Title
Review and Approve Amelia Earhart Elementary NOAA Ocean Guardians Sign on Shoreline Trail Near Bay Farm Bridge
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Review and Approve Amelia Earhart Elementary NOAA Ocean Guardians Sign on Shoreline Trail Near Bay Farm Bridge.
BACKGROUND
The following information is provided by Mr. Derek Douglas, science teacher at Amelia Earhart who coordinated the NOAA Ocean Guardians program with the students.
DISCUSSION
Since 2009, the NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Ocean Guardian School program has awarded small grants to K-12 schools in California, Washington, Oregon, Hawai‘i, New York, Maryland, Colorado, and most recently, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. These schools make a commitment to the protection and conservation of their local watersheds, the world's ocean, and special ocean areas like national marine sanctuaries.
The students at Earhart Elementary have participated in this program since 2016. Our first five-year pathway was moving our school community toward zero waste to create a healthier watershed and ocean. We focused our energy on the 6Rs (Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot, Recycle). Our students learned about their impact on the environment and how to reduce that impact at school and home. We also started doing monthly clean-up of the tidal area by the walking and bike path near our school. We’ve been weighing the amount of trash collected each time we go. Last month we had over 25 participants and collected over nine pounds of trash.
Although we will continue our work on the 6Rs, our pathway in the OG program has come to an end. (We’ve begun another pathway looking into habitat restoration.) Our final project was creating the sign that we’d like to install by the walking and bike path at the end of Packet Landing Road to help education the larger community about what they can do to protect our watershed and ocean. Students submitted drawings about how plastics and other trash get into our waterway and then wrote about how their favorite “R” helps to mitigate that waste.
We have the budget for both the creation and installation of the sign. And students and families at Earhart would make sure that it was kept in good shape. Our original idea was to have it near the viewing platform, but as the design came together, we think that placing it nearer the storm drain outlet about 20 meters west might be a better location.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact to the Recreation and Parks Department.
RECOMMENDATION
To review and approve the Amelia Earhart Elementary NOAA Ocean Guardians sign on the Shoreline Trail near the Bay Farm Bridge.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Exhibits:
1. Ocean Guardians Sign