| Friends of Five Creeks |
Transforming neglected natural areas, one step at a time. |
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Below: on three days of extreme low tides, and during iNaturalist's City Nature Challenge, eers resumed documenting what lives between tides on Albany Beach and bulb, creating a baseline for climate change.
Helping Nature in the East Bay – Hands On
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Learn more about our work: Subscribe to our e-news to keep up with what our volunteers are doing, Bay Area environmental news, and a "feature of the month." (We don't share your information with anybody.) See maps, history, and slide shows of some of our projects.
Join us helping Codornices Creek, our area's only trout stream, 10 AM - 12:30 PM Sat., May 17
Trout are making a good comeback in Codornices Creek, our area's only trout stream. But nature in the city always needs TLC -- especially when weeds are setting seed! Join us at the Ninth Street Meadow and downstream 10 AM - 12:30 PM Sat, May 17.
Details: All ages welcome as we take out light weeds, along with a short interpretive walk on the area's fascinating history, revitalization, and hopes.
Bring a re-usable water bottle. We recommend long pants, long sleeves, and closed-toed shoes with good traction, but there are no big hazards. Gloves, tools, and light snacks provided. With questions, or groups of 5+, please email f5creeks@gmail.com.
Directions: By Internet maps, use 1101 10th Street, a block north of Harrison and west of San Pablo, on the Berkeley-Albany border. Map here. AC Transit 72, 52, and 18 stop nearby. Bicycle is easy by the Ohlone Greenway and creekside trail, with light at Dartmouth. Parking may require walking a block.
Join us at Schoolhouse Creek & North Basin Strip, 10 AM - 12:30 PM Sat., May 24 -- before planning meeting
Join us on the Bay shore between Gilman and Virginia Street Extension in Berkeley. We'll do light weeding and develop ideas on plans for this 20 acres of McLaughlin East Shore State Park. Get ready for an East Bay Regional Park District public planning workshop 1-3 PM Sun., May 1, at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Info here and in our May e-news.
Details: Meet at 10 AM Sat., May 24, at the foot of Gilman Street, west of the I-80/580 freeway. Foot or bicycle access is easy via the Bay Trail and new pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the freeway. If parking is tight, try the parking lot just south of the Tom Bates sports complex. From its Bay end, walk down to the water and stroll back to Gilman. We'll try to post someone to meet you.
Bring a re-usable water bottle. Wear sun protection and bring layers; conditions on the Bay can change quickly. We recommend long pants, long sleeves, and closed-toed shoes with good traction, but there are no big hazards. Gloves, tools, and light snacks provided. Groups of 5+, or with questions, please email f5creeks@gmail.com.
Join our informal, friendly group maintaining varied natural areas: Our "Weekday Weed Warriors" gather Tuesday mornings 10 AM - noon. Email f5creeks@gmail.com for more information or to get weekly email notification of locations.
New:
F5C President a Bay Nature Local Hero -- We are honored that Friends of Five Creeks' longtime president, Susan Schwartz, has been chosen as one of Bay Nature Institute's 2525 local heroes -- "changemakers who, through their passion for the natural world, are making a difference for our precious Bay Area environment." Susan's talk at the April 6 award event is here.
How are our East Bay shorelines changing? Tracking history as climate changes. Click here to view slide show in a new window. This is a large file! Please be patient. It is meant to be viewed on a large screen. Slides are set to advance slowly, for reading and a close look. This is a beginning effort -- please help us build these records!
Helping plan the future of the North Basin Strip, part of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, in Berkeley. The East Bay Regional Park District is planning the future for 20 acres and almost a half mile of Bay shoreline west of the I-80 Frontage Road, between the foot of Gilman Street and where Virginia Street would reach the Bay if it crossed the freeway. It includes the south shore of the North Basin Cove and the service road/trail there. This land is part of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. A second planning meeting is scheduled 1-3 PM Sun., June 1, at the North Berkeley Senior Center.
