"Building watershed stewardship through education"
What is watershed stewardship?
A watershed steward is a person who makes decisions based on a desire to tend to the health of the biological systems that support the overall health of a watershed. Stewardship is a personal choice to affect positive change through one’s own actions.
Lower Cache Creek watershed. Click the image to see the entire Cache Creek watershed
What is an informed and educated person in relation to watershed stewardship?
It is someone who:
Why is this important?
An educated public encourages sound management practices. For example, school children will one day influence future management practices. It is hoped that by forming an objective and informed view of the importance of a healthy watershed, and asserting this view in their community as they grow older, the watershed will benefit. We hope that by educating children and adults in the biological, historical, and cultural aspects of the watershed students will provide thoughtful management of the watershed for the future. Our education program hopes to sustain the current level of dedication to improving the quality of the Cache Creek watershed, and to promote better management practices in the future.
Our fundamental educational philosophy is to facilitate a student’s learning by providing visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and cognitive experiences in such a way that the student feels a sense of discovery and personal ownership of the place they live. By guiding students in self-discovery, we can encourage memories and associations that those students will take with them after their field trip. We accomplish this by choosing engaging, age-appropriate, hands-on and site specific activities that will work together in supporting our message of watershed stewardship.
While self-discovery is an effective way of engaging students, we also use an activity station model. This model provides students an interactive, small group, adult led experience that focuses on a specific topic or concept. Use of the environment as a classroom, visual aids, and opportunities to apply new knowledge allow students to gain a working understanding of a topic in a short period of time. When several of these activity stations are used together, the whole experience can be used to draw out the concepts of stewardship and the importance of a healthy watershed..
This Big Day of Giving we are raising funds to bring K-6 field trips back to the Cache Creek Nature Preserve and to renew our High School TEK program for another year. We would like to have 2 classrooms come out per field trip, complete 6 field trips total in the 2026 school year. We would also like to host 6 4-hour sessions for Native Youths to learn hands-on Traditional Ecological Knowledge. This year’s donations will help us achieve:
Scroll down to Organization Data, then click Programs in the side bar to see our various, ongoing programs.
The Cache Creek Conservancy is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1996. Our mission is to restore, preserve and protect the Cache Creek watershed.
Cache Creek Conservancy is celebrating 25 years of the Nature Preserve being open to the public and hosting countless fieldtrips and educational experiences for students from Kindergarten age through college internships. During this 2025 Big Day of Giving, we hope to raise funds for
- Hosting fieldtrips for K-12 students
- Have another year of Traditional Ecological Knowledge extra-curricular programming for Highschool students
- Provide various educational activities around the preserve to help inform on the importance of our wetlands
Thank you ahead of time for helping us reach our goals!
Since time immemorial, the watershed of the Lower Cache Creek has been the home of Patwin people. Today, there are three federally recognized Patwin tribes: Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, Kletsel Dehe Wintun Indians and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. The Patwin people have been committed to the stewardship of this land for 42 millennia. It has been cherished and protected, as elders have instructed the youth through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on our traditional lands.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Cache Creek Conservancy does not discriminate against employees, volunteers or event attendees, potential or existing, on any basis including but not limited to race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, political belief, genetic information, genetic characteristics, gender identity, gender expression, or any other reason.
Organization name
Cache Creek Conservancy
1999
Mission Category
Environment
Operating Budget
$500,001-$1 million
Organization Need
Funding: Program, Volunteers, Funding: Unrestricted
Demographics Served
Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx, Native Americans/Indigenous Groups, General population
Local Counties Served
Yolo
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
34199 County Rd 20Solano, CA, US
Napa, CA, US
Yolo, CA, US
Sacramento, CA, US
Lake, CA, US