Annual Membership Meeting, Potluck Picnic & Awards

REcap

EAC would like to thank our member community for joining us for the Annual Member Meeting, Picnic Potluck & Awards on Saturday, June 24th at Point Reyes National Seashore's Bear Valley Picnic Area. View Photos

The EAC Board, staff, interns, and members gathered over a delicious picnic potluck, followed by a member circle-up for our event welcome, board election results, and to honor local leaders with our annual environmental awards. This year, Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni handed out Marin County Certificates of Recognition to our awardees in addition to our six environmental awards (see awardees below).

This delightful day in the park ended with two board-led naturalist hikes in the park, which gave our members an opportunity to get out in the places we protect and whose contributions allow us to accomplish our vital mission to protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity in coastal Marin, and known to all of us affectionately as West Marin.

Member Shares

What a beautiful event you all put on at Bear Valley Picnic Area. It all flowed perfectly, the food was delicious, the speeches and awards were inspiring, your signage was elegant, and our walk with David Wimpfheimer was excellent. - Alison

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the gathering today and the hike with Sara’s group!! It was amazing to be among so many like-minded folks. Hearing about all the wonderful things that so many young people are doing is encouraging. And a big thank you to you and your staff for making it all happen!! - Judy

Click Here to View 2023 Event Photos

2023 EAC Environmental Awards

Peter Behr Steward of the Land & Sea:
Joe Mueller, College of Marin Biology Professor

Public Service Awards:
Max Korten & Samantha Haimovitch,
Marin County Parks and Open Space

In honor of Joe’s community advocacy and outreach towards keeping and advancing the College of Marin (COM) Marine Lab in Bolinas. The Lab will be an important component of the biological sciences program at COM where Joe has instructed thousands of students in the environmental sciences for more than thirty years many of which have gone on to be effective leaders in the environmental field. In addition, Joe has donated his time and expertise to the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival, for the past 14 years sharing his passion for owls. He is a favorite instructor of our event, and we are so pleased to honor him for his contributions to coastal Marin.

Joe has been a marine biology and natural history field course instructor at the College of Marin for 32 years. He’s taught courses in ecology, environmental science, ornithology, mammalogy, and field ecology of Alaska, Yellowstone, and the Pacific Northwest to name a few. His passion is using a holistic perspective to facilitate an understanding of the living world as an interconnecting web of interrelationships that are often more cooperative than competitive.

In honor of Marin County Parks Director Max and Superintendent Sam Haimovitch's diligence and commitment to bringing EAC’s Duxbury Docent Program to life at Agate Beach. This partnership has resulted in a robust local docent program with more than 20 volunteers who provide outreach and education to the public, school groups, and large groups visiting Duxbury Reef.

Max started with Marin County Parks in 2014 as parks and open space superintendent and has been a director and general manager since 2016. He has a history of working for both local and federal parks and natural resources programs, including Conservation Corps North Bay, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service. Max graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Environmental Science, and went on to obtain a Master of Science in Natural Resources from Humboldt State University.
Samantha is a Superintendent of Parks and Open Space at Marin County Parks, overseeing maintenance and operations of the North and West regions. A county representative since 2017, she is responsible for continuing stewardship and maintenance of the county's parks and open spaces. She also manages the department’s Volunteer Program and leads internal equity initiatives on behalf of employee representatives as well as being involved in the equity roundtable of external stakeholders.

Next Generation Advocacy Award:
Eddie Monson & Rajan Rao, California Young Birder’s Club

In honor of Eddie and Rajan's leadership and dedication in guiding the next generation of young birders through the California Young Birders Club. Eddie and Rajan have been birding with EAC since they were just kids. Now at 17, they are taking leadership of the California Young Birders Club and partnered to help assist guides in the field at EAC’s Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival in 2023. Eddie and his father John will be joining our Festival Committee in the coming months to help develop programs that serve and bring the next generation out into the field.

