By Manuel Alonso Thank you for joining The Watershed Project and 59,722 volunteers statewide for a great Coastal Cleanup Day. The Watershed project had 352 Volunteers at Shimada Friendship Park in Richmond and 405 Volunteers at the Albany bulb site. The total trash collected statewide was 502,710 lb, of this 982 lb was found at Shimada Friendship Park and 1,113lb at Albany Bulb. Also special thanks to the hundreds of you that brought their own reusable water bottle, buckets and gloves, thanks to this we were able to reduce the total amount of plastic bags used considerably. If you would …
First Flush : Gearing up for 2019 and results from 2018
The first major rain event of the year is often referred to as “first flush,” because it brings with it all the pollution that has built up on roads and other surfaces over the summer. First flush is a phenomenon brought on by our Mediterranean climate with it’s warm, dry summers where it doesn’t rain for as much as six months. It’s always hard to tell when we will get that first rain of the fall, but it’s usually sometime between September and November. First flush is a great time to test for pollutants in the stormwater, or in creeks (which is where the stormwater goes), as pollutant …
Duck! Look out for Buffleheads!
By Dan Kirk In search for information on the Bufflehead duck, I came across links from the Tennessee Watchable Wildlife, Texas Parks and Wildlife, San Juan Island National Historic Park Service, Saint Louis Zoo, Outdoor Alabama, Monterey Bay Aquarium and many more from different cities and states. Just from the list of websites google search webpages, I gathered that the Bufflehead duck population spreads from coast to coast, very similar to the spread of coyotes, which I wrote about last month. Although Bufflehead ducks can be spotted across the U.S., they do not stay in the same place all …
California Coastal Cleanup Day: celebrating 35 years of volunteers cleaning our creeks and shorelines
As we were gearing up for this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day, Eben Schwartz reminded us of the huge positive impact this day has on the planet. It’s not only about all the trash that we’ve cleaned up over the years, though 25 million pounds is nothing to sneeze at. But the real story is the passion for preserving and protecting our beautiful natural resources that has galvanized over 1.5 million volunteers to pick up and tally plastic trash for over three decades. Check out the Coastal Commission’s collection of photos, stories, data, and fun facts about California Coastal Cleanup Day to …
Trees Bring out the Best in People: Planting Trees in the North Richmond Community
By Paula Urtecho There’s just something about trees. They draw people in. When staff members of The Watershed Project are out in the North Richmond community planting trees or caring for trees or even just looking at trees, invariably people come around to see what we are doing. They start to ask questions about the trees like, what kind of trees are these, why are they being planted and, more often than one would think, they ask, “Can I help?” North Richmond is a residential community surrounded by industry. The Chevron refinery looms over the western edge of the area …
Back to School resources for protecting your watershed
By The Watershed Project staff Kick off the new school year by establishing some new watershed-friendly habits. Here are some activities to share with your children, students, friends, and neighbors for appreciating and protecting our watersheds. Watersheds are quite complicated systems, especially urban watersheds, where the movement of water through natural features of the landscape such as creeks, rivers, marshes, and bays is interrupted by buildings, streets, bridges, levees, and storm drains. This video provides an excellent brief overview of how a watershed functions. The Watershed …
The Most Resilient Dogs Howling Near You: Coyotes
By Dan Kirk At the time the famous Looney Tunes cartoon show, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was first being broadcast on American television in mid 20th century, the Bureau of Biological Survey killed off about 6.5 million coyotes (Canas latrans) in the American West. Without knowing what coyotes preyed on (rodents, rabbits, fruits and vegetables), the federal government aimed to protect growing livestock farms from the innocent “predator”, and for about 10 years the wild canine population kept shrinking. Turns out, as depicted in Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, coyotes are very …
Sea Change: Taking on Plastic
By Sharon Gibbons As we approach International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 21, our local communities of the Bay Area are increasingly mindful of the need for a sea change in our daily consumption of plastics. Merriam-Webster defines “sea change” as “a marked change: a transformation.” As we prepare to clean up our community shoreline parks and celebrate their natural beauty, we need to take a hard look at our consumer habits that are contributing to an environmental crisis. As consumers and community members, we need to make a sea change replacing single use plastics with green …
