By Dan Kirk and Paula White This year marks the 4th year of what we call “Hope Gardens”, a partnership between community members in North Richmond and The Watershed Project to re-imagine and utilize spaces between the sidewalk and street by planting native and/or drought tolerant plants. Apr 8, 2022 was the first planting of the year, with volunteers and community members working together to dig, plant, spread mulch and water. During the end of the workday’s closing circle, volunteers described the day in a few words: wonderful, enriching, inspirational, educational and fun. We love this …
Ebb & Flow
The Newsletter of The Watershed Project
What’s in your Watershed? | Children are the Way
By Audrey Matusich The month of April comes with many celebrations: Spring is in full bloom, chocolate bunnies and colorful eggs fill every grocery store, and here at The Watershed Project, we gear up for service projects outdoors for Earth Day. Earth Day began in 1970, as people’s concerns for the environment grew in the wake of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Starting on college campuses as a teach-in, this movement to “provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, and [put] environmental concerns on the front page” eventually evolved into an annual global event that puts …
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 …
