El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area

Current status: For more than 15 years, Friends of Five Creeks volunteers controlled invasive, fire-prone broom and worked to protect the rich variety of plants and animals in El Cerrito's Hillside Natural Area, 100 acres of remarkably pristine oak forest, creeklets, and grasslands with magnificent views. Our work transformed the main, 75-acre portion, which had been overrun by French broom.

We are delighted that this work is increasingly being taken on by F5C board member and El Cerrito resident Audrey Liese and her group, Friends of Hillside Natural Area. She leads our Weed Warriors there monthly in most months. El Cerrito Trail Trekkers and Green Teams also lead work parties as well as interpretive walks. See our list of Events of Others for current opportunities to volunteer or explore in this beautiful area!

We remain involved in El Cerrito's current planning for the area. 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.

Background and history:

Click here for a slide show of Hillside Natural Area wildflowers. Use arrows to move through slides at your own pace.

Below is a two-minute slideshow on the Hillside Natural Area and our work there.

Map and Directions

We recommend the map available from El Cerrito Trail Trekkers. Click for an older trail map of the trails at Hillside Natural Area with contour lines or with a satellite-image background.

The nearest AC Transit access is to walk downhill from AC Transit 7 to one of the upper entrances.