We had the good fortune of connecting with Deb Kramer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Deb, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful was born out of a need to expand the community efforts to connect people to Coyote Creek, a 64-mile long creek and the largest watershed in the southern end of San Francisco Bay. Starting a nonprofit organization is not a solitary enterprise for it takes a variety of supporters to make it come to fruition, starting with a vision and mission. From there, the critical pieces were creating a governing board, finding and maintaining funding sources, and most rewarding, engaging community members to be a part of this growing enterprise. To focus our work, I developed three main areas: education in the form of classroom and outdoor experiences; recreation to connect with nature and the creek; action to give the creek a voice and clean it and restore its natural functions. What a ride these past 7 years have been.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I was young, I grew up in a California that was undergoing significant changes and impacted by so many resource challenges, such as fire, drought, flood, smog, gas rationing, and even the advent of recycling. My father even hosted a “Litter Out of Sight” campaign when I was a kid, and we picked up trash from our creeks. It was pretty thrilling to see what a group of people can do to change a place through a couple of hours of work.

As I became more resource conscious, my education followed this same path as I pursued and completed a degree in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley. From there, most of my jobs have been in the environmental realm: water conservation, energy management and conservation, waste management, and now watershed programming. I am one of those fortunate people who actually get to work in the field in which they studied!

Now, I am able to tie together my love of the environment with nature and my geeky interest in technology while connecting people to an amazing natural resource: Coyote Creek.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Northern California has so much to offer. In a week, I would definitely take my friend for a hike at Purisima Redwoods Open Space Preserve for an incredible hike with vistas of the Pacific Ocean while meandering through second growth redwoods trees along a beautifully clear creek. We’d visit Berkeley’s campus to walk around and see the grounds, which include the Campanile where two falcons nest every year. Afterwards, we’d head down to Oakland for Zachary’s Chicago-style pizza. Back on the Peninsula, we’d take our binoculars to the Palo Alto Baylands for a walk along the shoreline of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which is filled with birds no matter what time of year. No trip to the Bay Area is complete without a bike ride through Golden Gate Park on Sunday, starting at Ocean Beach to the De Young Museum, where you can take in all the art and people and beautiful grounds when the main thoroughfare is closed. Heading back, we’d pass Stow Lake, the bison paddock, and finally finish at the Beach Chalet to grab sandwiches and watch the sunset.

If we had more time, I’d take them to Yosemite National Park to see the beauty of the Valley and Tenya Lake, one of my absolute favorite places, and if we were visiting in spring, to Pinnacles National Park to see the wildflowers and condors take to the thermals, a unique and majestic sight. And for some wonderful local food, Sonoma is my go to place where so much of our fresh food is grown, including goats for cheese, and orchard fruit. Yum!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful is a community-based group, and as such, it is the greater San Jose community that deserves this shout out. Although I initiated the vision, the neighborhood groups, community groups, fellow nonprofits, donors, board members, school and university faculty, elected officials, and funders have all been such incredible supporters. Without all of these wonderful people who have encouraged me and supported our vision, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are now.

Website: http://keepcoyotecreekbeautiful.org/

Instagram: CoyoteCreekSJ

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kccb/

Twitter: CoyoteCreekSJ

Facebook: CoyoteCreekSJ

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KeepcoyotecreekbeautifulOrg

Image Credits
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful staff and volunteers

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