By Sarah Haselton Earth Day is around the corner and The Watershed Project is celebrating! There are some wonderful opportunities for you to bring your appreciation for the environment into fruition this year. First on April 13 at 10:00 am- 1:00 pm at 17th St and the Richmond Greenway, spend your morning gardening, mulching, and planting with us! There is more fun to be had on April 20th from 9:00 am- 11:00 am at Wildcat Creek @ Verde Elementary School. We will be doing our part to keep SF Bay watersheds clean. After all your hard work we will be holding an Earth Day Celebration, filled with …
Ebb & Flow
The Newsletter of The Watershed Project
A Dive into Doves
By Calvin Abbott A lot of our articles talk about animals that people don’t see frequently, to increase interest in the world that lives right outside our sight. This is not one of those articles, but is instead an article about an animal that is omnipresent and seemingly uninteresting, the pigeon. The pigeon family (Columbidae) includes 310 species, ranging from the size of a sparrow to the size of a turkey. The only places on earth that do not have at least one species of pigeon are Antarctica, the Upper Arctic, and the most desolate regions in the Sahara Desert. The words pigeon and dove …
Can steelheads return to Wildcat Creek?
By Sarah Haselton On a Tuesday morning at the Wildcat Creek Fish Ladder, I had the opportunity to help conduct a sediment survey and learn about the importance and functions of fish ladders. The Watershed Project has been involved with this particular fish ladder in the past, along with several other organizations such as Trout Unlimited, Contra Costa County Flood Control, Contra Costa Conservation District, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Cities of San Pablo and Richmond. These organizations all worked together to hold an event for Coastal Cleanup day in 2018. The …
Favorite Wildflower Walks around the Bay
By The Watershed Project staff After record-breaking rains, it’s time to head to the hills and see all the flowers in bloom! Here is a by no means complete list of some of our favorite hikes in Bay Area parks where wildflowers abound, along with many other plants and critters. Dress appropriately for muddy conditions and it’s best to go with a buddy, be it two-legged or four-legged. Richmond/Berkeley: Wildcat Canyon Regional Park This park stretches from the steam trains in Tilden Park on the southern end to Alvarado Park in the north. Inspiration Point is a popular starting point. On your …
Your newest neighbor: the Common Bottlenose Dolphin
By Emily Carter The Bay has a new member of the ecological community: the Common Bottlenose Dolphin! Historically, these beautiful creatures lived much farther South along our coastline: in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Baja California, Mexico where the waters are warmer. However, 15 years ago the first common bottlenose dolphin was seen in the San Francisco Bay, and for the last 6 years researchers have been seeing these dolphins migrate in large numbers. Research from tracking individuals has estimated that about 10% of the southern California common bottlenose dolphin population has migrated …
Our New Bioswale in Action: Water Quality Monitoring at Booker T
By The Watershed Project staff California is having a wet winter, and the recent rains provide a chance for us to see how The Watershed Project’s newly constructed bioswales handle stormwater. TWP monitoring teams watch the weather and venture out to observe and document from the moment the rain begins. Our best site for monitoring is the Booker T Anderson Community Center, where water from the parking lot is intercepted by a large bioswale before draining into Baxter Creek. The plants and soil act as a natural filter that cleans the runoff from the pavement. This project was completed last …
Winter rains bring new life!
By Sharon Gibbons The rainy season is the most exciting season for working on our rain gardens and bioswales. We spend long hours preparing our sites, engineering, weeding, and sheet mulching, waiting for the winter rains to begin so that we can plant our gardens and give them a good start. Our native plants are adapted to going dormant during our long dry season and then pushing plant and root growth when the rains come and the ground softens. This makes for exciting community work days as we seize a pause in the rain during our winter weather to get out and plant our new rain gardens. This …
That is a good sign: interpreting the landscape by The Watershed Project
By Juliana Gonzalez Looking around the Richmond Greenway gardens and signs a story of community organizations working together can be discovered. New signs are sprinkled along the trail talking about non-profit organizations that have deep roots in Richmond, but passerby and neighbors can also learn about wildflowers, pollinators, native California habitat gardens, edible gardens, bioswales, rails and trails, bmx bicycles, bike shops, bike tours, festivals and people that have made Richmond a great community to live in and a place where people have grown through years of struggle. As we look …