Although the weather in Santa Cruz still indicates summer break, it’s time to sharpen pencils and put on that backpack. Back to school season is here and it influences almost all of us in one way or another. Maybe you have gone shopping to make sure your kids have what they need for success, waited for the red lights of a school bus to stop flashing so you can continue your commute to work, heard school bells ring from your neighborhood campuses, or maybe you’re a teacher or a student yourself.
The Coastal Watershed Council is ready for this new school year, too. CWC environmental educators Sam Adelson and Mollie Behn are ready to swear in the thousands of Watershed Rangers students who will participate in CWC’s environmental education program between now and June 2020. In just seven days of open enrollment, dedicated teachers of Santa Cruz County scheduled over 320 visits to their classrooms nearly filling CWC’s education calendar. After summer months spent brainstorming with incredible educators and community partners, organizing and developing teaching materials, ordering new environmental monitoring equipment, and refining watershed education curriculum, CWC is equipped and excited to be a part of the best school year ever!
But it’s not just people who are influenced by back to school season, however. Birds, fish, turtles, bugs, frogs, squirrels, and rabbits of the San Lorenzo River, prepare to be carefully observed with binoculars, counted, and sketched in field notebooks. CWC will host students on field trips to the San Lorenzo River this school year. Be ready to have more food and shelter than you’ve had in a long time because Watershed Rangers students will be planting hundreds of native plants along the eastern bank of the San Lorenzo River at CWC’s habitat enhancement site between the Laurel Ave. and Soquel Ave. bridges.
CWC’s Watershed Rangers program is free for all participating students and public schools, which is made possible thanks to the generous support of donors like you. Will you help the newest cohort of Watershed Rangers connect to and explore their San Lorenzo River? Be a part of the Watershed Rangers program with a gift today. Here is where your money goes:
- $10 funds the purchase of a native plant for a Watershed Ranger to plant in the soil and help the river’s habitat thrive.
- $85 sponsors the participation of one student in CWC’s classroom series, which includes three visits to their elementary or middle school classroom and one field trip to the San Lorenzo River
- $180 funds the transportation costs of one field trip to the San Lorenzo River for a whole classroom
- $3,000 sponsors one K-8th grade classroom for a full classroom lesson series, including one field trip, as students connect to nature and meet Next Generation Science Standards.
Help Connect 2,700 Watershed Rangers to the San Lorenzo River this Year