Friends of Five Creeks has worked for years maintaining this area, and we are taking an active role in planning. Friends of Five Creeks seeks "daylighting" of the mouth of Schoolhouse Creek in the park and consideration for the varied and beautiful volunteer-planted natives along the shoreline, as well as coordination between the East Bay Regional Park District and Berkeley on a wide range of issues. These range from dealing with sea-level rise through parking and traffic safety, responsible use by high-school mountain-bike teams, and effective links between the sport-field complex (on long term lease from the park) and the rest of the North Basin Strip and surroundings. More background here.
We are building baseline data on what lives between the tides along the Berkeley and Emeryville shorelines, focused especially on the Albany shoreline from the southwest tip of the Albany Bulb to the sandstone outcrop at Golden Gate Fields. It is best done during spring to fall daytime low tides. If you'd like to help with these citizen-science efforts, please email f5creeks@gmail.com.
We are working with the informal Friends of Aquatic Park to make sure that this new plan, and other city actions, adequately deal with the complex and longstanding issues of water quality and poor circulation in the park's lagoons, as well as new and increasing challenges from climate change. This so far includes building the informative web site aquaticpark.org along with other efforts, from posting signs about how to report problems to developing baseline information on water quality and the sometimes surprising plants and animals that live in the park.
Our interns' survey of woodrat nests, important "ecosystem engineering" in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area, is here. El Cerrito's draft final plan for reducing fire risk in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area is online here, along with public comments and the consultants' responses. Our interns presented their work at a Dec. 10 joint meeting of the El Cerrito Environmental Quality and Urban Forestry Committees, and may do so again when this plan goes to the City Council. Although the plan has been improved in response to comments, we still have concerns about whether it adequately protects wildlife and habitat, and whether the city is being realistic about the needs and costs for maintenance. (We worked for more than a decade and transformed the main, 75-acre portion of the Hillside Natural area, reducing fire danger mainly by removing French Broom.) F5C's detailed comments on El Cerrito's draft plan for the Hillside Natural Area are here. For earlier comments: Friends of Five Creeks' January input on what this plan should include is here. A short slide show is here. An earlier handout is here.
More handouts, slide shows, and reports
- See our native-plant signs, linking species to their roles in history and the environment. Free to all to download, modify, and use!
- Intern Paulina Lara's guide to how native plants and animals "get along" on Codornices Creek (helpful for other local creeks as well) -- her senior honors project at CSU East Bay. Click here for English or Spanish versions. (These are large files. Please be patient.) It's on display now on the Codornices Creek trail at the net at Sixth Street. See more of our displays on the Codornices Creekside trail: A schematic map of the creek between San Pablo and Tenth Street done by Berkeley High student Evan McMurtrie, "tree trolls" and "tiny things" designed by our interns, at the creekside meadow across from the Little League ballfields, between 10th and 8th Streets, on the Berkeley-Albany border.
- See our flyer on how to de-clutter the environmental way and Saving Water -- Rain or Shine.
- Click here to see our slide show: Codornices Creek, Chapters in an Unfinished History
- Do-it-yourself Nature Treasure Hunt for families with young children. Print out these two sheets back-to-back for fun aimed to engage young children in nature -- along with queries designed to intrigue and challenge adults. This hunt focuses on Codornices Creek, but is easily adapted to other places. You can even use it on a cell phone!
F5C selected older letters to agencies
- Need for toileting and RV sewage pumpout for unhoused in Berkeley: Read F5C's June 2023 letter on the need for portable toilets and sewage pumpout for the unhoused, for human dignity, public health, and pollution prevention.
- Considering likely effects of climate change in Berkeley's plans for development in its Marina area: Read F5C's May 2023 letter on the draft Waterfront Specific Plan.
- Protecting Codornices Creek as part of re-paving the Hopkins-Gilman corridor in Berkeley: Read F5C's February 2023 letters on the importance of including green amenities, pollution reduction, and protection for Codornices Creek in a "complete streets" project for Hopkins Avenue, which follows the creek a half block away. The project was shelved.