EarthTeam's Restoration Initiative

EarthTeam Restoration Initiative (sometimes referred to as ETRI) creates a restoration program for SF Bay Area teens throughout the year at different sites around the Bay Area. Ongoing restoration events offer students a chance to do hands-on environmental work locally, support teachers who want to promote environmental learning and stewardship, and help local habitat restoration efforts of government,

nonprofit, and private organizations.

Alan Fishman's class from San Lorenzo HS at Cesar Chavez Event 2009!         Program Director Caroline Sandifer (left)

Restoration Event Spotlight Check out these photos from EarthTeam's latest tabling event at the Dow Wetlands "Run for Water Event".   We would like to thank Dow Chemical Company for hosting such a fun event. We hope to attend next year!                                          Thanks to Dow Chemical for spreading awareness about global water quality issues and helping provide solutions.                                            For more photos of the event, please click here .

Ecological Restoration is defined by Society for Ecological Restoration as: "an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability." "Frequently, the ecosystem that requires restoration has been degraded, damaged, transformed or entirely destroyed as the direct or indirect result of human activities."

For more information, click here for the Society for Ecological Restoration website. 

As a result of being a heavily populated area, the San Francisco Bay Area has seen it's fair share of environmental degradation. Often the creeks of the East Bay are almost entirely destroyed, being culverted or, shunted into into man-made channels. The intact, day-lighted streams are often severely degraded and over-run with non-native invasive species, leaving little trace of the once diverse ecosystems that once existed. 

EarthTeam Environmental Network works in collaboration with numerous watershed managers to help restore some of that lost biodiversity, structure and function that our local watersheds once had. Types of activities that aid in this recovery include: removing non-native plants, erosion control, creek and shoreline cleanup, planting native plants, and environmental monitoring. Activities vary throughout the school year, as they depend on season and on the ecosystem at the particular site.

Eco-Stewards is a curriculum connected program designed to educate and engage fourteen East Bay high school classes in local environmental restoration projects, usually within their own watershed. The program consists of three class visits and two field days, and is often used to fulfill Service Learning Project requirements and to give classes opportunities to interact with their local parks and creeks. Restoration ecology education topics range from water quality assessment, erosion control, invasive species control methods, and plant propagation, to wetlands functions/ hydrology and redwood reforestation, through thought-provoking discussions that encourage student participation. Restoration field work takes place at a variety of sites in partnership with several organizations (see Community Collaborators). Ongoing project sites include: Sausal Creek, Dow Wetlands, Wildcat Creek, Point Pinole, San Pablo Creek, Rheem Creek, Antioch Dunes, among others.

 

Since restoration work involves some risks by being outdoors, using tools, and working near creeks, wetlands, and other natural spaces, we require students to bring permission slips, signed by their parent or guardian.

 

Earth Team Waivers

 

 

 

Please contact Restoration Program Director Kevin Sherrill

to have your class participate.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   phone: 510-704-4030

 

  

SPECIAL EVENTS

EarthTeam will host three special Restoration Programs this year which will include bus transportation and free lunch. The Kickoff in September is a great way to start out a new school year by getting outside to help the environment through shoreline cleanup. Our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Restoration and Celebration includes engaging restoration projects, nature walks, readings and an art project inspired by the life of King. We wrap up the year with our Cesar Chavez Day restoration project in the spring. This gives students one more chance to make a difference while celebrating the end of the school year before heading off for summer break.

Special thanks and recognition to all of our partner organizations that make our work possible and contribute to a community of stewardship, education, and leadership in environmental action.

                                           Patagonia                       Dow Chemical Company

AQUA TEAM     Aqua Team is a stewardship and leadership program for urban teens featuring watershed education and restoration. Participating teens meet weekly after school to learn about their local watershed and work out in the field once a month to help regional efforts to restore native ecosystems; improve water quality; and assess watershed health. We are currently piloting this program at Richmond HS involving teens in  restoration projects at creeks and shorelines throughout Richmond.

THE STAFF           Kevin Sherrill EarthTeam Restoration Program Director (left)   Chiara Swartout Watershed Educator (right)     CONTACT For more info about ETRI, contact: Kevin Sherrill Restoration Program Director This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (510) 704-4030