Workshop Coordinators:
Natalie Arroyo, Senior Planner at Redwood Community Action Agency, City Councilwoman in Eureka CA, and SRF Board Member
Anna Halligan, Trout Unlimited

Many of us in the world of watershed work find ourselves needing public input. It may be a grant requirement, or perhaps it is key to implementing a project with public support. Often, we don’t have the best tools to describe our work to the general public, receive feedback and ideas, and get buy-in from the people who are affected most. This workshop will help to define the issues many of us face, will provide guidance about how to reach the public with an emphasis on the hardest-to-reach audiences, will provide demonstrations of helpful facilitation techniques, and will give you a chance to practice them. At the beginning of the workshop, we will use a real-world scenario as practice for our day. We will get up, move, talk to one another, and hear each other’s ideas, all while practicing and modeling effective public process. You’ll come away with techniques for spreading the word more broadly and handling the challenges of “talking fish” (or insert your specialty here) with total strangers! 

Morning Session: Defining the Issue and Developing Facilitation Skills

What’s up with People in our Watersheds? Defining the Issues that Reduce Public Participation in Recovery
Natalie Arroyo, Senior Planner, Redwood Community Action Agency, and Anna Halligan, North Coast Coho Project Manager, Trout Unlimited

Compassionate Communication
Steph Wald, Watershed Projects Manager, Central Coast Salmon Enhancement

Sense Making: How to Use Graphic Facilitation to Convey Ideas and Increase Understanding
Keytra Meyer, Strategy Manager, Humboldt Area Foundation

Facilitating Effective Communication
Miriam Volat, Policy Program Manager and Soil Scientist, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

Afternoon Session: What do These Connections Look Like in our Work?

The Mattole Field Institute: An Incidentally Novel Approach to Engaging the Public in a Rural Watershed
Flora Brain, Mattole Restoration Council

Connecting Policy and People
Jennifer Savage, California Policy Director, Surfrider Foundation

How Service Programs Create a Legacy of Stewardship
Jennifer Catsos, Director, AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project

Building Trust Within a Project Area Through Meaningful Public Engagement and Outreach
Sara Schremmer, Program Manager, Salmonid Restoration Federation

Involving Multiple Landowners in a Large Scale Restoration Project
Doreen Hansen, Humboldt County Resource Conservation District

Rollout of the SONCC Coho Salmon Recovery Plan: the Vision and Lessons Learned
Julie Weeder, SONCC Coho Salmon Recovery Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries