Twice a month, I present an endangered California desert tortoise to a diversity of school kids in San Francisco during a docent talk in the theater of the Randall Museum. I am astonished that even kindergartners here oftentimes know what “endangered” means. When I ask, they reply, “It means they are going away.” “They are almost gone.”

On Friday, May 18th, parks, wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, environmental agencies, conservation organizations, schools, museums, libraries, businesses, and community groups across the country will host events to bring awareness to imperiled species on Endangered Species Day.

I heard about Endangered Species Day from Patrick Schlemmer, President of the San Francisco Naturalist Society. Patrick works at the San Francisco Zoo, where an inaugural celebration of Endangered Species Day will host over 2,000 school children bearing Endangered Species Day “Passports.” Docents will be stationed at exhibits of endangered species at the zoo to answer questions and stamp passports. While visiting the endangered western lowland gorilla, Sumatran tiger, Waldrapp ibis, Grizzly bear, Ring-tailed lemur, and San Francisco garter snake, children will learn about ways to save wildlife.

For more information and to find a list of events, visit the Endangered Species Coalition Web site: www.stopextinction.org.

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People’s Grocery is having a second workday of the 2007 year at the Sunol Agriculture Park and Farm. On Sunday May 22nd, staff, interns and volunteers will be heading down to Sunol, near the city of Pleasanton in eastern Alameda County, to plant peppers, watermelon and okra. They are looking for more hands to help out with springtime seed planting and working the land. The garden supplies fresh and organic food for the West Oakland community and is transforming the local food system.

To join the group, RSVP Jason Uribe, Farm Manager for People’s Grocery at (510) 504-3664 or email at Jason@peoplesgrocery.org, by Friday 5/20/07.

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After Richard Louv, chairman of the Children & Nature Network, published Last Child in the Woods in 2005, several organizations requested that he speak and write articles on the compelling topic of “Nature-Deficit Disorder,” which led to national media attention. I first heard Louv speak to a packed conference hall at the 2006 Bay Area Open Space Council conference in San Francisco. Since then, a movement to reconnect children to nature has been gaining momentum from environmentalists and youth development organizations to mental health care advocates.

In a recent article on the subject published in Orion magazine called Leave No Child Inside, Louv writes about the campaigns to reconnect children to nature, sometimes called “Leave No Child Inside,” forming across the country. “The activity has attracted a diverse assortment of people who might otherwise never work together,” writes Louv.

Before Louv’s book, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an evaluation in 2004 to measure the impacts of week-long residential outdoor education programs for at-risk sixth graders in California as called for by California Assembly Bill (AB) 1330, Chapter 663.

They found that children who attended outdoor school significantly raised their science scores by 27 percent, retained new science knowledge for six to ten weeks, showed gains in cooperation and conflict resolution and other positive social gains. More than half of the students in the study were English learners and first-timers to a nature setting.

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The Environmental Grantmakers Association just published a free online toolkit for greening foundation operations called “Green Beyond Grants.” It contains tips, specific steps, resources, and checklists for going green and practicing environmental sustainability. Topics in the guide include conserving energy, purchasing green materials and supplies, serving sustainable food and beverages, reducing waste, and conscious traveling.

Any organization that travels, runs an office, or hosts an event will find this guide useful. Events are a particularly good place to reduce waste and teach sustainability practices to others. Just last night the Women’s Environmental Network hosted a “zero waste” event in San Francisco. All plant-based utensils, cups, and plates were collected for composting, including the vegetarian tamale husks.

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