We. Got. So. Much. Done!

January 5, 2024

For Point Blue, 2023 was a year like no other. We accomplished more than ever before and are thrilled to share just a few of the amazing things we accomplished with your partnership (and have a look at our new our Annual Impact Report for more!):

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  We were over the moon to launch a brand new partnership with the State through the California’s Wildlife Conservation Board to steward over $50 million to support restoration projects around the state! This partnership will achieve real and measurable conservation outcomes through the creation of wildlife habitat while increasing the participation of communities, including those historically marginalized?

  • Through our leadership, the Sierra Meadows Partnership awarded $10.69 million for 27 projects that will catalyze climate-smart restoration on 5,655 acres of meadow, putting us nearly 20% closer to our goal of restoring and protecting 30,000 meadow acres by 2030.
  • Meanwhile, our Roots Program–which focuses on restoration to benefit wildlife on farms, ranches, and other working landscapes–is working with applicants to develop 74 projects in 28 counties. Projects include river and creek restorations in Humboldt County to help salmon and other fish, oak plantings and nest box installation on a ranch in Butte County, and riparian restoration implemented by our STRAW Program on a farm in Sonoma County.

• Point Blue’s collaborative Our Coast Our Future tool—built with USGS— was identified by California coastal practitioners as the primary preferred resource for projected sea level rise and flooding information…a huge honor!
• In collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Point Blue and the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership secured $15 million to support BirdReturns, a program that provides annual wetland habitat for birds in the Central Valley.

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  Our Oceans Program celebrated 20 years of its incredible ACCESS collaboration, an at-sea monitoring effort which we lead alongside NOAA and its Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, and Monterey Bay National Marine sanctuaries. ACCESS data contributes information to resource managers, policy makers, and conservation partners to improve conditions for ocean wildlife.

• After being mostly closed to the public since March 2020, we fully re-opened our Palomarin Field Station and Nature Center, where we’ve been banding birds, training the next generation of conservation scientists, and hosting visitors for nearly 60 years. We also updated our solar panels and added new fire-safe landscaping.
• Our award winning Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed program (STRAW) celebrated its 30-year anniversary! Since 1993, the program has led over 60,000 K-12 students and teachers in professional-grade, climate-smart habitat restorations and the program now manages three native plant nurseries as well as the Novato Baylands restoration site. You can watch a short video of our anniversary party here.
• We continued to scale up data-driven conservation through significant growth of the Point Blue Science Cloud, our best-in-class data management platform. We were the first non-profit organization to receive the federal government’s FedRAMP authorization, enabling us to partner with and store ecological data for agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Defense (230 of whose staff have now been trained on the Science Cloud’s flagship product!).
• Following through on our commitment to increase the diversity of communities we partner with, we have led more inclusive community engagement than ever before! From volunteers at the Novato Baylands to community scientists in our Soundscapes to Landscapes program; from thousands of STRAW students to farmers and ranchers around the state; from strengthened partnerships with California’s tribes to continued work with community college students; and from artists who helped us communicate our science to everyone who participated in a Point Blue training…we were delighted to work with all of you!

If you’d like to learn more about these and so many more updates, we hope you’ll spend some time with our brand new annual report. We couldn’t have achieved any of this without your generous support. All of us at Point Blue wish you a very happy new year!