Professional restoration with school children: The STRAW Project (Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed)

To ameliorate the lack of healthy riparian habitat in the San Francisco Bay area, STRAW implements professional quality riparian restoration projects and watershed studies with a network of teachers, students, restoration specialists and other community members. Part of The Bay Institute’s efforts to preserve the Bay area ecosystem, STRAW continues the work of the famed Shrimp Club, begun in 1992, working with students to restore eroding creek banks throughout Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. Altogether, more than 32 acres of land have been restored by STRAW, either through planting native vegetation or invasive plant removal on ranches or on public land. STRAW has worked with over 10,000 school children to plant over 18,000 native plants and to do biotechnical work such as willow walls and wattles. PRBO Conservation Science monitors the restoration sites, finding that the number of bird species increases with age of the site, with up to 37 species found at sites 10 years or older. The federally endangered California Freshwater Shrimp has migrated down Stemple Creek to the now 11 year-old  Shrimp Project restoration site. A monitoring program provides more adaptability as we build up a database of information to better understand the needs of future projects. Through upcoming Watershed Week and other events, STRAW continues to improve and refine their programs and find new ways to reach out. STRAW hopes to provide a model of restoration experts collaborating with others to provide professional quality restoration to students and other community members.