Current Projects and Future Ideas at SFBWS

16 Oct 2016

by Cecilia (Ceal) D. Craig, PhD President, SFBWS Board of Directors

Current Projects

The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society is moving through a strategic planning process to develop goals for the upcoming years, and to migrate the organization into a Friends organization for the Refuge Complex. In particular, we want to broaden our focus to include the needs of the four refuges within the Refuge Complex that the Society supports (Don Edwards San Francisco Bay, Salinas River, Ellicott Slough, and Farallon NWRs), and maintain a fruitful collaboration with the Friends of San Pablo Bay who assist the other three refuges in the North Bay (San Pablo Bay, Marin Islands, and Antioch Dunes NWRs).

Much is happening around San Francisco Bay such as the next phase of the Salt Pond Restoration efforts at the Eden Landing ponds in Hayward; Measure AA and its impacts on upcoming restoration efforts; the Shoreline Levee Project; habitat restoration and associated studies; environmental education and stewardship projects; recreational improvements such as interpretive mobile apps; and much more.

Future Ideas

July 30, 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society. How would you like to celebrate this milestone? We would like to connect with long-term and new members to hear your reasons for supporting the organization, and your ideas about its future.

On July 9, we had a Town Hall Forum to gather ideas from members and the public for the Society’s next 10 years.

A sampling of the ideas generated were: potentially developing long-term partnerships with Alameda and San Mateo county agencies/cities to fund environmental education and interpretive programs (similar to the partnerships we currently have with the City of San Jose and Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program); becoming involved in the Urban Wildlife Conservation Program, a Refuge Complex priority; dealing with the challenges and constraints that stems from lower FWS staffing levels at the Refuge Complex; and ways to expand the Nature Stores as a means to raise funds for Refuge Complex programs.

Need more? Check out www.sfbws.com and refugeassociation.org on other ways to get involved or to learn more. As always, we welcome your inputs. Send your thoughts to Ceal[dot]Craig[at]SFBWS[dot]com.