Early spring along the Marin coast

Four decades ago, as unbelievable as it may seem, Marin County officials were preparing for a building boom on the land around Tomales Bay and in Bolinas Basin that would have accommodated 150,000 people - nearly three times the population of today's San Rafael.

A multilane coastal freeway was on the drawing board, the better to speed the anticipated populace of those seaside bedroom communities to their "over the hill" urban jobs.

But just as developers were getting their claws into West Marin, a group of Marin residents took a stand that changed the course of the county's environmental history. Among those appalled by moves to turn West Marin into an L.A.-style beach community was Dr. L. Martin Griffin of Belvedere, then president of the Marin Audubon Society. Soon, the nonprofit Audubon Canyon Ranch set out to block development by buying up strategic land parcels before the developers could, including land where the ranch now sits just north of Stinson Beach.

As anyone who spends time in that unspoiled coastal landscape knows, in the battle for West Marin's soul, the Davids beat the Goliaths.

But the tremendous effort required a committed few to speak at seemingly endless meetings with zoning boards, water boards, boards of supervisors, and agencies galore. The Davids, including Griffin, Stan Picher, and Clerin Zumwalt, were stretched thin as they continued the battle for a dozen years, and in their weary bones they knew they needed reinforcements. They realized, in effect, that they had to ensure the sustainability of their strengthening environmental movement by bringing in new people and teaching them the ropes.

'You Have to Take Chances'

As Griffin wrote in his 1998 book, Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast (Healdsburg, Calif.: Sweetwater Springs Press), "The need was obvious... At crucial Tomales Bay hearings, we couldn't rally our troops to speak; they didn't know the issues. However, we still urged them to attend as 'nodders and frowners.'"

The mechanism for turning "nodders and frowners" into spokespeople was the Environmental Forum of Marin (EFM), founded in 1972 as a training ground for ordinary folks to become knowledgeable and articulate advocates for the local environment.

Now 87, Griffin, who received the 2007 Environmental Leader of Marin Award from the Environmental Education Council of Marin, says it pays to take a stand, whatever the cost. "Looking back, I'd advise: You have to be on the lookout for opportunities, and then jump on them when they come. You can't fiddle around; you have to take chances, because these opportunities may come only once in a lifetime."

Still actively working on land preservation, currently helping the Nature Conservancy in Hawaii, Griffin says that the best thing he ever did was to buy the option for what was then known as Canyon Ranch along the Bolinas Lagoon in Stinson Beach. Home to egrets and herons, the ranch was slated to be subdivided. Buying what would become the Audubon Canyon Ranch "was the key to stopping the freeway and saving the coast. To do it, I wrote a personal check for $1,000, which was really sticking my neck out. But I'm awfully glad I got that option."

Guiding Environmental Know-How

The first forum training was led by Griffin and Zumwalt, among other environmental pioneers, including Phyllis Faber, who would go on to co-found the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). In the decades since, 916 people have taken EFM training, including Senator Barbara Boxer and Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan and former Supervisor Cynthia Murray.

Each fall, EFM offers an intensive 18-week program called Sustainable Earth Forum, in which dozens of people volunteer their expertise to teach 30 or so individuals about ecology, resource management, and advocacy. The most recent, Class #35, met for seven hours on Tuesdays, beginning in September and ending in February. There were briefings and field trips, and the tuition of $380 included a year of membership in EFM.

One component of the forum is individual projects and research. Class #35's contributions ran the gamut, from "Promoting West Marin Agriculture" to "Environmental Justice in a Global Marketplace," to graywater systems, desalination, plastics and recycling, and 100 percent recycled paper products.

But perhaps most important, each new crop of graduates is urged to perpetuate EFM's mission of protecting and enhancing the environment through education. "Since EFM is and always has been 100 percent volunteer, there is by necessity an encouragement to our members to become involved within the organization," says Wendy McPhee, a graphic artist, who is a graduate of Class #32 and currently director of public relations for EFM. "Putting on the training and workshops requires a huge amount of effort that is easily accomplished by the division of duties among about 35 members or so."

In other words, the new members help the established experts to train the even newer ones, keeping the cycle of knowledge rolling forward.

Sustainable Communities

For the last four years, EFM has also offered a less rigorous program, the Sustainable Communities Seminar. This year, the seminar met for five hours on seven Saturdays in late winter and early spring to hear expert briefings on fossil fuels, renewable energy, toxics, water resources, land use and planning, and transportation.

The seminar represents less of a time commitment than the forum, and there are no projects or required reading. But participants receive a great deal of information. The $250 tuition includes associate (nonvoting) membership in EFM.

Most students learn about the training through friends who have taken it. Some come looking for ideas to start a green business; some want reliable information about global warming so that they can implement changes in their own lives. As one woman in the most recent seminar put it, "I drive a Prius and I've become a vegan. I want to know what more I can do."

Says McPhee, EFM graduates are inspired to follow their passion, which has borne fruit in the form of activism on their part. "They more than likely had feelings simmering within, and EFM just helps to sort it out and create it.

"I was struck by how many students in our most recent class overwhelmingly spoke to how the Environmental Forum of Marin has greatly changed their view from feeling helpless to feeling empowered with a stronger commitment to making change."