RIVER OTTER ECOLOGY PROJECT

Our research helps to fill a gap in understanding of the range, reproduction, diet, health and general ecology of river otters in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. This information helps inform conservation strategies, including restoration projects and toxic spill response, and sheds light upon climate change effects on both otters and their food web. Because river otters are an indicator species, meaning their presence and health offer us information about the health of their watersheds, information we gather about their populations helps us better manage our shared watersheds. Since 2012, we have used crowd-sourcing, participatory science and a combination of technologies we adapted to help gather data and educate participants to document river otter presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now throughout the United States. We monitor the recovering population of river otters in a focal study area in Marin County, CA. Camera trapping is a relatively inexpensive method of collecting information on the abundance, pup emergence, and behavior of river otters, because it can be done with trained volunteers. Our field research is conducted by trained field and lab volunteers. We're dedicated to community science, and offer extensive training in field and lab techniques, habitat surveying, field sign and documentation to help our volunteers provide us with the data and samples we need to accomplish our research goals.

Education about the linkages among healthy otters, healthy watersheds, and healthy communities is as important as scientific research and discovery, and perhaps more important and useful to a wider range of people. As Wendell Berry says, "If we were sincerely looking for a place of safety, for real security and success, then we would begin to turn to our communities - and not the communities simply of our human neighbors but also of the water, earth, and air, the plants and animals, all the creatures with whom our local life is shared." That message resonates deeply with people who are offered concrete examples of nature's resilience, and our human capacity to mediate environmental mistakes. Our conservation goal is always to support and expand the public's understanding of and passion for the natural world. We provide education for adults and children on the importance of watershed health, using river otters as ambassadors, with the goal of helping support restoration and conservation of wetlands and watersheds.