Environmental Awards 2024
Nurturing Love of the Land for Children and Youth
2024 is the 40th year that the Sonoma County Conservation Council has been recognizing local environmental leaders! Given that the generation that began this mission of protecting our beautiful region from rampant development is aging out and passing on, we feel that the work being done to encourage a connection to nature for children and youth is essential to carrying on this legacy of protection and stewardship.
SCCC is honoring four programs and their leaders who are continuing this important mission, as well as two other individuals for their long-time work behind the scenes protecting the environment in Sonoma County.
Ernestine I. Smith Environmentalists of the Year
Craig Anderson & Lee Hackeling, Co-directors of LandPaths, for their Rooting Youth in Nature initiative.
Christine Fontaine, Education Director, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, for the Learning Laguna and Camp Tule programs.
Craig Anderson and Lee Hackeling are the founders and heart and soul of LandPaths, a Sonoma County nonprofit founded in 1996 with a mission to “foster a love of the land.” LandPaths conducts vibrant environmental education programming focusing on youth and historically underserved communities. Rooting Youth in Nature is one of three core initiatives that their work focuses on. With vision, commitment and amazing effectiveness, and by recognizing years ago the importance of bringing diversity into the environmental arena, Craig and Lee have grown LandPaths into a significant force for environmental protection in the county.
LandPaths is one of the original providers that helped form our Program awardee, the Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative, back in 2008. They are also one of the participating organizations in the Pathways Project and helped bring funding to the Project.
Christine Fontaine has served as Education Director of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation for nearly 18 years. Christine is an inspirational, creative and passionate environmental educator who advanced the Learning Laguna Program and developed Camp Tule programs which have inspired thousands of children about the wonders of the Laguna watershed. She has grown Learning Laguna, an environmental and wetland science education program for 2nd-4th grade students; it has served approximately 23,000 children to date. Christine also created Camp Tule in 2018, a summer day-camp that now also serves as a career pathway program for high school and college students seeking hands-on opportunities to learn teaching skills and build their own leadership competencies serving as camp counselors and naturalists. .She has trained hundreds of people to serve as volunteer environmental teachers and guides. Her leadership and creative planning ensures that the Laguna Foundation’s Community Education programs engage and inspire people of all ages to value the Laguna de Santa Rosa ecosystems.
Lifetime Environmental Achievement Award
Ernie Carpenter was a Sonoma County Supervisor for 16 years, from 1981-1997. Ernie has been and continues to be a powerful force for the environment. Over the past 40 years, he has worked with the California Coastal Conservancy, was a was a founding board member of LandPaths and Neighbors to Preserve Rural Sonoma County as well as several land conservation and oak woodland conservation groups. He advocated for the Agricultural and Open Space District to protect large swaths of land in western Sonoma County. He has been an outspoken and passionate advocate for the environment and a mentor to many young people entering politics and environmental and social justice advocacy work.
Outstanding Environmental Program
The Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative is a network of dozens of organizations which work with youth. They identify grade level gaps, environmental education gaps, and land connection gaps all around the county. The Environmental Education Pathways Project, an initiative of SEEC’s, aims to fill those gaps, increase access to nature, and provide hands-on outdoor learning. With a focus on Title 1 elementary schools, the Pathways Project works to make sure that every student at every grade level has a touchpoint of environmental education. Over 10 environmental education providers, all members of SEEC, collaborate with 32 schools to create “pathways” to reflect the school’s culture and assets, and scaffold student learning to intentionally re-enforce and build greater student understanding.
Special Recognition: Native Plant Volunteer
John Fairbank is a dedicated volunteer who for years has spent hundreds of hours caring for the land. He is particularly passionate about removing invasive species so that native biodiversity can thrive in Sonoma County. Not only does he attend volunteer workdays at multiple organizations, but he also goes out on his own time to a number of preserves and Sonoma County Regional Parks throughout the county to remove invasive species, protect watersheds by monitoring drainage and erosion during storms, and conducting forestry work. In addition, John is a wildlife docent at Ragle Park and is becoming a docent at Armstrong Woods.
Environmental Awards 2024 Read More »
range of River-related services, including environmental education, River cleanup, park development, and programs for dealing with fire damage, erosion and drought. Don speaks for the Russian River in this difficult time of climate change, advocating for water policies and regulations that will allow the River ecosystem to thrive while balancing the needs of people. Don’s advocacy in this year of historic drought has been especially critical.
contributions include marine mammal protection, ocean water quality monitoring, coastal trail promotion and coastal access for under-represented communities (as Executive Director for Coastwalk), working on the kelp forest ecosystem breakdown and climate adaptation, and advocating for the coast during the county’s Local Coastal Plan Update.
protection of seals, whales and redwoods, the Stewards expanded, partnering with California State Parks and many other conservation and environmental stewardship organizations to bring people and the land together. The Stewards’ programs under Michele Luna have included restoration projects, fish passages, monitoring seals and sea lions in the Russian River estuary, volunteer trail work, training youth stewards, removing barriers to parks access, and fire ecology training.
Richard Retecki: As a planner for Sonoma County in the 1970’s, Richard worked on the county’s very first Local Coastal Plan. During his career, Richard Retecki has worked as a planner, grant writer and project manager for the county and the California Coastal Conservancy. He has completed an impressive list of restoration and parks projects that benefit the people of Sonoma County. As a volunteer he has served on the board of Coastwalk and the Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation, helping to raise money for parks and for coastal access. Currently he is using his long experience with the coast as a founding member of the Save Sonoma Coast Group with the purpose of reviewing and recommending improvements to the Sonoma County Draft Local Coastal Plan.
Following a 2018 campaign in Petaluma to stop a gas station from being built next to a school, an effort began to stop a new gas station project on Hwy 116 near Cotati. This campaign was picked up and amplified by Woody and in the end the application was withdrawn.
When Pat & Ted Eliot moved to Sonoma County in the 1980’s, they began volunteering to preserve open space and create public trails. They were involved in passing the ballot measures that set up and funded the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space district.The Eliots helped create the Sonoma Mountain Preservation Group and the Sonoma leg of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, and advocated for open space in the upcoming plan for the future of the Sonoma Developmental Center. Between them they supported and served on the boards of Landpaths, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Madrone Audubon, Point Blue Conservation Science and many other organizations.