At a time when good news can be hard to come by, we are glad to be able to report that wetland restoration is working in and around the San Francisco Bay Area thanks to the efforts of the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture (SFBJV) partners! Since the inception of the SFBJV in 2001, our partnership has protected, restored and/or enhanced over 70,000 acres of a variety of wetland habitats and completed more than 150 projects.
Our 6 part video series strives to show in a minute or less where and how our partner efforts are making a difference in our geographically small, yet intrinsically valuable, globally significant and extremely diverse region. In them we travel from a complex of industrial salt ponds in the South Bay, to a place where the creek meets the sea along the West Coast; across an expanse along the Northern Edge of the Bay that includes nearly 40,000 acres of protected land and into an abandoned pier development in a small neighborhood in San Francisco; and from a wetland complex that drains a 254 square mile watershed at the Northern Edge of our boundaries, to a small park in the crowded urban landscape of the East Bay.
The videos attempt to visually capture the beauty reclaimed by the restoration work, along with a variety of habitat types and settings, the range in scale and scope of our projects, and how each benefits both birds and other wildlife. They reveal the human dimensions of restoration, attempting to show how our ability to succeed in restoring our piece of the MBJV landscape relies on collaboration and a community of people who value and care about this place we call home. And they feature both completed projects and those still in the planning stages.
In the Bay Area, where social media is prevalent and attention a commodity, we thought short videos would be an ideal way to share our successes and educate our constituency and beyond about our work. Since our partners are one of our primary audiences for outreach efforts, we made these videos with them in mind and involved them every step of the way. When the videos were completed, we were able to gift them with a user-friendly tool they could put to work to promote their accomplishments and ultimately thank them for their tireless efforts.
Our small investment in these has paid off. We now have a great way to share and show off some of what our partnership has been able to achieve over the past two decades. Due to their timeless nature, they can be re-purposed often and used as feed on our website, Facebook page and in other media platforms. Partners also use them in this way and at conferences, to begin or end meetings, and as visual media in multiple messaging campaigns. Perhaps you can think of a time or place to share them too?! And if not ours, we hope these inspire you to produce your own video shorts.
If you have any questions about the production of these videos, or want tips on sharing them, feel free to reach out to Caroline Warner, SFBJV Outreach and Communications Coordinator, at cwarner@sfbayjv.org. You’ll also find links to sharing strategies and a publication guide alongside each of the videos on our media page.
Story and videos produced by Caroline Warner for the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture (SFBJV), with TrimTab Media and in collaboration with SFBJV partners.
