The year has come to an end! This year San Lorenzo High School’s Earth Team met 46 times, completing over 110 hours of education and training. Meetings included 21 class visits, 18 field visits, and 7 public events (one of which they hosted)! Together, we reached approximately 956 community members and classmates. The team inventoried 1,918 trees, planted 164 native plants, picked up 624 pieces of litter, and removed 2,500 square feet of invasive species!
The highlights of our projects were..
- YES Conference Presentation: At the end of February, our interns had the opportunity to attend and present at the Youth for the Environment and Sustainability (YES) Conference. This annual conference is designed to bring together students, teachers, and youth leaders from around the Bay Area to discuss topics surrounding climate change and transportation issues. San Lorenzo interns presented to their peers about the importance of urban forestry and their tree inventory project in addition to exploring the rest of what the conference had to offer.
- Community Restoration Work Day at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline: After several weeks of learning restoration techniques and participating in planning and outreach activities, the team hosted their own community workday at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline. With the help of dedicated employees of the East Bay Regional Parks District, the interns were able to learn about the ecology of Oyster Bay and the importance of their hard work at the park. Over 25 volunteers attended the community workday and helped with restoration efforts including native plantings and invasive species removal.
- Presenting at the City of San Leandro City Council Meeting: To educate the community about their work at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline, several interns from the team had the chance to present a short slideshow about their accomplishments at Oyster Bay to the San Leandro City Council on May 21st. Although they were nervous, the presentation went very smoothly and everyone on the council had beautiful and encouraging comments on all the hard work the team has put into the project. They even got to take a picture with the mayor for the paper!
- Weekend Tree Inventory: Although the interns spent a lot of time out inventorying trees, they only had one weekend during which they did tree inventory. Eager to get further in their competition, each inventory team worked hard and efficiently! Together, all inventory teams entered a record amount of trees in one session for the year. And to celebrate their work, we finished the meeting with burgers from In-N-Out. Yum!!
This is why Earth Team is so important to me. It’s a way of learning how getting involved locally can have an impact that is potentially global. It’s because of Earth Team that I will not stop working towards environmental justice in our community and for our world. In the future I believe that the Environmental Leadership and Action class will be an option for San Lorenzo High students. Until then, I am proud to be a part of environmental organizations such as Druids and Earth Team that strive to keep the movement for sustainability going and give me hope for our future.
– Aubury Freed
I know about the trees around me and how they positively benefit us. I feel like now I can educate my family on environmental topics and show them accurate examples. I enjoyed meeting the different people and being active in my community. Working with Earth Team has inspired me to spread knowledge.
-Akiyah Jone
Great job San Lorenzo interns!
San Lorenzo Earth Team 