Events & views - October 2009

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October 2009 Newsletter

• Why We Matter
• EcoCenter Update
• Education and Training News
• Environmental Volunteers Online Store
• Who's News: Meet Dusten Dennis
• Turtle Tracks
• Community Events

Every day of the school year our volunteers are in classrooms and on the trail working with kids.  This is critically important work for many reasons. Our volunteers inspire kids to care about the shared environment. We cast science in a fun and positive light. And we help address the serious lack of science education in our schools.

Consider these statistics from 2 recent studies of bay area classrooms.

• According to a 2007 UC-Berkeley study of Bay Area elementary schools, 80% of K-5th grade teachers spend only 60 minutes or less per week on science, and 16% spend no time on science at all.
• The 2005 National Assessment of Education Progress ranked California 48th of all states for 4th graders tested in science.

In fact, on every national comparative test, California students rank between 45th-50th in science. We may live in Silicon Valley, but our classrooms are a science wasteland.

And if science education is lacking, environmental science education gets even less attention. And yet, the value of environmental and outdoor education is well-known and significant.  Consider:

• A Cornell University study showed that participating in nature and outdoor activities before age 11 is a strong factor in creating adults who care about the environment.
• Research has established a correlation between childhood obesity and green-spaces in neighborhoods. Inner city kids living near green space gained 13% less weight than kids living among concrete and fewer trees.
• In a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, 30 percent of teenagers did not participate in any outdoor nature activity the previous summer.
• In our own groundbreaking East Palo Alto research, teachers reported student academic improvement in several subjects as a result of the natural science education curriculum delivered to their classrooms.

Science matters. Environmental science matters. They matter because they improve academic achievement, positively influence health, and have long-range benefits of creating adults who care about the common good.

The Environmental Volunteers matters. 400 teachers annually turn to us to help them teach science in their classrooms. Last year 12,131 students participated in our programs. Some of our classrooms were inspired to continue their learning quest with even more lessons. Some were motivated to embrace service learning projects like cleaning the bay. All of this because of the dedication of our 100+ teaching volunteers – environmental heroes – who go out each and every day of the school year and inspire action; influence health; do their part to turn today’s students into tomorrow’s adults who care.

If you are already one of our volunteers: thank you for helping to restore science to its rightful place.

If you are not yet a volunteer, we invite you to make a huge difference in the world and, as a matter of fact, we promise you will have a ton of fun doing so.

To learn more about the end of Phase One, click here.
To see more pictures of the EcoCenter journey, click on the picture.

Explorations in Ecology (Classroom Module)
This course covers five of our nine subject areas: Baylands Ecology; Forest & Foothills Ecology; Marine Ecology; Nature in Your Neighborhood (Urban Ecology); and All About Birds.

Next Session Begins: Peninsula EV office
Mondays 9:00am-1:30pm
October 26, November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, December 7

For more information, visit our Training site.

The signal was faint but rapid and seemed to be emanating from somewhere upstream. With a radio antenna held out in front of me, I continued along the path until the signal became stronger, indicating that I was heading in the right direction.  Eventually, I stopped and pulled out my binoculars to scan a pile of woody debris located in a deep pool near the edge of the stream. 

Finally, I spotted it!  It was an adult western pond turtle basking on a log near the bank.  The funny bump on top of its shell was actually a radio transmitter that had been attached one year prior as part of a radio-telemetry study of turtles at a coastal stream in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  As I moved toward it, the turtle quickly scurried into the water and the signal from its transmitter became noticeably slower, reflecting the cooler temperature of the water in the stream.

Later, that same day, I hiked over to check on a nearby turtle nest.  A wire enclosure had been placed around it when the nest was first discovered.  For ten months there was no sign of life.  Finally, in early April, the first hatchling dug its way to the surface of its flask shaped, underground burrow.  Although it was only the size of a quarter, it appeared to be a perfect miniature replica of its parents.  After being measured, weighed, marked and released, the hatchling quickly scampered off toward the nearby pond from which its mother had emerged the previous summer to lay her eggs.  As I watched it go, I wondered what was to become of this small, vulnerable reptile.As with so many other species today, western pond turtles are facing an increasingly uncertain future.  Habitat loss and alteration combined with population fragmentation and the increased pressures of competition and predation caused by the introduction of non-native species (such as bullfrogs which prey on young turtles), have all led to the decline of the turtle and its eventual listing as a “Species of Special Concern” in California. 

Despite its dwindling numbers, cryptic coloration and tendency to rapidly dive off basking sites when disturbed, western pond turtles can still occasionally be spotted in the wild.  A great place to see them is at Waddell Creek in Santa Cruz County (17 miles north of Santa Cruz along Highway 1).  While there, be sure to stop by Turtle Pond and look for turtles basking amongst the tule and on logs in the open water.  If you’re lucky, perhaps you’ll even see some of the turtles that were tracked during the radio-telemetry study or, better yet, that little hatchling turtle who would just about be old enough to have a few hatchlings of its own!

References:

Tortoise and Freshwater Specialist GroupBury, R.B. and Germano, D.J. 2008. Actinemys marmorata (Baird and Girard 1852) – western pond turtle, Pacific pond turtle. In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., and Iverson, J.B. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5, pp. 001.1-001.9, doi:10.3854/crm.5.001.marmorata.v1.2008, http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/cbftt.

Smith, J.J., J. Abel and C.J. Davis (Chan). 1997.  Management plan for Waddell Creek lagoon and surrounding habitats.  Report to Calif. Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Big Basin, CA.  23pp.

October 17, 2009 marks the 20th

anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Come hear a lecture about it on

October 15, 7:00 - 9:00 P.M.
Memorial Auditorium
551 Serra Mall Stanford Campus

Mark Zoback (professor of geophysics) will moderate an evening of lectures and Q&A. The group will reflect on what happened in 1989, the likely impact of future Bay Area earthquakes, progress in earthquake science and engineering, how the Bay Area can become more earthquake resilient, and earthquake preparedness. The lecture is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit http://earthsciences.stanford.edu/lomaprieta.

See the Sandhill Cranes in the Central Valley November through February

Sandhill Cranes less than 2-hours from Palo Alto? Yes, they winter in the Central Valley, and are celebrated with a yearly festival in Lodi. See the Sandhill Cranes anytime from Nov - Feb, but the special festival – with exhibits, speakers, demos, and nature tours – occurs November 6-8. It’s FREE, except for the nature tours that take you out in the field. It’s not just about cranes. Many different environmental groups and vendors are in the Exhibit Hall. Volunteers from the California Raptor Center at UC Davis will be bringing live birds. Speakers include Paul Bannick, nature photographer, and Gary Ivey of the Intl Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI.

If you are interested in taking any of the 50 nature tours (by car, bus, or boat), register soon on line or at 800-581-6150, since they fill up quickly.

Find more information by clicking the Sandhill Crane image to the left.

Project FeederWatch with Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Do you enjoy watching birds at your feeders? Then, join Project FeederWatch. "It is a , a fun and rewarding citizen-science project." You will learn more about birds in your area and share all observations with those in your community. With your help, scientists can discover changes in feeder birds. It begins in November, and with a $15 fee ($12 for Cornell lab members) you will recieve FeederWatcher's Handbook, instructions, an identification poster of common feeder birds, a bird calendar, the Cornell Lab's BirdScope newsletter, and Winter Bird Highlights, an annual summary of results from Project FeederWatch.

Click the feeder to the left, to learn more the FeederWatch community.