Volunteering In Marin: Be a Watcher

 

Weather Watching With all the talk about an especially wet El Niño year, volunteers are encouraged to join the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). The data collected helps form the official weather alerts and forecasts from the National Weather Service. The activity has school project potential for young ones.

Marin Magazine
Photo by Juoko Van Der Kruijssen

Otter Spotting Become a citizen scientist and collect data, including photos and video that will provide insight into otters’ range, habitats, behavior and reproduction. Volunteer observers report on river otters in neighborhood streams, rivers and bays; the information collected appears on an ArcGIS map that is updated quarterly. riverotterecology.org

Marin Magazine
Photo by Jessica Weinberg-McClosky

Raptor Counting Join other volunteer hawk counters as they identity and log up to 19 species of raptor every autumn. All the activities take place in the Marin Headlands and help the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy look for trends in hawk populations over time. Hawk watchers are recruited every spring, with trainings beginning in July.


Kasia Pawlowska

Kasia Pawlowska loves words. A native of Poland, Kasia moved to the States when she was seven. The San Francisco State University creative writing graduate went on to write for publications like the San Francisco Bay Guardian and KQED Arts among others prior to joining the Marin Magazine staff. Topics Kasia has covered include travel, trends, mushroom hunting, an award-winning series on social media addiction and loads of other random things. When she’s not busy blogging or researching and writing articles, she’s either at home writing postcards and reading or going to shows. Recently, Kasia has been trying to branch out and diversify, ie: use different emojis. Her quest for the perfect chip is never-ending.