Goals & Needs

Marin Water has been managing thousands of acres on Mt. Tamalpais for over 100 years, delivering high quality drinking water to local communities while responsibly managing the watershed for biodiversity and public access. The Marin Water volunteer program strives to connect people to nature and their water source by offering educational and stewardship activities on the Mt Tamalpais Watershed. Through these programs we are able to demonstrate how public agencies use ecological principles to manage and conserve natural spaces.
 
Several of our programs offer volunteers the chance to directly mitigate the effects of climate change. Others create a platform for public discussion around these mitigations. A “day in the life” could be a day spent hosting a broom pull for a high school group or having the students learn why and how to encourage biodiversity and reduce fire hazards. Other days will be spent creating educational materials and activities to engage community members around resiliency to drought and fire. There is a full spectrum of duties.

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Capacity Building Projects

• The GrizzlyCorps fellows would serve Marin Water and work on the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed. Marin Water is a founding member of One Tam which leverages the skills and resources of public agencies, nonprofits, and individuals to support the health of Mt. Tam. The Fellow working with the Volunteer Program would increase community engagement around climate change through public outreach and hands-on volunteer activities.
   

• We would like to enhance our stakeholder networks by working with local high school and college students who are studying ecology and natural history. Fellows will help create lessons that build on the principles of ecology and explain how these principles are used in management and stewardship of natural spaces. Students can learn about the ecology of our local watershed and forests, as well as drought and fire regimes, while learning practical field skills and contributing to meaningful scientific research.
   

• Another primary goal of our Fellow would be to enhance the public’s understanding of fire, drought, and proactive forest management. Community engagement takes place through our hands-on volunteer projects; conversations are also fostered through our Watershed Ambassador program. Staff and volunteer Ambassadors are stationed with the One Tam mobile visitor center – aka the Tam Van - at various locations on and off the mountain. They are a great presence and resource, serving and engaging our community on timely topics such as drought, conservation of local species, and sea-level rise. Watershed Ambassadors receive public outreach training which includes communication strategies, developing outreach goals, and resources on timely topics. Two current GrizzlyCorps members have been trained as Ambassadors. We need a Fellow to develop climate change messaging and engage with community members around resiliency to drought and fire.
   

• By engaging volunteers and students, we increase our capacity to restore habitat, protect threatened wildlife, educate visitors, and monitor both the rare and invasive species across the landscape. An involved constituency can learn about the complexities of this landscape and the processes that we manage to keep the watershed a healthy place for plants, animals, visitors, and everyone who relies on this open space.
   

Organizational & Community Highlights

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Marin Water’s watershed team is a group of about 20 permanent staff and up to 10 early career folks (interns, seasonals, AmeriCorps fellows) dedicated to protection and management of watershed lands. Our staff include fisheries ecologists, vegetation ecologists, rangers, educators, heavy equipment operators and watershed maintenance, all working together to ensure a healthy watershed. Fellows will have a chance to see how this work is done and be a part of the team doing the work. Marin County is part of the San Francisco Bay area which includes diverse celebrated urban centers and extensive protected natural areas. The Fellows will be mentored by seasoned dedicated professionals with years of experience mentoring early career folks.