Newport Bay Conservancy was honored to host Stanley Rodriguez as one of the featured presenters in its World Wetlands Day Symposium on February 2, 2019. A cultural educator and elder of the Kumayaay Native American community in San Diego, Stan led a hands-on workshop entitled "Building a Tule Boat" using the southern California tule plant (pronounced "too-lee"). The workshop was a robust and energetic project requiring team process and cooperation. The result was a seaworthy tule boat that was paddled successfully in the Bay by members of the class.

Reed boats have been used for thousands of years in many countries and cultures around the world. The earliest remains, found in Kuwait, are 7,000 years old, but images are also seen in petroglyphs from caves inhabited 12,000 years ago. The type of reed utilized depended on local availability. Ancient Egyptians used Papyrus reeds. Indigenous peoples in North America often used the tule plant, a relative of papyrus, which once grew prolifically in shallow freshwater wetlands, lakes, and rivers in California. The necessary qualities for viable watercraft were the long, sturdy, flexible stems of the tule that are strong and relatively light weight and have pockets of air that provide buoyancy. Large sea-going vessels were built of reeds using tar as a sealant and are speculated to have been used for intercontinental travel. Stan recounts that his ancestors, who inhabited the San Diego area, once used tule boats to hunt whales. In coastal California, small reed boats resembling canoes and kayaks were wide-spread and often used for fishing and hunting in relatively quiet waters such as the Upper Newport Bay.