Kathy Kramer. (Photo: USFWS)

Carrie Thompson, Conservation Partnerships
What does a San Francisco Bay Area gardener have in common with a former vice president and the governor of California? Kathy Kramer, a Bay Area education program advocate and creator for more than 20 years, was recently presented with the National Wildlife Federation’s 2007 National Conservation Achievement Award for her education work.  Kramer was honored in Washington D.C. alongside eight others, including former Vice President Al Gore and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.   

The FWS Coastal Program at San Francisco Bay has worked in partnership with Kramer since 1992, providing financial support for the programs she has developed for public education and resource protection. This award honored her for organizing and holding “Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tours” - showcasing private urban gardens for public inspection and education. These gardens provide habitat for native wildlife, are pesticide free, and use minimal to negligible water. To date, Kramer’s program has hosted an impressive 40,000+ garden visits.  (For more information, visit:  http://BringingBackTheNatives.net)

These garden tours not only educate the public about native species, but play an important role in connecting this urban community to nature.  By nurturing and cultivating native plant enthusiasts, her program builds an increasing cadre of urban garden champions who improve wildlife habitat in the urban ring around this important estuary.  These gardens emphasize the use of water-saving native species and practices that spare the estuary the typical urban garden inputs of insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

These tours have created a growing community of citizen stewards who are not only interested in their urban gardens, but also their neighborhood creeks, their upslope watersheds, and the estuarine system of San Francisco Bay. 

The Coastal Program (http://ecos.fws.gov/coastal) is the Service’s vanguard for non-regulatory, voluntary, citizen and community-based stewardship efforts for fish and wildlife conservation. The Program provides willing partners with financial and technical assistance to accomplish stewardship projects that benefit Federal Trust Species and is proud to count true conservation champions, like Kathy Kramer, among its partners.