
walks at the Mayacamas Mts Audubon
Sanctuary. He has worked with the In Our Own Backyard
program of Landpaths and the 5th graders at Kawana School. Since Family
CoastWalk began in Sonoma he has hiked as the naturalist with the children.
AS Monterey began a Family CoastWalk last year Peter walked 6 days as their
naturalist. He takes environmental education to children to heart as he
mentors his homeschooled grandson in science and nature activities. As a
COOAST founder he received a special recognition award last year.
Nominee: Phyllis Schmitt, Retired teacher
volunteering with Bouverie Preserve, Bodega Marine Lab, Landpaths, Madrone
Audubon, Santa Rosa
Nominator: Diane
Hichwa, Madrone Audubon Society
Phyllis taught 3rd grade at Harmmony School in
Occidental for thirty years. She incorporated nature inside her classroom
and outside with students, developing a native plant garden, recording for
Project Feederwatch from her classroom windows and maintaining a cold water
marine aquarium with the assistance of her students and technicians at
Bodega Marine Laboratory. She has presented teacher trainings as a certified
trainer for the FOR SEA marine science program and as a facilitator for the
environmental programs: Project WILD and Project WET.
After retiring Phyllis joined the Bouverie Docents, leading many hikes and
classroom visits for them, serving on committees and assisting with the
docent training program. She returns on Saturdays with their Juniper program
for "spark" kids. She leads class visits to the Bodega Marine Lab,
helps in Landpath's program with the Steele Lane School; in Audubon
she encourages teachers to use the Audubon Adventures newsletter in their
classrooms, helps lead PeeWee activities and organizes a hike series at
Mayacamas Mountain Sanctuary. Locally she monitors herons and egrets for a
research study and assists at Santa Rosa Bird Rescue.
Further afield she has participated in Earthwatch and
University Research Expeditions Programs including:
Botanizing and Llama Trekking in the Lost Coast of Mendocino, An Ecuadorian
Rain Forest, Wetland Ecology
and the Maya, Dancing Birds Costa Rica and Mountain Waters of Bohemia, Czech
Republic.
Phyllis has served on an education advisory board for
Cordell Banks Sanctuary and is currently on the education advisory board for
Marine Mammal Center.
7.
Special Recognition Top
Nominee: Portia Sinnott, Former SCCC Chair, SCCC
Awards Chair, Co-Chair of the Environmental Center Events Committee and
Executive Director of LITE Initiatives, Sebastopol, www.car-lite.org
Nominator: Roni
Jacobi and the SCCC Executive Committee
Environmental Innovator of the Year 2006
Portia Sinnott was the Chair of the Sonoma County
Conservation Council from 2000 to 2005, and has chaired the Awards Program
since 2002. Nominated for awards a number of times, she chose to not compete
with the nominations she solicited. This year we decided to create an award
that would be most appropriate for her. Whether this is an occasional or
ongoing award is to be determined.
Portia has contributed to environmental protection in
Sonoma County (and in other parts of the world) for many years. Her focus on
the needs of future generations and her knowledge, networking, commitment
and effectiveness is noteworthy and inspiring.
The Vice Chair of the Sonoma County Local Task Force
for Solid Waste, in she initiated and lead the subcommittee that is
responsible for the zero waste orientation of the 2006 Long-Term Solid Waste
Management Alternatives Report. To bring attention to our landfill crisis,
she wrote articles, gave interviews produced a series of public discussions
and is now helping to organize
Bay Area Zero Waste Communities, a network of elected and appointed
officials, city and county staff and environmental groups.
The Co-Founder and Executive Director of LITE
Initiatives, the sustainable practices group best know for its Car-Lite and
Community Bikes programs, she and her associates have been promoting driving
less, walking, biking, carpooling and public transit as well as providing
“green” technical assistance. A newcomer to the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District’s Sonoma County Air Resource Team, she, with
assistance of her fellow Team members, is taking their 2006 focus
county-wide with the March 4th Safely Reducing School Traffic
Forum.
The Eco-Educator for Eco-Ring, the Russian River
Economic and Environmental Sustainability Project, in late 2004 she
initiated the Russian River Chamber of Commerce Green Team which assists
events with green planning, and is developing a series of green business
strategies and event organizing tools that could help make the Russian River
Area a model for green communities around the world.
We are also impressed by and appreciative of
Portia's willingness and skill at creating unusual opportunities to
share positive environmental observations with strangers in checkout lines,
with her folding bike on buses and on the street, etcetera.
We enthusiastically present this award to Portia
Sinnott.
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