PRNSA Field Institute Classes

Over 100 hands-on outdoor education classes per year that foster the enjoyment of the Point Reyes National Seashore, led by expert instructors who take you out of your everyday life and into the natural world. Geology, botany, mushrooms, birding, wildlife tracking, hikes, bioluminescent kayaking, star gazing, art, writing, and more. Day classes and weekend retreats at the Bear Valley Visitor Center buildings and in the field.

Volunteer Opportunity: Volunteer as a Point Reyes National Seashore Association Field Institute class facilitator.

California Naturalist at Point Reyes

University of California partners with organizations across the state to offer this educational program. The benefit of taking it at Point Reyes is to foster a deeper connection with this place and to meet other people who care about Point Reyes. It's offered in a week-long format with lodging in the park or as a Saturday series over 5 weeks.

“California Naturalist students are able to experience Point Reyes National Seashore in ways the casual visitor cannot, working in areas less traveled and alongside some of the California's most knowledgeable naturalists. This program utilizes a combination of science curriculum, guest lecturers, field trips, and project-based learning to immerse students in the diverse natural world of the 70,000 acres that make up Point Reyes National Seashore.”

Webinars

PRNSA #ParkInPlace 2020 webinars

In 2020 with the park closed, the Point Reyes National Seashore Association began producing webinars to keep people connected to nature and to the Point Reyes National Seashore.

• Are Sea Otters the Ghosts of Estuaries Past? with Sonoma State Assistant Professor Brent Hughes

• Caring for Endangered Coho Salmon with rising conservation leader Carter Perez Adamson

• A Cause for Rebellion: Preserving Point Reyes National Seashore - Then and Now: with PRNSA board member Seth Rosen, filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto, and longtime NPS marine biologist Dr. Sarah Allen

• Shark Week: Red Barn Virtual Shark Talk with Scot Anderson with biologist and longtime shark researcher, Scot Anderson. 

• Color In Nature Seminar - an online seminar discussing the significant, but often underrepresented experiences of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community in the great outdoors 

• The Connection Between Nature and Good Health: In conversation with Florence Williams, author of "The Nature Fix". Presented by PRNSA, the Mesa Refuge, Black Mountain Circle and Point Reyes Books 

• Does Earth Have a Memory with local educator and naturalist Don Jolley and the Bolinas Museum  

• A Wide-Ranging Conversation on Lighthouses and the Sea with authors Jazmina Barrera & Philip Hoare, a Point Reyes Books and PRNSA collaboration

• A Response of California Black Rails to Wetland Restoration with Jules Evens, biologist and author of the The Natural History of the Point Reyes Penninsula

• Changing the River Otter Range Map: Brought to You by Community Science with Megan Isadore of the River Otter Ecology Project

• Bats of Point Reyes and Marin County: Studying Secretive and Nocturnal Mammals of the Night Sky with Gabe Reyes of the U.S. Geological Survey

Marin County Parks

Butterflies of Marin with interpretative naturalist Shannon Burke, August 2020.

Bay Nature Talks

Nature talks from the best resource about the natural world of the Bay Area - Bay Nature magazine.