California non-profit aims to work with students to fight climate threat with $10k grant

SAN FRANCISCO — In the face of a rapidly changing climate, the threat to California's most lively natural habitats and ecosystems is rising.

And it's not just local flora and fauna that will suffer, humans also are bound to be impacted: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, climate change may account for longer droughts and bigger wildfires in the near future.

With these environmental challenges constantly looming on the horizon, Point Blue Conservation Science in Petaluma just north of San Francisco is making plans to protect California's natural habitats.

Using a $10,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation, parent company to USA TODAY, Point Blue has made plans to revitalize a plant nursery that has stood empty in Petaluma's Casa Grande High School for several years. The mission: turn it into an indoor haven for local plants that can be used in Point Blue's scientific research.

The next generation of Californians will take an active role in the organization's project. Point Blue plans to develop an entire curriculum for Casa Grande students focused on safe planting practices and habitat conservation.

One of Point Blue's biggest partnerships to date is the education program STRAW, or Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed. Through STRAW, Point Blue works with about 3,000 students from nearby schools every year on habitat restoration, both inside and outside of the classroom.

The Gannett Foundation's $10,000 grant for Point Blue is just one of many that the media company has bestowed on nonprofit organizations via its social responsibility initiative, "A Community Thrives," or ACT. This year, ACT received more than 500 submissions from over 40 states.

Now in its second year, Gannett's ACT program annually awards a total of $600,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations that are focused on improving the community in the area's of wellness, arts and culture, or education.

Grants are evaluated based on the viability, sustainability and impact of the nonprofit's proposed project, as well as its consistency with Gannett's goals of supporting those in need.

"We were so moved by the number of inspiring ideas submitted to ACT this year," Gannett CEO Bob Dickey said in a statement. "We are excited about the opportunity to empower these organizations to create real change in their communities."

Point Blue director of education and outreach Melissa Pitkin says she hopes the grant will "help us ... engage students in some really strong experiential science education, where they’re taking the role and helping to design practices and also learning about conservation and stewardship."

Some of the plants students might be growing include bright pink flowering currants, coffeeberry shrubs, and the curiously named sticky monkey-flower, a plant with delicately shaped petals and sticky leaves.

The idea, Pitkin said, is that students will be involved not only in growing the plants, but also in learning new methods to help Point Blue restore habitats threatened by climate change.

Additionally, the plant nursery will be beneficial in helping Point Blue acquire the plants they need for their habitat restoration work.

Eventually, Pitkin said, Point Blue would like to use the nursery as a jumping-off point to create more student-run plant nurseries, as well as a chance to expand their student outreach. One plan is for students to offer tours and teach younger grades about environmental conservation at the elementary school nearby.

"There’s really quite a lot of opportunity," Pitkin said. "We see this as the beginning of something that could be really exciting."

WPXI