Transforming neglected natural areas, one step at a time.

Recent volunteering:

Above: F5C interns and volunteers recorded wondrous seaweeds at a deep minus tide at Albany Bulb, for Snapshot Cal Coast.

Below: Berkeley jewelry designers Nina Designs joined interns and Weed Warriors curbing smothering bindweed on Codornices Creek.

Weed warriors dig out invasive Carex pendula

Above: Weed Warriors dug out a giant, invasive hanging sedge on lower Codornices Creek.

Below: Our June work party helped keep invasive French broom from returning to the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area.

Removing broom in the Hillside Natural Area

Helping Nature in the East Bay – Hands On

All-volunteer Friends of Five Creeks has worked hands-on for 27 years for clean water, healthy watersheds, and natural areas that welcome both wildlife and people. We work from Berkeley to Richmond on the urbanized east side of San Francisco Bay.

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.
Check out our list of events with others -- online here and now being updated through the month.

Fight flammable French broomin the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area Sat., July 20 and Aug. 17

We need your help to keep French broom from making a comeback in El Cerrito's stunning Hillside Natural Area! This year's late rains and cool spring brought an unexpected flush of seedlings. We need to get them out before they shed another crop of seeds!

At 10 AM Sat., July 20, meet at the entrance between 1520 and 1524 Douglas Drive (a short, partly one-way loop south of Potrero) for an easy, almost level stroll to work in oak groves and meadows with great views. Our August location depends how much we get done before then!,

We supply tools, gloves, light snacks, and good company. Bring water and sun protection. Wear long pants, long sleeves, and closed-toed shoes with good traction. Avoid fuzzy clothing that catches seeds. Ages 10 and up welcome. Info at f5creeks@gmail.com. Groups of more than five please RSVP.

Weed warriors and other opportunities continue:

Orange crowned warbler near Cerrito Creek 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.

F5C would love to find a creative, tech-savvy volunteers to help in several ways. Email f5creeks@gmail.com if you are interested.

F5C recent and current-interest handouts, slide shows, and reports

New: 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 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.
New! See our native-plant signs, linking species to their roles in history and the environment. Free to all to download, modify, and use!
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 letters to agencies

F5C is alarmed that a two-year process to write a new plan for Berkeley storm-drain system, much needed given 100-year-old infrastructure and coming climate change, is being written with no public information or opportunity for input, and based on narrow and outdated information on the likely effects of sea-level rise and larger storms. Our June 17 letter is here. Our July 2023 letter supporting the contract to carry out this plan, including the need to deal with a changing climate, is here.
El Cerrito has a grant to write a plan for fire safety and conservation in the Hillside Natural Area, 100 acres surrounded by city, rich in nature but highly flammable. Its existing plan is 30 years old. 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.
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.