10-year education partnership connects 1,700 students to their local redwood watershed
At Learning Without Limits Elementary School in Oakland, California, fourth grade means fun field trips. The students have heard stories from older kids about hiking in a redwood forest and wading out into the San Francisco Bay. Now it’s finally their turn to experience these adventures with the Explore Your Watershed educational program.
Explore Your Watershed was born 10 years ago, when Save the Redwoods League discovered a shared passion with East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). Both organizations wanted to help Oakland students feel more attached to their local environment and see themselves as part of nature. An idea was hatched to use East Bay watersheds to show students the connection between redwood forests, the San Francisco Bay, and their own neighborhood. Each class would visit a redwood park in the fall and a bayfront park in the spring.
“It was a no-brainer to partner on this education program,” says Deborah Zierten, senior manager of education and interpretation at Save the Redwoods League. “The League is one of California’s longest-running conservation organizations, and East Bay Parks is the largest regional park district in the country. With Explore Your Watershed, each organization could bring their expertise and resources together to benefit the students of Oakland.”
What started as just a few field trips has now grown into a program spanning 10 years and serving more than 1,700 students in grades 3 through 5. The program challenges students to wade in the bay, learn to seine net, dress up like a redwood tree, explore the mud flats, and conduct scavenger hunts. Everything from the bus ride to organized activities is completely free.
The program represents a true partnership, as the League and EBRPD collaborate on all aspects of implementation. “Working with the League has been easy, as we share all the responsibilities of program delivery, and are equally committed to high-quality outdoor education,” says Morgan Guenther, a naturalist at EBRPD. “Staff from both organizations lead the field trips, do outreach to teachers, and bring necessary funds to the table. The partnership makes teaching this program fun!”
Explore Your Watershed has had a profound impact on young minds. “The field trips are an opportunity for my students to connect what they are learning in the classroom to the outside world,” says Elizabeth Hensley, a participating teacher from Learning Without Limits. “They see concepts and use vocabulary in a different context, they hear information from subject matter experts, and they see how real scientists use the skills and knowledge they are learning about in the field.”
The program also reaches beyond the classroom to families and communities at the various schools. Zion Ramon, a teacher at Hoover Elementary, explains that “every year, students share stories of bringing their parents back to the redwoods because they had so much fun on the field trip—sometimes as soon as the weekend right after. The field trip educates many of the students and families about how easy it is to take a quick trip to the redwoods.”
Connecting people to the peace and beauty of the redwoods is a key pillar of the League’s mission, and partnership is the only way this work gets done. We’re so lucky to have a great partner in EBRPD and look forward to continuing our work together for 10 more years and beyond.