Eddie Monson started his passion for birds at age seven. Currently the President of the California Young Birders Club, he leads monthly trips in Northern California, enjoys finding rarities, contributing to bird databases, exploring his patches in San Francisco and Point Reyes and best of all, hanging with young birders.
Rajan Rao is a rising Junior at Lick-Wilmerding High School. His passion for birding began eight years ago when a family friend took him to Heron’s Head in the Bayview District to observe shorebirds.
Rajan has birded across the country and in Central America. Rajan shares his love for birds by helping organize outings for California Young Birders’ Club, contributing to habitat restoration efforts at community gardens and farms throughout San Francisco, and volunteering for EAC’s Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival.
This summer, Rajan will be interning at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica on a forest integrity project focusing on the effectiveness of reforestation efforts by comparing new and old growth forests and tracking bird populations through mist netting and banding.

Volunteers of the Year Awards:
Nancy Jensvold & Kent Khtikian

Nancy has been an instrumental part of our team since 2017 when she walked into our office to find out who we were, what we do, and how she could get involved. Immediately she joined our member circle and then started out helping with our annual Coastal Clean Up event, greeting participants, and hosting our welcome table. She has helped the team with various projects including researching grants and assisting with our member acknowledgments. She was instrumental in supporting our team in 2023 as a member of our Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival Committee, taking on a number of administrative tasks and event planning activities. Now known as the resident, Bird Nerd, her attention to detail, and initiative are unparallel, and we are so happy to have her on our team.

Nancy has an MPh in Epidemiology and has worked in a number of areas of public health (e.g., birth defects, environmental health, and glaucoma). Most recently, she worked for Kaiser Permanente as a Research Project Manager leading studies in postpartum care, pediatric asthma, heart disease, and kidney disease. I left Kaiser in 2016, intending to take a "gap year" to volunteer for a number of organizations addressing areas important to me and then return to work. The "gap year" became a lifestyle.

Kent’s love for Duxbury Reef had him out as a one-man docent program providing education to visitors and collecting human activity data for the Marin Protection Area (MPA) Watch program for years. In 2019, EAC, the Point Reyes National Seashore, and Kent worked on a report, Duxbury Reef Community Docent Proposal, that compiled MPA Watch data to propose a new docent program to Max Korten of Marin County Parks and Supervisor Dennis Rodoni to help protect the Reef. In January 2020, our program partnership was approved, but delayed until 2022 due to the pandemic. Now, after two years, we have created a unique and robust local docent program to protect Duxbury Reef now and into the future - and in many parts thanks to Kent's due diligence.

Kent Khtikian is a graduate of UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and is now semi-retired. In the mid-1980’s he helped develop what was then the world’s largest wind-energy facility in the Altamont Pass, east of Livermore. Working on a pro bono basis for about 3 years, he was instrumental in the passage by California’s Legislature, of the first law passed by any State that would permit some electricity consumers to elect to purchase electricity directly from a green source.
Following a long career, he invested his time in volunteering for the California Academy of Sciences, specializing in marine invertebrates, and for the National Park Service tagging and surveying pinnipeds, intertidal invertebrates along the Marin Coast and Alcatraz Island, and mapping paleontological resources. In addition, he volunteered with MPA Watch from 2013 to 2021 and has been instrumental in helping launch the Duxbury Docent Program in collaboration with EAC.

Support Our Mission - Join or Renew

Join our community of dedicated supporters whose annual contributions help us protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin through advocacy, education, and engagement opportunities.

Membership starts at $35 for individuals and $50 for households of two. Contributions are 100% tax-deductible,
and membership is based on the calendar year.

Member benefits include:

Protecting the lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin.
Exclusive access to annual Member Meeting & Awards (each June) and election of EAC’s Board of Directors.
Early-bird member registration (one week before the public) and waived registration fees to our annual Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival (each April).
10% retail discounts in our Advocate store in Point Reyes Station.
Annual invites to Litter Bugs Me/Coastal Clean Up Day, Piper on the Ridge, the Winter Gathering, and other events, or volunteer opportunities.
Subscription to our printed and online Advocate newsletter.

Often our efforts are not fought overnight, so your annual support is critical to our ongoing efforts to ensure environmental protection measures are in place and lasting.