It is always an exciting time of the year when we get to celebrate Earth Day and we enjoy seeing all the happy faces of the community making a difference and coming outside to help in a positive way make a small but significant difference. At the Watershed Project, we cherish the possibility of teaching and learning from the community around the shared activities we design and facilitate to take place in many corners of the West County Watersheds. It was the year 2000, when a group of neighbors joined The Watershed Project’s at the El Sobrante Library Earth Day to remove oceans of ivy …
What’s in your Watershed: The Native Coast Live Oak
By Maggie Chen So you’ve been indoors the whole day and decided to go out to get some fresh air. The coast is on one side of you and along the trail you see a beautiful evergreen oak, extremely twisted, enormous, and gnarled. If the leaves are dark green and spiny-toothed along the edge, then it’s likely a Coast Live Oak! This native evergreen tree is one of the only California oak trees that flourishes near the coast, though you actually wouldn’t often find it right next to the shore. It can grow up to 100 feet tall and typically has a short trunk and enormous crooked branches that …
How We Monitor the Health of Creek
By Dan Kirk and Anne Bremer Creeks are often the defining characteristic in determining what watershed you live in, for example, if you live near Garrity Creek, then you live in the Garrity Creek Watershed, or if you live near Sausal Creek, then you live in the Sausal Creek Watershed. This is not always the case, but often it is. On paper, communities are commonly distinguished by governance (a city limit, a district region), but isn’t it refreshing to imagine communities and neighborhoods connected by the water that flows nearby, above and below them? This is one reason why we care about …
Addressing Tap Water Quality Concerns in North Richmond
By Britney Zaparolli and Anne Bremer In spring 2019 The Watershed Project conducted a water needs assessment in the community of North Richmond to receive direct feedback from residents on their water-related concerns for the community. Community members expressed many needs, including reduced flooding during the rainy season; more safe, accessible outdoor places for recreation; water conservation measures; and resilience to sea level rise. Community members also expressed a strong desire to find out more about the safety and quality of their tap water at home. North Richmond’s drinking …
Blast from the Past: Water Quality Monitoring
TWP has been helping communities explore and monitor the health of the creeks in Contra Costa County for the last 15 years. Communities around Contra Costa have always been interested in making sure the creeks are healthy for humans and animals alike and monitoring creek creatures gives volunteers a unique opportunity to walk the creek and find the wild side of their watersheds near home. Juliana Gonzalez, our Executive Director, remembers discovering the headwaters of Castro Creek back in 2009 with a group of intrepid volunteers. “We even found a few newts that day in the El Sobrante Hills …
Blast from the Past: Watershed Teaching Tools
By Juliana Gonzalez Close to 22 years ago, we launched Watershed Teaching Tools (2000), our first watershed stewardship education program that incorporated many teacher training workshops for Bay Area schools, educators, staff and parents. Since its launch, we have been providing teachers with the knowledge and tools to teach watershed awareness and environmental sustainability concepts to their students. For a glimpse of all our programs, check out our brochure from 2009. Bringing nature into the school setting and creating outdoor classrooms has been a key strategy. For example, in …
What’s In Your Watershed: Cooper’s Hawk
By Dan Kirk I’ve been noticing birds of prey lately, most notably a few bald eagles, one in the Crockett hills and another in Tomales Bay (I had never seen a bald eagle in California until this year!). Also, many hawks - when I’m driving out of the city, usually next to farmlands with fences next to the highway, I’ve typically been seeing hawks perched on the fence posts, gazing at the fields. I imagine they are hunting, but not sure. While bald eagles are easy to identify, certain hawks can be more challenging to identify from other hawks because of their similar physical …
We Love Trees!
By Dan Kirk The following are some images of The Watershed Project staff expressing some love and appreciation to some of their favorite trees. Kat Sawyer, Greening Urban Watersheds Manager There is a special place I’ve gone to for many years. It backs up onto a public greenway where people walk dogs and fly model airplanes. This past year, I’ve overheard the sounds of a family with two young girls who climb an oak tree just over the fence. I always smile when I hear them coming because the girls are so excited. They don’t have any awareness of us, but we know their names and …
