The Sequoia Environmental Education Directive is a coalition of environmental education organizations united by the goal of getting kids out into nature and linking classroom learning with real world applications through outdoor education in and around Tulare County. See our 2025-26 Events Flier and save the dates! 

The SEED Network is committed to getting all kids learning outside. Besides the sheer joy and social-emotional benefits of connecting with nature, we understand that learning to understand the world with your own senses is more important than ever in our screen-saturated culture. At our most recent SEED Gathering, our presenters showed us methods to observe and record data on how the plants and animals at a location change over time. This skill is especially important for climate change education, since empirical data recorded over hundreds of years has allowed us to create the climate models we use today. As our conception of ecosystems grows more complex, we are evolving more sophisticated ways of measuring and communicating the progress of our climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. The foundations of this work will always remain the same: slowing down and tuning in to the other beings around us. This is what place-based education is all about. 

Both of our sites, Capinero Creek and the nearly adjacent Pixley National Wildlife Refuge, are managing lands crucial to the southern San Joaquin Desert ecosystem and the species that live there. As always in the valley, water is the most precious resource, and every decision involves trade offs. If we have less or less reliable water, and a requirement to reduce groundwater pumping, what are the best uses of our resources? Each of our presenters shared ways to introduce these questions to our students and to engage them in finding win-win solutions for our region. 

Our gracious host, executive director Nick Reed-Krase  explained, “SEED workshops are what the Tule Trust’s work is all about! We are grateful to have hosted such an engaged group of presenters and participants to visit our Capinero Creek restoration site and to share the work that the Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust is doing in the Central Valley. Events like these help raise awareness of different conservation issues in the region and help all of us prepare the next generation of conservationists. To stay engaged with our work, please check out our website www.tuletrust.org, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on social media!”

UNIDOS Network, in partnership with SEED, co-hosted one of the Central Valley’s most meaningful Toxic Tours on Saturday, December 6. Nearly 70 participants filled two buses as we traveled through Kettleman City, Lost Hills, and Buttonwillow to learn firsthand about the environmental burdens and community resilience that shape these rural, unincorporated communities. This year’s tour was guided by two remarkable keynote speakers. We were honored to welcome Yvonna Cazares, whose statewide leadership in equity and public policy helped frame the day within the larger movement for environmental justice.

We were equally honored to uplift the voice and legacy of longtime environmental justice advocate Maricela Mares Alatorre — Miguel’s mother — whose generational knowledge comes from her parents, Ramon and Marylou Mares. Their work helped defeat the first proposed toxic waste incinerator in Kettleman City and sparked decades of grassroots organizing in the Central Valley. Maricela carried that legacy forward by organizing the very first Toxic Tours in the region, often using her Toyota Sienna van to guide students, agency officials, and academics through these communities long before such tours became widely recognized educational tools. Her presence grounded this tour in history, lived experience, and the deep roots that continue to guide today’s movement.

Our tours do not focus solely on the negative. They highlight the cumulative impacts of heavy industry, insufficient governance, and chronic underinvestment that affect unincorporated communities across California. At the same time, they lift up the cultural richness, pride, and strength that define the Central Valley.

We are grateful to every student, teacher, nonprofit partner, organizational ally, government agency staff member, academic partner, and community resident who joined us. Thank you for dedicating a cold Saturday morning to learning about the beauty and struggle of the Central Valley. We offer special gratitude to the Lost Hills community members who welcomed us, shared their stories, opened their homes, and broke bread with us. Your generosity and leadership continue to guide the path forward.

UNIDOS remains committed to growing and strengthening these Toxic Tours in the years ahead. If you are interested in helping plan next year’s tour or supporting our broader mission, please visit unidos.network. Together, we move toward healthier, safer, and more empowered communities shaped by the voices and leadership of those who live here.

Check out these resources from the event: Toxic Tour Itinerary; Glossary of Key Terms; Community Fact Sheet.

Groundwater Recharge: Designing for the Future of Water 

Inspired by the last SEED Gathering at Dry Creek and Project WET’s Blue River watershed simulation at the SEED Summer Institute, middle school teacher Roxana Flores decided to take a chance with more hands-on activities this year. To build on the SEED Groundwater Recharge Lesson Plan she and her team drafted, she took her Woodville students to visit a nearby water recharge basin and to try soil testing protocols. At the Gathering, she was joined by Sequoia Riverlands Trust’s Sam Weiser in guiding workshop participants through soil sampling and groundwater infiltration activities. In a related workshop, SRT’s Emily Boetter led a design workshop on Multibenefit Land Repurposing Projects (MLRPs), a real-world hot topic in our local water conversations. 

Interest in groundwater management is strong among SEED partners, but it’s also the focus of a  newly-published, free statewide Seeds to Solutions seventh grade curriculum unit: Land Subsidence and Groundwater. This unit explores the question, “Why is the Central Valley sinking, and what can we do about it?” As the successor to the popular EEI (Education and the Environment Initiative) curriculum units, we expect these new resources to stir curiosity among middle school students statewide, and SEED teachers and partners are growing their expertise in teaching about this topic in and outside of the classroom. We hope to host statewide trainings on the unit sometime next year and share some of our students’ ideas on how to address groundwater challenges. 

Acorns in the Classroom 

Originally the brainchild of River Ridge Institute’s Gary Adest, SEED has taken on developing Acorns in the Classroom as a local successor to the Trout in the Classroom program. 

Two local experts and retired College of the Sequoias professors stepped up to help us understand oak woodland ecology. Dr. Robert Urtecho revealed complex ecosystem dynamics by showing us the diversity of critters caught with his Burlese funnel. John Greening wowed us with his collection of oak gall specimens and detailed resources on Oak Galls, Live Oak Apple Galls, and Muffin Galls and Their Ants. 

SRT’s Zach Arnold took us through some of the activities being developed for the SEED Oak Woodland Hike Lesson Plan for grades K-2. The idea is that every primary student should get to start exploring oaks on their school campus or on a walking field trip to a nearby park or grove. SEED hopes to grow the Oak Woodland Scavenger Hunt and Oak Woodland Nature Journal activities into a reproducible booklet that can help teachers do this anywhere. 

Rockstar SEED teacher Charity Wynn of Porterville Unified presented her own pilot work on the Acorns in the Classroom Lesson Resources and her Acorn Dissection Lab. SEED partners helped collect acorns this fall at various spots in the Tule and Kaweah watersheds. Teachers learned how to identify and sort them. Most importantly, Charity shared her amazing teacher hack. When asked how she did the dissection, she said she put some of the non-viable, floating seeds under her document camera and smashed them with her Stanley. For those who don’t know, these are the huge insulated mugs that are a must-have for teachers these days. Her fourth graders went bonkers when they saw two larvae crawling around. Her work exemplifies the spirit of SEED - learning as we go along, and having fun with our local plants and animals in a way that only nature-based learning can provide.