Bay Stories That Inspire

This month marks my one-year anniversary with Save The Bay as the Restoration Education Specialist. It has been a privilege working on protecting and restoring tidal marshes around the Bay through environmental education, habitat restoration and civic engagement with such a wonderful team. Looking back at this year, I am so proud of our Education Program’s accomplishments!

Our education team has been working towards increasing access in our education programs. Many schools lack the funding and resources to participate in field trips, including environmental education programs. The two main barriers that inhibit many schools from joining our field trips are economic and linguistic challenges. Many schools cannot afford to spend money on field trips and transportation. One school bus can cost a school as much as $1,000 per bus! Not only are our field trips free, we also provide funds for bus transportation for schools that otherwise cannot afford it. Our team works hard to provide this opportunity for schools that qualify by engaging in targeted outreach.

To address linguistic barriers, the habitat restoration team spends time in each of our meetings to learn and practice Spanish. We strive to communicate with Spanish speaking students and families. Furthermore, our education team has been working to provide Spanish and English in our instructions and on each visual that we use in our education program activities. While teaching, we use scaffolding techniques, such as hand motions and large visuals, to ensure students who are English language learners are able to engage and have fun. I love having students translate for us as it gives them leadership opportunities.

We are in the final stages of editing our curriculum binder! This binder contains all of our program descriptions, activities, tricks and tips so that anyone, a volunteer, fellow or new staff member, can successfully lead a Community Based Restoration Education Program. We also have aligned many of our activities to Next Generation Science Standards. These Standards have been a wonderful tool in helping us figure out how to inspire students to become bay stewards and make connections to the bay and their everyday lives. NGSS combines science and engineering practices to encourage students to ask questions, experiment and be curious about the world and the community around them. We tailor our programs to fit each teacher’s learning objectives and educational needs.

I am looking forward to this school season and thrilled to try new activities in the field! Come join us in the marsh by signing up for one of our student or volunteer programs!

In March of this year, the SF Bay Water Quality Control Board asked their staff to bring back an enforcement order against Caltrans for the agency’s multi-year failure to clean trash from Bay Area highways before it pollutes local creeks and the Bay. Despite this clear and urgent direction, an enforcement order has yet to be presented. That’s why close to 80 local elected officials sent a letter to the Board last week urging them to take action immediately and demand cleaner highways for our region and the Bay.

Bay Area voters showed again this week that we understand climate change is upon us, and we will invest to keep our communities and San Francisco Bay safe and healthy. In fact, we are ahead of voters in other parts of California – and that meant some mixed results on priority ballot measures endorsed by Save The Bay Action Fund.

Your votes made a big impact in this election, producing victories on most ballot measures in our Bay Smart Voter Guide, which benefit San Francisco Bay’s people and wildlife in a time of rapid climate change. Together, we passed measures to protect against sea level rise, reduce pollution, improve transit, and enhance open space. This is huge progress, as you can see in the detailed results below.

Unfortunately, Proposition 3, the state water bond, did not secure enough votes for passage statewide despite winning majorities in most of the Bay Area. In a noisy campaign year with a crowded ballot, we and our Prop. 3 partners needed to communicate the facts to more voters around the state.

Too many state voters did not know that Prop. 3 would help the 1 million Californians who lack safe drinking water, restore thousands of acres of wetlands for wildlife, and advance water recycling. Too many forgot about recent severe droughts and floods Prop. 3 would prepare us to survive.

Nevertheless, we know these threats will keep increasing and sea levels will keep rising. Save The Bay is more committed than ever to educating voters and elected officials that we need to invest in San Francisco Bay, the Bay Area, and beyond. With your support, we will

• Advocate even harder for Bay Smart Communities, adapting cities and the Bay to survive climate change, pollute less, and prepare more. We will unite partners to win clean water, better transit, affordable housing, and healthier communities for all.
• Accelerate marsh restoration on the Bay shoreline, to boost wildlife and protect against flooding.
• Keep educating the next generation and all residents to support the Bay as volunteers, voters, and donors.

Thank you for voting for the Bay! Don’t wait until the next election to stay involved:

• Volunteer with us to plant wetlands this fall
• Advocate against trash flowing into the Bay
• And, please donate generously to support all that Save The Bay does.

This dynamic duo joined Save The Bay in 2008 ready to dig in and help our team restore San Francisco Bay. From early morning commutes and all staff planting days, to nursery programs and trash cleanups, Fuego and Red are at the heart of the Save The Bay Family.

Meet Fuego

Fuego is known as the truck with the big personality. She enjoys throwback hits from the 90’s and playing jokes on Save The Bay’s Habitat Restoration Team! Her favorite prank is taking control of the radio’s volume. If the team wants to listen to music, she will crank up the tunes to start her own little party. Fuego also likes to keep the team on their toes when it comes to her AC, which only works on low or hurricane strength.It is never a dull moment when you get to work with Fuego! Besides her silly side, Fuego has a passion for educating the public and inspiring the next generation of Bay Savers. Her favorite work days are spent helping the restoration team run public volunteer programs. Fuego loves to meet new people and teach them about how they can give back to the Bay she loves.

Meet Red

The other half of our duo is Red. She loves power lifting, off roading, and likes to live life on the edge (of the Bay). Red doesn’t mind getting down and dirty for a good cause like restoring tidal marshes. Unlike her playful counterpart, Red prefers a peaceful morning commute with the team listening to NPR. But don’t be fooled, she loves to give the team a good surprise by unexpectedly popping her hood sometimes! Red takes her work with Save The Bay very seriously. She likes to spend her days in the nurseries doing the heavy lifting of water, plants, and tools that the team needs to build up wetlands.

Over the last ten years these two workhorses have helped our team transplant over 400,000 plants and have driven roughly 240,000 miles across the region! But this hard work has taken a toll on our beloved family members. We need your help because the wheel bearings wear out on the trucks due to our proximity to the salty bay, the heavy loads we haul, and the pothole ridden freeway 880.

Join us this Giving Tuesday, November 27, as we work to raise $15,000 or more toward a new Restoration Truck!

Those who commute in San Mateo County know how bad the traffic is. If you’ve driven through the 101-92 interchange recently, you know something needs to be done to relieve congestion and improve commute time. To achieve this, we must not only fund highway projects, but also enhance public transit options, support alternative modes of transportation, and connect high-quality transit to affordable housing.

Measure W will do just that by raising $2.4 billion over 30 years for projects that will take thousands of cars off of highways every day, fix potholes and maintain streets throughout the County, and make it safer to travel to schools and employment centers by bike and on foot. Read More