EDUCATION(AL) – integrating one or more of the following learning opportunities during the OUTDOOR PROGRAM.

Instruction in arts, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that connects nature experiences, or environmental stewardship. Here is an example from partner Big Sur Land Trust (BSLT) for their Salinas Based Outdoor Event: All events at the Carr Lake project site have helped foster stewardship of the environment in Salinas residents who have attended events at the Carr Lake project site. This has been achieved through participants learning about the watershed that the project site belongs to and how some of the City of Salinas’ stormwater runoff passes through the project site. This gave participants a visual and understanding of how their contributions to stormwater runoff may affect local open spaces in their city and ultimately our oceans. We also discussed how the proposed project will help retain water in the restoration area for a longer time before it flows out through the reclamation ditch and thus potentially help replenish groundwater aquifers. Participants were also able to learn about the urban heat island effect by experiencing temperature changes when walking from the flat and exposed project site and into the native plant garden.

Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34, Part 4: Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). All Habitat Stewardship Project (HSP) events include elements of community service including removing invasive weeds (see photos below), or picking up trash. These hands-on actions are designed to correlate with grade appropriate content standards for 4th-5th-6th grade. See 3 below 3. Curriculum that is aligned to the content standards for California public schools adopted by the State Board of Education, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science standards, or the California History-Social Science Standards.

All of the programs of BSLT and HSP are stewardship and community engagement oriented. Participants have engaged in litter cleanup and invasive removal since our programs began. It has just started to rain in our area and on Saturday, Nov 18, HSP presented a program on uses of indigenous plants and then participants planted local native plants along Natividad Creek. We are expecting that HSP school programs will be planting native plants on field trips to the Creeks of Salinas and to dune areas on Salinas River State Beach. HSP provides native plants for BSLT programs at Carr Lake.

HSP’s OEP school program “Vamos Afuera” has succeeded in taking students on a journey outside where they learn about their urban environment and their impact on the environment. Students visit a creek, a river, and the ocean. Students draw, collect leaves and put them in their nature journals, they bird watch and they learn about how human activities affect water quality. At BSLT’s Carr Lake outdoor classroom participants explore native plants, trees, and pollinators. While nearby agricultural ditches and historic creeks, offer hands-on learning about watersheds, stormwater runoff, and aquifers. Day Camp Programs on BSLT preserves deepen understanding of conservation and ecosystem health. Youth learn to identify wildlife through tracks and scat while exploring the role of wildlife corridors. Custom Youth Naturalist Journals guide participants through plant ID, mindfulness exercises, and nature art projects

This grant funded project has brought together 3 partners (Habitat Stewardship Project-HSP, Big Sur Land Trust-BSLT and Center for Community Advocacy-CCA) each with unique organizational goals, internal ways of operating, and rotating staffing issues. The first half of the year entailed a lot of planning and community outreach i.e.., with families and with school districts. Our first gathering at our Community Home Base on July 16, 2023 allowed our partners to work together and brought neighbors and families together to hear about our offerings, and then we were off with "Word of Mouth" coupled with "Door-to-Door" outreach being most successful.

Both CCA and HSP are forging new partnerships with the Salinas Union High School District to involve more students from their Migrant Academy and who live adjacent to our program core. BSLT has partnered with the Urban Arts Collaborative to host an “Art Experience in Nature” at Carr Lake. HSP has partnered with bilingual educators at Pacific Grove Natural History Museum (PGNHM) and at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation (ESF) and we’ve also made connections at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve (ESR). Other HSP partnerships include new relationships with Alisal Union School District (AUSD) schools and administrators.

So far this has been an excellent experience for the three partner programs funded by OEP. Knowing what you want in regards to reporting is very valuable, as now we know what kind of images formats to save. Ie., one of our partners sent their images on a Word document so those images had to be resent. Another sent a video file which again is not in the format you wished. 

Communication amongst OEP partner organizations and outside partners has presented our greatest challenge. HSP has liaised early with school district administrators and transportation leaders. HSP has adjusted programming making certain lessons shorter and others longer based on student feedback. For family field trips, locations are selected due to weather and including favorite local State Park beaches. HSP and BSLT have developed a good working relationship with CCA’s Garden Coordinator for recruiting participants for family field trips. Weekend programs in Salinas have also been adjusted to being more hands-on lessons and less discussion based lessons. Communication between partners BSLT and CCA has been a challenge, brought about by CCA staff turnover and discomfort with overnight camping in Big Sur. Recruitment for Salinas based programs has been very successful. Consistent touch-backs between new and veteran staff from our three core partners, HSP/BSLT/CCA is essential.