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California State Parks Foundation
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1 Project since June, 2010
1 Active Project since June, 2010
Charity Info
Based in: San Francisco, California
Year founded: 1969
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Project Info
In 1977, San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point community became the home of Candlestick Point State Recreation Area—California’s first urban state park. Although local residents fought to protect this area for use by future generations, the park could not escape the industrial pollution that plagues the entire community of Bayview Hunters Point. The area’s once thriving wetlands, wildlife, and fisheries have been severely damaged due to landfill, soil erosion, industrial contamination, non-point source pollution, wastewater overflows, and illegal dumping. High school drop-out rates, as well as unemployment rates are approximately double the average rates for San Francisco. Access to and involvement with a vibrant urban park is critical to improving people’s lives and restoring the spirit of this underserved community in San Francisco.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
In 2004, the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) launched our Bay Youth for the Environment Program (BYE)in conjunction with Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)—a unique urban park revitalization and community stewardship program at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (Candlestick) in southeastern San Francisco. The three main goals of Bay Youth for the Environment are to provide local youth with rigorous environmental training and work opportunities, build community involvement and stewardship for Candlestick, as well as create a successful urban park stewardship model that can be adopted by urban communities and state parks throughout California.
RESTORING WETLANDS HABITAT
Bay Youth for the Environment gives high school-aged youth, as well as community volunteers in Bayview Hunters Point, the opportunity to get involved with a landmark wetlands restoration project at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. The 34-acre wetland restoration project will restore the largest contiguous wetlands area in the County of San Francisco. Under the guidance of trained staff, students collect native plant seeds and are growing the estimated 10,000 plants needed for native grass restoration, transition zone re-vegetation, and tree plantings at strategic sites throughout Candlestick. Youth are growing the plants at Candlestick Garden, an onsite community greenhouse and garden. The youth will also be responsible for removing non-native species and conducting maintenance of the wetlands area once the native plants have been planted. The estimated time for growing and planting the 10,000 native plants is three to four years, followed by at least one year of intensive maintenance (weeding, watering, etc). Additional ecology-based activities may include seasonal wildlife and plant inventories and visitor use surveys at Candlestick. The youth team currently works year-round (48 weeks per year) up to six hours per week on a regular schedule Monday through Saturday. In addition to the valuable training and work experience gained, each student receives $10/hour for time spent on the project.
ENHANCING COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
Community outreach and education is another critical component of Bay Youth for the Environment. Students participating in the program conduct community outreach, including organizing volunteer events such as Earth Day and Coastal Cleanup and developing a park constituency through monthly volunteer work days. The youth team helps facilitate these monthly volunteer days at the nursery where they utilize their new knowledge and skills to teach community members and local organizations about basic horticulture, native Bay Area species, and plant propagation. Fostering a personal connection between the community and Candlestick will help ensure the long-term preservation of wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, as well as create a successful urban park stewardship model that can be adopted by urban communities throughout California.
BECOMING EFFECTIVE PARK ADVOCATES
Through Bay Youth for the Environment, youth participants also have the opportunity to become effective advocates for important issues affecting their local parks, as well as their community. In recent years, the youth interns have traveled to Sacramento for CSPF’s annual Park Advocacy Day. Prior to meeting with legislators, Bay Youth interns receive training in everything from setting up a meeting with their legislator or local representative, to preparing meeting questions, knowing the issues, speaking effectively, and doing post-meeting follow-ups and letter-writing. These skills will enable the youth to be effective environmental and community stewards throughout their entire lives.
CREATING AN URBAN PARKS STEWARDSHIP MODEL
In addition to restoring wetlands and providing youth with valuable opportunities, Bay Youth for the Environment will also create a model for community/urban park partnerships that will ultimately benefit communities and urban parks statewide. Urban state parks provide communities with tremendous recreational and environmental benefits, yet many inner-city communities feel disconnected from these special places. The program at Candlestick has created a youth education, volunteer program, and stewardship model that can be adopted by other urban parks—a win-win situation for communities and parks. It has also created an outreach model for California State Parks that will help them build bridges with urban communities throughout California.
Bay Youth for the Environment is supported through grants from the Adobe Foundation, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9, San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund/San Francisco Estuary Partnership, and the Park Education Legacy Fund of CSPF.
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