From our blogs

01 Mar 2012

A look back at the last 25 years

The First Decade 1987 - 1996

 

1987: Donated funds for old Fremont pumphouse restoration, making it an environmental education classroom. Runs bookstore & purchased a copy machine for Refuge.

1988: Bought first computer at Refuge. Established bookstore at Klamath Basin NWR. Began publishing The Tideline. Established Explorer post (Boy Scouts) with emphasis on conservation & natural resources.

1989: Published Drawbridge, A Hand-Me-Down History. Began Exploring The Wilds seminars. Purchased computer and slide projector for EEC. Held first Winter Wildlife Arts & Crafts sale.

1990: Klamath Basin & Sacramento NWRs became part of SFBWS scope. Established bookstore at Sacramento NWR. Funded Summer Art Academy. Published Wetland Wildlife Viewing Guide with funding from several grant. Purchased another computer for Fremont site. Purchased electron microscope for Pumphouse classroom and Bio-Scope for EEC.

1991: Began financial support of NWR Volunteer program.

1992: Purchased a laser printer for Refuge. Part-time environmental education employees hired to keep Alviso EEC open n weekends. Positions funded with grants from the City of San Jose and Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program.

1993: Funded Latin American Internship for Hopper Mountain Condor Recovery Program through grant agreement with FWS. Malheur Wildlife Refuge, Oregon, added to SFBWS scope. Purchased a laptop computer for the Refuge.

1994: Hired Program Administrator to support growing needs of 7 programs.

1995: Grant funded up-grade EEC Pavilion & new EEC Butterfly Garden. Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention program expanded to full time position.

1996: Funded EEC Disabled Access Pathway. Published Endangered Species brochure. Purchased a video microscope for Pumphouse, a lamination machine and funded mural in the Fremont Pavilion. Salt Marsh Manual developed as a tool for teacher training for class room visits to the Refuge.

10 Feb 2012

San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society Celebrates 25 years of Environmental Education & Refuge Complex Support

By Ceal Craig, Eric McKee, Debra King, and Sue Ten Eyck

What began 25 years ago as a small not-for-profit organization formed primarily to publish a quarterly newsletter, has blossomed into a cooperating association and friends group that helps finance environmental education, facility construction, and habitat restoration. John Steiner, former San Francisco Bay NWR Complex Chief Naturalist who was instrumental in launching the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society, wrote in a 1997 Tideline article that the Society was create“to help fund the refuge’s expanded public use effort... A public-benefit, nonprofit organization chartered by the State of California in 1987, the Society has spent its first ten years providing vital support to the many refuge programs.”

The Society owes its success over the years to a number of volunteers, who mapped out the organization’s future course and made success possible. Oakland attorney Jed Somit volunteered his time to draw up the initial charter documents and provided the guidance that got the organization started. He served as a volunteer Director for many years.

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