- Programs
The Eco-Oakland Program
Grantee: Golden Gate Audubon
Project completed 2015/16
Total project cost: $55,000
Clean Water Program grant: $5,000
The Eco-Oakland Program was created by Golden Gate Audubon (GGA) in 1999 to provide East Oakland students and their family members with high quality environmental education opportunities. Since its creation, the year-long, watershed-wide curriculum program has served roughly 2,750 children in over 10 schools.
For the 2015 grant project, GGA brought a series of bilingual classroom and schoolyard lessons to seven elementary school classes fostering watershed stewardship values, pro-environmental behavior and teaching students about local wildlife and habitat. Each of the seven classes also went on two weekday fieldtrips to MLK, Jr Shoreline and Arroyo Viejo Creek where students conducted bird surveys, planted native plants for habitat restoration, removed trash and studied organisms to gauge the health of each ecosystem at the parks.
To engage the students’ families in stewardship activities, they were invited to join monthly habitat restoration events at MLK, Jr Shoreline. At the end of the year each class takes a trip to Muir Beach in Marin County where students and parent chaperons explore the inter-tidal zone, hike the headlands and engage in a beach clean-up after learning marine conservation strategies.
More grant funding for projects like this is available! Learn more.