MPA Watch, A Statewide Program That Collects Data on Human Uses of Marine Resources, Launches New Website, Social Media Sites

MPA Watch, a network of programs that collect human-use data in marine protected areas in order to keep our oceans clean and healthy, has launched a new, revamped website http://mpawatch.org and social media pages.

San Diego, CA, February 20, 2019 — MPA Watch, a network of programs that collect human-use data in marine protected areas in order to keep our oceans clean and healthy, has launched a new, revamped website http://mpawatch.org and social media pages.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are marine or estuarine waters set aside primarily to protect or conserve marine life and its associated habitat. Just as parks on land protect special lands and wildlife from overdevelopment and poaching, these ocean parks preserve California's stunning marine ecosystems for future generations to observe and enjoy.

MPA Watch is a community science program that trains volunteers to observe and collect data on human uses of coastal and marine resources both inside and outside of marine protected areas (MPAs). Volunteers use standardized methods to collect data.

The data collected are used to help the management, enforcement, and science of California's marine protected areas, and allows MPA Watch’s network of programs and organizations to track how the public uses coastal areas.

By involving local communities in this collection of data, MPA Watch programs inspire and empower stewardship, and educate the public about California’s ocean ecosystems.

People interested in learning more are encouraged to follow MPA Watch on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mpawatch/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MPAWatch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mpawatchorg/

MPA Watch volunteers observe California's beaches and bluffs inside and outside MPAs, recording all offshore and onshore coastal activities from recreational activities such as swimming and surfing to commercial activities such as fishing. Volunteers are trained to recognize different types of activities, using binoculars to view activities offshore, and to record their observations on data sheets.

Volunteers record consumptive activities such as commercial fishing, shore fishing, and clamming, and non-consumptive activities such as swimming, SCUBA diving, and tide pooling.

All data collected by volunteers undergo rigorous quality assurance and quality control protocols by coordinating organizations before being accepted and shared with users such as state coastal managers and environmental researchers.

Data from community science projects like MPA Watch complements data collected by other monitoring groups, resource managers, scientists and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Ecological, economic, and social factors are just a few types of data that will be collected to provide a comprehensive picture on how the MPAs are functioning. This data will also help us to understand where there may be a need for enhanced education and outreach, signage, and law enforcement. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is the agency charged with management and enforcement of MPA regulations.

You can help support MPAs by joining a MPA Watch program as a volunteer. Local volunteers have submitted more than 22,000 surveys to date. The groups of volunteer organizations below monitors the use of coastal and ocean MPAs, providing a valuable look at how people are using these conservation areas.

Heal the Bay - Los Angeles County

Grace Young, gyoung@healthebay.org

Los Angeles Waterkeeper - Los Angeles County
Michael Quill, mquill@lawaterkeeper.org

Orange County Coastkeeper - Orange County
Ray Hiemstra, ray@coastkeeper.org

West Marin Environmental Action Committee - Marin County
Morgan Patton, morgan@eacmarin.org

California Academy of Sciences

Rebecca Johnson, rjohnson@calacademy.org

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper - Santa Barbara County
Penny Owens, penny@sbck.org

WILDCOAST - San Diego County
Angela Kemsley, angela@wildcoast.org

Greater Farallones Association - San Francisco County
Kirsten Lindquist, klindquist@farallones.org

Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History - Monterey County

Erika Delemarre, delemarre@pgmuseum.org

Eagle Eyes of False Klamath Cove - Del Norte County

Ruthie Maloney, ruthiemaloney@gmail.com

John Corbett, williammlpa@gmail.com

Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, Del Norte County

Rosa Laucci, rosa.laucci@tolowa.com

Outdoor Schools

Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE)

Kat Montgomery, kat@aeoe.org

For more information on volunteering for MPA Watch, go to mpawatch.org or email angela@wildcoast.org. To access various resources, go the MPA Watch Resources page at http://www.mpawatch.org/site/startyourown.

Contact:
Marci Bracco Cain
Chatterbox PR
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 747-7455
http://www.mpawatch.org

Aromatherapist Cheryl Beller and Pet Therapist Adrienne Herman Join Forces to Open Joint Office in Downtown Carmel

Even though they run two distinct and separate businesses, aromatherapist Cheryl Beller and pet therapist Adrienne Herman have collaborated often when treating animals with physical, emotional and behavioral issues.

Carmel, CA, February 20, 2019 – Even though they run two distinct and separate businesses, aromatherapist Cheryl Beller and pet therapist Adrienne Herman have collaborated often when treating animals with physical, emotional and behavioral issues.

And, nine years after they first met, they’ve taken their collaboration to the next level by sharing an office space in Carmel, which will not only allow them to work closer together, but also allow Beller to hold educational sessions on the proper uses and dilutions of quality essential oils, as well as blending classes, personal consultations, and a weekly Aroma Bar, where one can go home with one’s own custom-blended therapeutic blend or create one for a special friend or fur baby-- blends for people, horses, dogs and cats!

“We’re both practitioners and both specialize in pets, “ says Beller, who describes herself as a holistic phyto-therapist and who runs Well Scents, which provides all-natural, toxin-free essential oil and hydrosol-based products. “So it made sense to join forces in a shared space and put our energy and synergy into a physical space together.”

“We both put out our shingles (as businesswomen) nine years ago and we’ve collaborated ever since,” adds Herman, who has been doing this and related work for most of her life. “It just made sense to join forces. I love sharing the space with Cheryl! Our joined energies make even more healing and balancing possible!”

