SPAWN is an awesome nonprofit doing important restoration, climate change resilience, and watershed conservation work in the Marin area. Preston, Audrey, and their team are doing incredible work to preserve habitat, indigenous Coho salmon, redwoods, and watersheds. More people need to know about this work and realize it's importance.
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SPAWN does an important job of protecting endangered coho salmon, by involving young people, combining hands-on restoration of critical creekside habitat with policy and advocacy efforts, and more. By leading efforts to preserve and protect waterways and open spaces in Marin County, and taking action to fight climate change, they are helping make a better world for future generations.
SPAWN is a scrappy organization that has done an enormous amount of fantastic on-the-ground salmon habitat restoration and protection work in California's last best coho spawning watershed. When necessary, SPAWN will take on policy and legal issues to further salmon protection, but the organization's forte is really translating research and restoration funding into successful projects, working with landowners and regulators to get the work done, and educating the public.
This non-profit provides a huge benefit to our local environment and community. So many dedicated volunteers collecting and sowing one seed at a time in the nursery, to planting thousands of redwoods throughout the historic range. I love the project empowering people to take action and slow the impacts of climate change through the 10,000 redwood project. www.10000redwoods.org.
SPAWN is working to protect Coho salmon in Marin county through work with restoration, advocacy, and research. This progressive, forward-thinking organization engages with the public and sponsors a number of environmental education initiatives. SPAWN not only works to restore watersheds; the organization is also working to reforest open spaces in Marin with Coast Redwoods, as a carbon sequestration and restoration project.
SPAWN not only does great work to physically protect the watershed and its species, but actively takes steps to educate community members and get them involved. I myself have volunteered with SPAWN over the last few years, taking part in fish monitoring surveys, plant nursery activities, and nature walks. Through my time spent volunteering with SPAWN I have learned about the lifecycle of salmoinds, and the impacts that human activity can have on the watershed. SPAWN's staff is knowledgeable and dedicated to their mission. Staff takes the time to teach others about their ongoing projects, and talk to everyone about how they can get involved and make a positive impact in a delicate watershed.
SPAWN is single-handedly protecting a critically endangered species (Coho salmon) and their habitat (and all of the symbiotic species within it). Please join us and help complete our mission.
I was amazed to learn when I moved here 25 years ago that wild salmon still swim in streams in the San Geronimo Valley, literally 45 minutes from San Francisco. My children grew up seeing these gigantic, cherry-red fish swim up the creeks and jump waterfalls. SPAWN is working to ensure that these fish survive for the future, and brings together volunteers who literally weave streamside habitats from willow trees, redwood forest plants and thousands of native grass seeds. It's a surprisingly hard fight to keep the streams that are left from being developed. People who care about endangered animals globally sometimes have a hard time seeing the value of those in their backyards. SPAWN is committed to protecting the salmon forever, and they have the know-how and persistence to get it done.
SPAWN has a strong focus on the restoration of breeding grounds for coho salmon and steelhead. I've been impressed by their multi-variate approach to restoration. They develop strong partnerships with community organizations including the local water district, the National Park Service, the California State Parks, the county government, local businesses (including a golf course that fronts two key tributaries), and a variety of research institutions. They recruit and make clever use of young interns, providing them housing in the redwood forest and food through a partnership with the local food bank. The interns do scientific research, educate nearby school groups, and provide public relations outreach in the broader community. SPAWN has an active roster of naturalists it draws upon to provide creek walks during spawning season, and engage in smolt counts during the Spring. Finally, they are actively restoring certain reaches of the main spawning creek to provide nurseries for juvenile coho and steelhead in an important partnership with some of the community agencies identified above. The few paid staff are highly qualified and dedicated and the army of volunteers provide significant service to the organization. It's well-run and effective. I know my donations, both financial and my time, go a long way towards restoring the historic salmon runs of California's central coast.
This wonderful dedicated organization is professional and hosts lots of public opportunity to be involved with watershed and ecosystem protection.
Occasionally, on the ground naive plant community enhancement projects are implemented.
I would suggest all communities in California should have such a non-profit.
