County of Marin Community Service Fund Program Application Date March 29, 2019

Application Form Fiscal Year July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019

Organization Information

Full Legal Name: The River Otter Ecology Project

Organization URL: www.riverotterecology.org

Mission/purpose of your organization: Our mission is to engage the public in supporting conservation and restoration by linking river otter recovery to the health of our watersheds through education, research, and community science. Our vision is to inspire personal connections and motivate meaningful actions to preserve our shared natural landscapes for future generations. When we head out to schools for hands-on and in-the-field classes, when we conduct our research on prey species, otter health and population trends, when we offer speaking events to groups up and down the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re seeding the ground for present and future conservationists to continue to protect our birthright – a healthy planet.

Grant Request Information

Program/Project Name: Fun in the Field: Hands on Science Education

Summary of how County funds would be used for project: We would use funds to partially cover salaries, local travel and supplies for an environmental education series at Tomales High School for 35 freshmen and for expansion planning to additional underserved public schools in Marin.

Amount Requested Dollar: We would use funds to partially cover salaries, local travel and supplies for an en

Total Project Cost: $18,972.00

Description of the proposed project/program, including the proposed project's goal(s), and the nature of the costs in specific terms, i.e. materials, labor costs, etc. Specifics of how the requested County funds will be used. We will provide hands-on environmental education to a freshman class of 35 multi-cultural rural students at Tomales High School, an underserved school. After an initial project in 2018, THS requested we expand our services to the freshman class. We plan expansion to additional underserved schools in Marin in 2020. The project focuses on the charismatic river otter as an ambassador species to inspire student interest and engagement in outdoor field science and stewardship, to encourage student interest in continuing their science education, and to enhance student enjoyment and appreciation of nature. Partners in this endeavor include Tomales High School, EAC of and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary as well as River Otter Ecology Project biologists and volunteers and National Seashore scientists when available. We partner students, teachers, environmentalists and scientists in field- and lab-research, including field trips, prey species ID, data analysis, a stewardship day and a final project to be presented at a school meeting open to the community. The field trips include: Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (climate change instruction), Coastal Cleanup Day with the EAC of West Marin, and a field trip to Drake’s Beach. The three classroom days are devoted to discussion of conservation concepts and action, prey species research and analysis, and lab work with samples collected during the field day. We will also train the biology teachers in conservation concepts and otter natural history. We have engaged a contract Environmental Educator to refine and teach the students, and to help expand the project to additional under-resourced schools. We have a contract Educational Aide to assist with all classes, and ROEP volunteers to assist with field trips. We respectfully request funding to help cover salary, local travel due to the remote area of the school, and some supplies. List of all community interests that will be affected by the proposed project/program and the public benefit to be derived from it: “Hands-on, outdoor education is essential for all students. Especially for our students at Tomales High School, when their instruction spreads out to their backyards and neighborhoods, the learning becomes energized and permanent. This program provides services that are not delivered by any other program. The fact that our students will be able to apply the concepts learned in their classroom to the real world, in our beautiful Watershed, and then to explore implications back in their classroom, checks all the boxes for engaging and transformative learning.” Bob Raines, Superintendent, Shoreline Unified School District.

Our program has the potential to affect hundreds of high school and middle school students in Marin each year, as it expands. Our long-term vision is to reach underserved schools throughout Marin, as well as rural coastal schools in the Shoreline Unified school district. We have observed that students benefitting from our programs send ripples through their communities, including raising awareness and interest in protecting and stewarding our natural spaces, encouraging community leadership through increasing student confidence (particularly for new English speakers), and continuing their educations.

Public benefits include beach clean ups, community presentations (ROEP is currently engaging with THS to provide a free community-wide presentation after the 2019 class requested it), engaging additional nonprofits to leverage our effects, building awareness and support of restoration, conservation and climate change actions, and supporting land managers, such as the National, State and local parks with information on river otter presence and health.

This organization has never received Community Service funds.

No County funding was received for this project or others. Project/program can be completed if amount received is less than requested amount of Community Service funds. Applicants are encouraged to leverage funding from other non-County sources, and priority will be given to requests that represent no more than 50% of total project cost. To demonstrate all sources of project funding, including other County sources, please provide a project/program budget below. Please fill in as applicable, and round to the nearest dollar.

Project Funding Funding Funding Agency Received Notes Sources Requested County CSF Marin County $9,545 $0 Federal Grant State Grant Individual $413 $413 Contributions Other Local Marin Fish & Wildlife Reduced request from $3,857 at $2,077 $0 Agencies Commission meeting, pending THS, ROEP Partly offset Personnel Costs and In kind services volunteers, food $6,937 $6,437 Services & Supp.

Other $0 $0 Total Sources $18,972 $6,850

Project Budgeted Spent to Date Notes Expenses Personnel Costs $11,190 $1,000 $3,950 offset by in-kind Services and $6,563 $0 $1,092 offset by in-kind Supplies Capital $0 Other $1,219 $0 Total Expenses $18,972 $1,000