By Maggie Chen What could be right in front of your eyes and not quite seen? … Lichen! Many people walk past lichen without knowing what they are – which is understandable since they aren’t just one life form but a combination of organisms and no two lichen are the same. As complex life forms, lichen are a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms: a fungus and an algae. The fungus is the partner that determines the majority of the lichen’s characteristics, which could be the lichen’s thallus shape down to its fruiting bodies. The filaments from the fungus …
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What’s In Your Watershed? Chinook Salmon in Walnut Creek
By Zachary Drummond As an avid fisherman and outdoorsman, I find myself reading about our Bay Area watershed more than I’d like to admit. One of many discoveries I've made whilst reading about our local watershed came from reading the Contra Costa County Watershed Atlas. In this publication, I read about a local population of Chinook Salmon in the lower portion of Walnut Creek. This was very interesting to me, because at the time I only knew of Lagunitas Creek in Marin being an area locally that I could see salmon spawning. I decided to do more research and discovered two more …
What’s in your Watershed? | Water is the Way
By Audrey Matusich Over the years, the “What’s in your Watershed?” segment of this newsletter has featured many incredible plant, animal, and even fungi species. This segment has been dedicated to sharing stories of animal encounters in our watersheds, as well as providing facts about each highlighted species and its role in its relative habitat. Now that November is here, a month of gratitude and giving, I thought it would be fitting to reflect and give thanks to the one thing that all watersheds have in common…water! Living on the “blue planet,” water makes up a majority of the …
What’s in your Watershed? | Benevolent Bats
By Audrey Matusich October has finally arrived, marking the start of the spooky season. Whether you are taking a trip to a local pumpkin patch, staying in to watch a scary movie, or dressing up like an assortment of creepy monsters, it is easy to get into the Halloween spirit. As a result, I thought it would be appropriate for this month’s “What’s in your Watershed?” article to feature an animal that is often associated with the spooky season, the bat! When one first thinks of bats, they may express feelings of discomfort or fear, as this creature is often connected to vampires or haunted …
What’s in Your Watershed | The Vital Work of Bees
By Martha Berthelsen This article was originally published in 2013. The photos in this article differ from the original article. Most mornings, I go into my garden early and hand-pollinate my zucchini using a tiny paintbrush. Despite the overall decline of honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder, there are actually many of them in my garden, thanks to a neighbor with a carefully tended hive. Why aren't these bees doing their job? It's because while honey bees can pollinate squash, they aren't very good at it. The best pollinator for squash, aptly named the squash bee, is native to the …
What’s in Your Watershed? |Gorgeous and Poisonous: The Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly
By Martha Berthelsen This is a What’s in Your Watershed? archive edition, meaning it was originally published back in 2014 and it to this day one of our most popular articles. Photos differ from the original article. The iridescent blue-black pipevine swallowtail butterfly will only lay her eggs on the California Dutchman's-pipe vine, and I was delighted when one of them chose the plant in my backyard this March. The caterpillars that hatched a few weeks later were tiny and seemed fragile, but their vibrant black and orange colors accented with spiny protrusions give a clear warning …
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 …
Earth Day Explore Your Watershed Challenge
The Explore your Watershed Earth Day event is back! Register to receive the exploration maps, discover the secret word and win prizes! …
