By Paula Urtecho I volunteer with an organization called Richmond Trees. The other day as I was planting trees in neighborhoods around Richmond, I drove past several Arbutus ‘Marina’, commonly known as Strawberry Tree, that I had planted in a sidewalk strip some years prior. They had grown exponentially since I’d last seen them, with sturdy bright red trunks and resplendent foliage and flowers. My heart did somersaults when I saw those trees! I remember the first time I laid eyes on a specimen of Arbutus ‘Marina’ in San Francisco. I was immediately …
Greening Urban Watersheds
Whitney Dotson Remembered : Champion of Open Space for All
By Paula White I first met Whitney back in 2005 during a field trip organized by the Sustainable Urban Planning class I was taking at Merritt College. Whitney met us at the Richmond BART station and we caravaned to Fred Jackson Way and Gertrude in North Richmond, where we talked about the history of the area and nearby Parchester Village, where Whitney lived most of his life. At the time, Whitney was in the midst of the fight to preserve Breuner Marsh from development, a decades-long battle that culminated with the 2017 opening of the Dotson Family Marsh. Whitney came across as very humble, …
Playgrounds and Plants DO mix!
By Kat Sawyer and Juliana Gonzalez Last year, The Watershed Project partnered with the Oakland Unified School District and the Trust For Public Land on a school greening project at Melrose Elementary in Oakland. Asphalt was removed from the school’s barren playground, and TWP led volunteers from the school community to plant the new spaces after heavy construction was complete. A year later, we led a follow-up effort to replant an area where some of the plants had become overwhelmed by foot traffic. It’s not surprising that new plants would need some extra protection given their proximity …
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 …
Reducing Trash in our Watersheds Starts Here
By Sarah Haselton The Watershed Project organizes and engages in clean-ups and trash assessments around Contra Costa County. Collecting data frequently from the same sites allows for us to grasp general trends and hopefully identify the effects of waste management legislation. We have conducted trash assessments at many sites in the area but have consistent data from four sites in particular; Wildcat Creek at Verde Elementary (WC01), San Pablo Creek at El Sobrante Library (SANP01), San Pablo Creek at Parr Blvd (SANP02) and Creek at Pacific (BAYPC). Our most robust data from these sites …
From weeds to flowers: Hope Gardens create urban oases in North Richmond
By Paula White Got weeds? If you live in North Richmond, there's hope for you. Last month a crew of North Richmond residents helped plant "Hope Gardens" for their neighbors. These five gardens have transformed planting strips between the sidewalk and street from weedy eyesores into beautiful urban oases. Each of the gardens was adopted by a resident whose home is behind the garden. In exchange for having an attractive new garden planted, the garden adopters have agreed to water and maintain them and received a tool kit containing a hose, large metal bucket, digging tools, and gloves to help …
Spring Cleaning and Greening on Earth Day
By Paula White There was a holiday mood in the air at our Earth Day events this year—perhaps because of the sunshine after a rainy winter and the profusion of plants and pollinators we’re seeing at our newly planted bioswales. We had nearly 300 volunteers helping us fulfill our mission to improve the health of our watersheds. We kicked off the Earth Day season by putting some plants in the ground at our bioswale near 17th and Ohio on the Richmond Greenway. These beautiful and hardworking plants filter pollutants from stormwater, improve air quality and provide habitat for pollinators. The …
