The North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council is a small local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN 68-0484941) with a mission that supports youth education in resource protection and sustainable agriculture in the north bay, and is based in Sonoma County serving 4 counties:  Marin, Sonoma, mendocino and Lake.  We conduct environmental education programs working with youth in learning about and planting pollinator habitat, diverting food waste from schools from landfill disposal to create vermiculture compost for onsite school use, conserving water through school rooftop rainwater collection for use in school gardens, and learning in our other environmental education programs—all with an element of on-the-ground change involving the targeted youth. 

The “Worm Wizards of Waste” program is a vermiculture waste-to-compost program working with schools to help them divert their food wastes from landfills to onsite bins with earthworm that recycle the waste into rich compost material, and builds on the work first initiated by the Healdsburg-based Compost Club, which our Council supported by serving as its fiscal sponsor.  Recently, the Compost Club has started winding down and transferring its project work completely to the Council. 

We continue to support vermiculture composting, and over the past year our conservationists have installed several onsite worm bins at schools in Sonoma County, and conducted environmental education in more than two dozen schools on reducing waste streams.  Our conservationist provides a classroom module on composting, and works with student leaders at the school to develop an ongoing school composting program.  Less food waste in landfills means less methane (a potent greenhouse gas) generation in the landfill, plus the compost can be used in school gardens, or even sold as a school fundraiser.