I worked with them this summer and everyone there is very passionate about the environment and is dedicated to their work!
This organization is rooted in local actions of a community of dedicated volunteers, members, staff, and interns to do what's possible to recover endangered coho salmon from near extinction. SPAWN is a unique organization with diverse skills and works on a broad range of concerns related to habitat restoration, advocacy, land-use policy, native plant propagation, biological monitoring, land acquisition, and education. SPAWN is an example of how non-profits are effective at enacting change with actions rooted in mobilizing local citizens and leveraging resources, while creating lasting partnerships with other institutions. The locally-based non-profit model of SPAWN is how success has been accomplished on the grass-roots level and been effective at a larger scale. I'm very proud of the work SPAWN does and will continue to do with local support.
SPAWN is full of devoted workers and many more devoted volunteers who are doing good work to protect habitat for salmon. They are an excellent resource in the community, educating kids and the general public about the natural history of the area and advocating for necessary protections for the watershed.
As a former intern, I can speak from my heart that SPAWN is an A+ organization that truly makes a positive difference in people's lives. From raising native plants for use in restoration projects to teaching inner city school groups about the connection between native salmon and the redwood forests, SPAWN is tireless in its efforts to make the world a better place. During my time there, I met several children who had never or rarely been out in nature before coming to SPAWN's headquarters, and before they left, they came to the conclusion that "nature isn't so scary after all". Imagine what those children would have grown up like without such an important experience. SPAWN also participates in monitoring the endangered coho salmon population and advocates for enhanced protections along creek banks similar to those found in surrounding counties. They have volunteer days every Friday which are suitable for all ages and abilities and many Saturdays too. I highly recommend volunteering with them or even just stopping by to visit and asking questions. All staff are extremely friendly and willing to answer any questions. You might even get a tour of the property if you want!
what a loony that grant-grabber Todd is....he obviously cares nothing for fish or humans...just wants to win and continue to lead his band of bobble-headed, misinformed (perhaps well-meaning, though obviously semi-conscious) "do-gooders" into more meaningless frays simply to gratify his ego...
this fearless leader of SPAWN, Todd Steiner, is a dangerous zealot...he cares for publicity, power and personal monetary gain so that he can sustain his "crusade" (through misinformation, partial "truths" and downright
lies)....
one must wonder what collective and personal guilts those perhaps Well-intentioned people (ninnies, I call 'em) are trying to assuage...dammit, I, for one, am so sick of the lying, the warping of "facts" and the blatant greed that propels this man, he is no more and no less a current-day snake oil salesman....(in his case, fish oil)...as he cashes in on today's "save the environment" movement(s)...he's gone from state to state, plying his nonsense, lies and exaggerations.. condemning and vilifying the drain whichever county's coffers are made available to him...
we need to stop this man...he is not a good human being....he's simply a
greedy nut-case, which is common knowledge... and yet he is allowed to
continue, when in fact he should be laughed out of town, not feared.....
what should be publicized is his record; what he's done elsewhere.....we
need to be rid of this wrong-headed man's misguided ideas and his demonizing
of persons who have done no wrong and want only to live in peace with our
fellow inhabitants of our beautiful valley...with all creatures with whom we
share this planet, consciously and with love and respect....
Todd needs to know that this time he is not dealing with people who do not
see him for just who he is and why and how he does what he does.....
we need peaceful cooperation, to work together to improve the lives of all
of us living beings and this world that sustains us.... it is plain that
Todd has become a mean and confused person...
in my opinion he is in need of counseling and guidance so that he can understand himself and others and
learn to live and act with a loving heart.....
SPAWN's staff and volunteers always impress me with their passion, commitment and smarts. The endangered coho salmon and other denizens of the Lagunitas Watershed can't speak for themselves so thank goodness SPAWN is there to do it for them and do what it takes to keep the watershed healthy - for them as well as for us humans.
I am always impressed by the quality of work and the expert info I receive volunteering with SPAWN. After a long day of habitat restoration or Native Plant Nursery work, I feel like I really made a difference improving one of the most beautiful and valuable watersheds in the State. Those coho salmon need our help!