Herman’s goals are two-fold:

--To see animals (dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, goats, domestic rats… just about all mammals except humans, though humans benefit as a side effect) achieve as balanced a state of being as possible, whether emotional, spiritual, or physical well-being, and

--To optimize communication and understanding between species

She does this using a variety of modalities, including animal communications. She has been working with aromatherapy as a treatment since she started working with Beller, nine years ago, and, as a result, they have come up with a number of custom blends to suit the needs of her clients. These blends have generalized in usage to many animals with similar issues!

“More than 80% of Cheryl’s blends have been developed because of the needs of my clients, but the creating of the blends is 100% Cheryl’s doing,” says Herman. “Cheryl is an alchemist. I call her a miraculous alchemist! I tell her a pet’s issues and she comes up with a blend which addresses those issues exactly! Further, I know that what she creates is 200% safe for my clients to use, unlike many other blends on the market.”

Much of Herman’s work is done at a client’s home or by remote phone sessions, which frees up the office space for Beller to offer classes for people wishing to learn more about essential oils, and allowing them to create their own blends. Because she now has use of the very homey office space, Beller has added a weekly Aroma Bar to the menu of services, where, from noon to 4 p.m. on selected Saturdays, participants can have a simple custom blend created just for them on the spot, or they can consult with Beller to create a complex blend for physical, mental, or emotional challenges that they would like addressed, either for themselves, for another, or for the well-being of their special dog, cat, or horse.

The monthly Aroma Bar schedule and the class schedule can be found at cherylbeller.com. Classes and consultations are also available by appointment, so drop in by yourself or collect a few friends and try a brand new experience together.

As a pet therapist, Herman wants to be clear that she’s not a dog trainer or veterinary behaviorist. “I am a listener, communicator, and therapist. This means I can help you to understand your four-legged better,” she says on her website. “I listen to other species, who share all sorts of information with me. I use what they say, and what I sense/feel in their bodies, to give you more information, and to help devise a plan if there are issues in need of addressing. I will always leave you with more information than before we met, and with a clear plan of action going forward.” Herman works with many local trainers and veterinarians as well.

The plan of action she devises could, and often does, include aromatherapy treatments, many specially formulated to treat the client’s individual pet. Sharing an office space now makes the collaboration between therapist and aromatherapist that much more efficient and convenient.

“Every client’s needs are different, but probably, when it comes to behavioral issues, I almost always use Cheryl’s blends, “ says Herman. She has been using aromatherapy in her practice since she opened her office in downtown Carmel 9 years ago. The two met at about the same time through a mutual friend. “A light bulb went off and we said, “We have to do this together,” says Beller.

About Adrienne Herman
Adrienne has lived in Carmel for about 20 years, 10 of those as a dog therapist (she worked for a year out of her home before opening her office in Carmel, though she did this work for about 30-plus years before making it official). A third-generation Californian, she grew up in the East Bay area in Northern California.

She got her first dog at age 5 and spent about half of her life at her grandparents’ chicken ranch in Petaluma, where she not only interacted with chickens, but also goats, rabbits, cats, dogs and cattle.

She always had an interest in going into the “helping professions,” graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA and a master’s degree in educational psychology from California State University East Bay (formerly California State University Hayward).

Her career path began by teaching children with developmental disabilities and other special needs to swim when she was in high school and college, then, post grad work, being Director of Community Services at a psychiatric hospital in Oakland, and taking health kinesiology courses. That’s where she met a veterinarian who applied the knowledge from those classes to the dogs she was treating. For Herman, that’s when her interest in treating animals began in earnest.

After moving to Carmel, Adrienne served as special needs coordinator for Temple Beth Israel, working with children pre-K through 10th grade. She took a year off and worked with her mentor, energy healer Hilary Nicholls, before opening her office space in downtown Carmel.

Adrienne spends her time divided between Carmel and the San Francisco Bay Area where she also sees clients, and visits with her adult children and grandchildren.

About Cheryl Beller
After spending more than two decades in the medical care and medical management group fields, Cheryl began exploring alternative healing modalities in the 1990’s. She was especially impressed with the many levels of positive effects that people and their pets experienced when exposed to essential oils and hydrosols in various delivery systems.

Cheryl’s other career experience include management and administrative positions in accounting and payroll firms, and in school district budget and business services.

Cheryl has had a lifelong interest in health and wellness and a lifelong love of animals, particularly dogs, horses and cats.

As her interest developed into a passion, Cheryl enlisted the expertise and insights of various animal practitioners, eventually developing properly diluted, targeted essential oil or hydrosol-based products that address most of the emotional, psychological, and behavioral needs of dogs, horses, and cats, specifically.

She also discovered that additional issues could be addressed with custom blends that are specifically formulated so that they can safely be used on a daily basis. These blends offer natural solutions to everyday concerns and challenges.

In 2010, she founded Well Scents, Aromatherapy for Pets and Their People (wellscents.com), all-natural, toxin-free essential oils and hydrosols, products to help both people and animals maintain and create wellness.

In January 2019, Cheryl began offering hands-on blending classes at the office that she shares with pet therapist Adrienne Herman. The classes assist people in creating blends that are safe and correctly diluted for themselves, their families, friends, and pets.

Also, in January 2019, Cheryl opened an Aroma Bar in the Carmel office, where simple custom blends can be created right on the spot or where one can consult with Cheryl to create a more complex custom blend for specific physical, mental, and emotional challenges that need to be addressed.

Cheryl and her husband Craig live on the Monterey Peninsula of California with their dogs, Henry and Mikki.

Contact:
Marci Bracco Cain
Chatterbox PR
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 747-7455
http://cherylbeller.com/