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Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) is a United States 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1999 whose mission is "To take swift and decisive action to protect and restore marine species and their habitats and to inspire people in communities all over the world to join us as active and vocal marine species advocates." [1]
TIRN provides the umbrella organization to a number of projects including the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), Got Mercury? and SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network). In order to achieve its goals, TIRN uses a combination of grassroots education and organizing, legal pressure, hands-on conservation, innovative use of the media, research and policy advocacy. [2] TIRN has offices in the United States, Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea and is currently[ when? ] supported by over 10,000 members.
TIRN states its vision as:
"Foreseeing a time when a critical-mass of people in communities all over the world share a common understanding of the intrinsic value of biodiversity and a permanent commitment to acting as wise, willing and able stewards of life in the earth's oceanns and o its lands." [1]
TIRN was founded in 1999 to provide an umbrella organization for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. This had at the time been an affiliate organization of the Earth Island Institute since 1989, focusing on the international protection of endangered sea turtles. In 1999, the project broke off from its parent group and re-incorporated as the Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Since its founding in 1999, TIRN has diversified and expanded its programs. The project, based in Olema, Marin County, California, now includes offices in the Gulf of Mexico, Central America and the Western Pacific. [2] In addition, Got Mercury?, a program to educate the public about mercury levels in seafood, was developed in 2002 under TIRN and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. [3]
In 1999, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, a volunteer-driven program focused on protecting endangered salmon in the Lagunitas Creek watershed, became an official program of TIRN. [4]
Turtle Island Restoration Network was a top finalist for Best Non-Profit Organization in Galveston.com's 2019 Best of the Island Awards. [5]
TIRN is the umbrella organization for two major programs:
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project was founded in 1989 with the mission to protect endangered sea turtles in ways that make cultural and economic sense to communities that share their habitats with the creatures. [2] The project has a number of active projects including the Save the Leatherback program, the Gulf of Mexico program, US Pacific Sea Turtles, Central America program, Western Pacific program and Got Mercury? program.
SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) had its seeds in 1996 and in 1999 became an official program under the umbrella of TIRN. It is a volunteer-driven program that works to protect endangered salmon in the Lagunitas Creek watershed, and the environment. [4] The programmes projects include habitat restoration, fish rescue, citizen training, creek monitoring, creek walks, land acquisition and water conservation. [6]
Key accomplishments of TIRN include: [7]
The Guadalupe River mainstem is an urban, northward flowing 14 miles (23 km) river in California whose much longer headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor when Los Alamitos Creek exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek just downstream of Coleman Road in San Jose, California. From here it flows north through San Jose, where it receives Los Gatos Creek, a major tributary. The Guadalupe River serves as the eastern boundary of the City of Santa Clara and the western boundary of Alviso, and after coursing through San José, it empties into south San Francisco Bay at the Alviso Slough.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).
Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is informed by the study of marine plants and animal resources and ecosystem functions and is driven by response to the manifested negative effects seen in the environment such as species loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem functions and focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, restoring damaged marine ecosystems, and preserving vulnerable species and ecosystems of the marine life. Marine conservation is a relatively new discipline which has developed as a response to biological issues such as extinction and marine habitats change.
The Golden Gate Biosphere Network is a voluntary coalition of federal, state, and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, and private partners within the Golden Gate Biosphere region. The Network works towards protecting the biosphere region's biodiversity and conserving its natural resources to maintain the quality of life for people within the region. The Network has been part of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme since 1988 and is part of the US Biosphere Network and EuroMAB. It is recognized by UNESCO due to the significant biodiversity of the region, as well as the Network's efforts to demonstrate and promote a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.
Lagunitas Creek is a 24 miles (39 km)-long northward-flowing stream in Marin County, California. It is critically important to the largest spawning runs of endangered coho salmon in the Central California Coast Coho salmon Evolutionary Significant Unit.
The Mattole River is a river on the north coast of California, that flows northerly, then westerly into the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of its 62 miles (100 km) course is through southern Humboldt County, though a short section of the river flows through northern Mendocino County. Communities, from north to south, closely associated with the Mattole River include: Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, Thorn Junction, and Whitethorn. The river enters the ocean at the Mattole Estuary about 4 miles (6.4 km) west-southwest of Petrolia and 10 miles (16 km) south of Cape Mendocino.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant rainbow trout populations. Completion of a series of dam removal and fish passage projects, along with improved stream flows for cold-water fish and planned habitat restoration, enable steelhead trout and Chinook salmon to access up to 20 miles (32 km) of spawning and rearing habitat in Alameda Creek and its tributaries. The first juvenile trout migrating downstream from the upper watershed through lower Alameda Creek toward San Francisco Bay was detected and documented in April 2023.
The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a 22-mile-long (35 km) wetland complex that drains a 254-square-mile (660 km2) watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, United States.
San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
Got Mercury? is a public awareness campaign about mercury levels in seafood. It is sponsored by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP) and its parent organization, the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN). The name of the campaign is based on the successful Got Milk? advertising campaign.
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), founded in 1989, is a project of Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization with a goal of protecting endangered sea turtles from human-caused threats at nesting beaches and in the ocean.
SPAWN, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, is a project of the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization.
The hawksbill sea turtle is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus Eretmochelys. The species has a global distribution that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems.
The Butte Creek Ecological Preserve and Butte Creek Canyon Ecological Reserve consist of 2 distinct management units, the Preserve, aka the "Honey Run Unit" 93 acres (0.38 km2) owned and managed by the Chico State Research Foundation, and the "Virgin Valley" and "Canyon" Units 287 acres (1.16 km2), owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The units are located east of Chico along Butte Creek in northern California. This stretch of Butte Creek is spawning habitat for the largest population of Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, an evolutionarily significant unit that is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Fall-run Chinook salmon and steelhead trout also spawn in the creek.
The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County (LCSLO) is a non-profit land trust organization that has been operating in San Luis Obispo County, California since 1984. The LCSLO is dedicated to the voluntary and collaborative preservation and improvement of lands that hold significant scenic, agricultural, habitat, and cultural values. Their work aims to benefit both the local community and wildlife that depends on these lands.
The Marin Municipal Water District is the government agency that provides drinking water to southern and central Marin County, California. Chartered in 1912, it became California's first municipal water district. It serves 191,000 customers in a 147-square-mile (380 km2) area that includes ten towns and cities.
Salmon population levels are of concern in the Atlantic and in some parts of the Pacific. Salmon are typically anadromous - they rear and grow in freshwater, migrate to the ocean to reach sexual maturity, and then return to freshwater to spawn. Determining how environmental stressors and climate change will affect these fisheries is challenging due to their lives split between fresh and saltwater. Environmental variables like warming temperatures and habitat loss are detrimental to salmon abundance and survival. Other human influenced effects on salmon like overfishing and gillnets, sea lice from farm raised salmon, and competition from hatchery released salmon have negative effects as well.
The Watershed Alliance of Marin is a 501(c)(3) non-profit network of organizations with a shared purpose of preserving the watersheds of Marin County, California.
The Freshwater Trust is a conservation non-profit based in Portland, Oregon. The mission of The Freshwater Trust is to preserve and restore freshwater ecosystems.
Olema Creek is a 12.7-mile-long (20.4 km) northwestward-flowing stream originating on the western flank of Bolinas Ridge, which is part of the Marin Hills, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges mountain system in California, United States. Olema Creek flows to Lagunitas Creek and thence to Tomales Bay and the Pacific Ocean.