By Chloe Wanaselja, TWP Intern As rainfall brings new life on land, dotting hills with wildflowers and causing trees to blossom in pinks and whites, similar transformations are happening along the rocky islands, sandy beaches, mudflats, and bays of the California coast. March marks the beginning of the pupping season for the Pacific harbor seal, or Phoca vitulina. From March to June, mothers come onto land or “haul out” along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California, ready to give birth to their pups. These seals can typically be seen in small groups, but can sometimes gather in …
Ebb & Flow
The Newsletter of The Watershed Project
Our Watershed Valentine: Love Your Watershed
By Phaela Peck This year, send a valentine to your watershed! Well, not a real valentine, but a message of appreciation to where you live! In the Bay Area, we all live in one large watershed, the San Francisco Bay watershed, but we also live in many smaller watersheds that drain into local creeks. The water in these creeks eventually makes its way to the Bay. Keeping these watersheds healthy is critical to the health of the whole Bay! To celebrate our watersheds, big and small, here are 10 ideas for things you can do to show your love for your watershed. Find out what watershed you …
Notes from the Field: Winter Planting in Full Swing
By Lauren Woodfill Cooler, wetter weather in the winter and early spring means planting season, and we have been planting up a storm. With over 310 volunteers since December, we have planted over 575 plants and trees in bioswales, rain/habitat gardens, and urban forests along the Richmond Greenway, at 6th-8th Streets/Unity Park, Carlson Meadow, and 33rd Streets. Here are a few updates from our busy planting season - and we have much more to do in the coming months! We hope you can dig in with us for upcoming planting days, including planting a bioswale on February 16th and our Second …
Just say NO: Plastic Straws Suck!
By Lauren Woodfill Last week, in a 4th grade classroom, we shared with kids some of the items we found during our shoreline cleanups. “In-and-Out straws!” and “A Starbucks straw!” the students shouted out as they recognized some of the plastic items. As the kids traced the path of the straws take from their drink through their watershed to the ocean, they quickly identified us, humans, as the cause of the plastic pollution. These kids were clever though, and they identified us, humans, as the solution as well. Their solutions ranged from simple (“Say no to straws!” & “Recycle”) to more …
What’s in Your Watershed: Eelgrass
By Adam Weaver, Wild Oysters Intern Eelgrass populations are dwindling in the San Francisco Bay. But why should you care about a marine plant named after a creepy snake-like fish? Eelgrass is a foundational species for the San Francisco Bay and supports much of the biodiversity in the bay ecosystem. The underwater flower, or marine angiosperm, grows on muddy and sandy bottoms in the shallow subtidal areas of the bay, providing food and habitat for a variety of species. Waterfowl and snails eat eelgrass, certain invertebrates and algae use the plant’s blades as a substrate, the grass serves …
What’s In Your Watershed? | California Newt
By Anne Bremer Although the winter rains tend to send many animals (and humans) scurrying for shelter, they are an invitation for one water-loving local resident to come out and play: the California newt. These newts spend the summer hibernating upland in damp hiding places, curled up underneath rocks, logs, or leaves. The rains are a signal for these small salamanders to emerge from their shelters and make their way to ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or slow-moving pools in creeks or streams to breed. Once they reach their ancestral breeding grounds, they undergo a physical transformation …
Reflections of a New Educator: Writing Curriculum and Taking Kids Outside
By Anne Bremer In my Climate Corps AmeriCorps fellowship with The Watershed Project, I have the opportunity to do what I am passionate about - connecting people with nature through education - every day. My previous positions managing community-wide sustainability initiatives gave me a lot of valuable experience with program management, and community outreach and education, but no formal training in environmental education. I joined the education team at The Watershed Project because I am interested in gaining in-depth, hands-on experience developing and delivering environmental education …
Unity Park: Collaborative Vision Becomes a Reality
By Martha Berthelsen and Lauren Woodfill On January 15th, 2018, a major five-year project came to fruition with the grand opening and ribbon cutting of Unity Park on the Richmond Greenway. Encompassing two parts of the Greenway, at 16th Street and 4th - 8th Streets in between Ohio and Chanslor Avenues, Unity Park is a reflection of the community with playgrounds, art installations, community vegetable gardens, fruit tree orchards, pollinator gardens, bioswales, rain gardens, and medicinal herb gardens for all to enjoy. This park is yet another incredible story of collaboration between …