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Facing a cash crunch, RCD officials pitch worth of its education programs
Conservation district this year faces a funding decrease from a key provider
By RICHARD BAMMER | | Vacaville Reporter
UPDATED: November 15, 2024 at 10:54 PM PST
If there was anything Solano Resource Conservation District officials appeared to tell a Friday gathering of local elected leaders and agency partners, it was something like a quote attributed to legendary business magnate John D. Rockefeller: “Think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege.”
Facing a cash crunch in the coming year, the RCD officials hosted an informational meeting and lunch about the organization’s programs, including the Suisun Marsh Program for Solano County’s third and sixth graders, at Rush Ranch Open Space, off Grizzly Island Road, south of Suisun City.
Using a computer-aided slide presentation, Marianne Butler, the environmental education director at the Dixon-based RCD, told the group, seated in the ranch’s education center, that the district’s primary funder, the Solano County Water Agency, likely will limit its contribution for education programs in the new year.
Other funding sources — among them, the Solano County Office of Education, the Vacaville Public Education Foundation, the county’s seven cities, and the Solano County Department of Resource Management — are expected to maintain their contributions toward the education programs, Butler told The Reporter after the morning meeting. They include not only the watershed programs but also Science Camp and water treatment plant tours for Solano County fifth graders and the biomonitoring program for high schoolers.
During the meeting, Chris Rose, the RCD’s executive director, said the district’s budget tops out at $4.5 million, with 5 percent of that amount sourced from taxes. The remaining $4.25 million comes from “local partnerships and (state and federal) grants,” he added. And of that, some $1.3 million is set aside for the RCD education programs, which faces a cutback with a decreased contribution from the Water Agency, Butler said later.
In an aside, while walking on a ranch trail with Green Valley Middle School sixth graders, she noted the somewhat surprising cost of a single school field trip to the historic ranch, with bus transportation and liability insurance, paid by the RCD, not a school district: $5,000.
“It mounts up quickly,” a reference to the more 100 annual school field trips at the ranch, said Supervisor Mitch Mashburn of Vacaville, who walked with the sixth graders as they approached the marsh.
Besides Mashburn, who sits on the Water Agency board of directors, Supervisor Monica Brown, also an agency board member, attended. Others included Supervisor-elect Cassandra James, Vacaville City Councilmembers Jeanette Wiley and Sarah Chapman, Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez, Cary Keaten, general manager of the Solano Irrigation District, and Paul Adler, community relations director of the Valero Benicia refinery.
In some opening remarks, Steve Chappel, executive director of the Suisun RCD, said, the district’s education program “makes a difference” in preserving the marsh for future generations.
Rose said the marsh, 116,000 acres of wetland and the largest brackish water marsh on the West Coast, “is unique” and protected “into perpetuity” under state law.
The RCD education programs “make the world a better place” for Solano students “and their children,” he added.
Butler’s slide show indicated the conservation districts help to restore the county’s watersheds and natural resources to health; protect natural resources through partnerships and the educaton programs; educate children and adults about watershed science and environmental stewardship; and enhance watersheds and their habitats.
“If we don’t connect our future leaders to the outdoors, what kind of home will Solano County be?” one of the slide’s commentaries read.
Butler noted that for the current school year, an estimated 10,000 students from more than 315 classes and more than 115 field trips will be held at Rush Ranch.
“Positive, direct experiences in nature during childhood and role models of care for nature by someone close to the child are the two factors that contribute most to individuals choosing to take action to benefit the environment as adults,” another slide commentary read. And still another read that outdoor lessons reveal that “children are more engaged in learning (88 percent), are better able to concentrate (68 percent), and are better behaved (65 percent).”
At one point, Butler said that, while the world in 2024 is much different that the one attendees experienced growing up, the RCD programs are essential “more than ever,” as a way to “connect our future leaders with the outdoors.”
Mashburn, as he walked with the students toward the marsh, said project-based and hands-on learning are among the most effective ways for children to learn.
While exploring the marsh with education program manager Shea Kinser, the Green Valley Middle School students learned about the marsh itself, its history, the animals that inhabit it, the watershed, the difference between wetlands and grasslands.
They also learned about the marsh’s water, its temperature on Friday, turbidity, its chemical makeup, and the plants that grow nearby. In short, the students during the two-hour visit to the marsh, became budding scientists and biologists — and so did the local elected officials and the district’s agency partners.
Originally Published: November 15, 2024 at 5:26 PM PST