Friends of Five Creeks

Last updated

Friends of Five Creeks
Formation1996
TypeParent organization is a registered non-profit [1]
PurposeWildlife habitat protection
HeadquartersAlbany Community Center, 1249 Marin
Membership
Volunteer [2]
LeaderSusan Schwartz
Parent organization
 Berkeley Partners for Parks
Website www.fivecreeks.org

Friends of Five Creeks is a regional community volunteer organization founded in 1996 by Sonja Wadman originally dedicated to the stewardship of creeks in northern Alameda County and western Contra Costa, California, United States. [3] [4] [5] Education about wildlife and restoration is also a major facet of the FFC's mission. [6] [7]

Contents

History

The organization is dedicated to improving creek habitats for environmental, flood control, pollution filtration, and beautification reasons. The original five creeks were Cerrito Creek-Middle/Blackberry, Marin Creek, Codornices Creek, Schoolhouse Creek and Marin/Village Creek, however the organization's involvement has expanded to all the creeks in the area including the communities of Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Kensington, Richmond, and the surrounding unincorporated areas. [5] [4] Susan Schwartz, the organization's leader, states that the organization like other "friends of" groups would not have gotten off the ground without help from the Urban Creeks Council. [8] The group holds up to 40 events a year where the volunteers work on refuse collection, graffiti removal, removing culverts in addition to plating native vegetation and removing invasive species. [9] [4] There is a monthly work party to pick weeds and showcase the area's natural habitats with a new site each month. [6] The organization is registered with the California Coastal Commission. [3]

Creek work

Village Creek is maintained by FFC. Marin Creek.jpg
Village Creek is maintained by FFC.

The organization organizes more than 40 work parties each year, providing direction and tools for groups of volunteers who work to restore a section of one of the creeks. [10]

Cerrito Creek runs from the El Cerrito hills to the San Francisco Bay. The organization has daylighted and restored a portion of the creek along the parking lot of El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center. [6] Further down stream part of the creek runs through Pacific East Mall's parking lot, where it forms the border between Richmond and Albany. [11] [12] This portion of the creek was daylighted and restored by the organization in 2003. [13] [12] Berkeley Daily Planet columnist Ron Sullivan reports a statement from FFC's Susan Schwartz that Pacific East Mall landscapers in Richmond have used herbicides, and speculates that this could explain her (Sullivan's) observations of dead grasses, plants and trees along the creek path near the mall's property line. Furthermore, Sullivan reports allegations and concludes from seeing the results that small native shrubs were mowed, and reports allegations that the mall has not agreed to a written maintenance plan as required by its use permit. [12]

In 2001 the organization received two separate grants totaling $400,000 to work on the restoration of Codornices Creek. [14] In the 1990s the Friends of Five Creeks discovered the reappearance of steelhead and rainbow trout at Codornices Creek while performing restoration work. [15] The "Friends" are also lobbying for the creation of public space adjacent to the creek for a new Whole Foods supermarket and parking structure along the stream's banks in U.C. Village. [16]

The organization also helps to restore and work on some non-creek areas such as the Berkeley Meadow and Eastshore State Park in addition to blight abatement, and trash collection activities at local parks. [17] [18] [19] Working with Citizens for Eastshore Parks FFC is studying the possibility of daylighting a portion of Schoolhouse Creek. [20]

Education work

Friends of Five Creeks works with school groups to educate them about the creek and bay environments. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany, California</span> City in California, United States

Albany is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northwestern Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 20,271 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Gate Fields</span> Horse racing venue in California

Golden Gate Fields was an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the closing of the Bay Meadows racetrack on May 11, 2008, it was the only major Thoroughbred racetrack in Northern California. It was owned by The Stronach Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Cerrito Plaza (shopping center)</span> Shopping mall in California, United States

El Cerrito Plaza is a shopping center in El Cerrito, California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strawberry Creek</span> River in California, United States

Strawberry Creek is the principal watercourse running through the city of Berkeley, California. Two forks rise in the Berkeley Hills of the California Coast Ranges, and form a confluence at the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The creek then flows westward across the city to discharge into San Francisco Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany Hill</span> San Francisco Bay hill

Albany Hill is a prominent hill along the east shore of San Francisco Bay in the city of Albany, California. Geologically, the hill is predominantly Jurassic sandstone, carried to the western edge of North America on the Pacific Plate and scraped off there in the course of subduction. Albany Hill is part of a range of hills uplifted long before today's Berkeley Hills. These hills include Fleming Point and Point Isabel, Brooks Island, the Potrero San Pablo, and the hills across San Pablo Strait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codornices Creek</span> River in California, United States

Codornices Creek, 2.0 miles (3.2 km) long, is one of the principal creeks which runs out of the Berkeley Hills in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In its upper stretch, it passes entirely within the city limits of Berkeley, and marks the city limit with the adjacent city of Albany in its lower section. Before European settlement, Codornices probably had no direct, permanent connection to San Francisco Bay. Like many other small creeks, it filtered through what early maps show as grassland to a large, northward-running salt marsh and slough that also carried waters from Marin Creek and Schoolhouse Creek. A channel was cut through in the 19th century, and Codornices flows directly to San Francisco Bay by way of a narrow remnant slough adjacent to Golden Gate Fields racetrack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schoolhouse Creek (Alameda County)</span>

Schoolhouse Creek is a creek which flows through the city of Berkeley, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McLaughlin Eastshore State Park</span> State park and wildlife refuge

McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is a state park and wildlife refuge along the San Francisco Bay shoreline of the East Bay between the cities of Richmond, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland. It encompasses remnant natural wetlands, restored wetlands, as well as landfill west of the Eastshore Freeway. Its shoreline is 8.5 miles (13.7 km) long, and its total area is 1,854 acres (750 ha), which includes both tidelands and uplands. Originally named just Eastshore State Park, it was renamed in October 2012 to honor the late Save the Bay founder Sylvia McLaughlin, who, along with the late Dwight Steele of Citizens for Eastshore Park, drove the establishment of the park. Prior to 2013, it was jointly managed by the California State Parks and East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). The state agency and EBRPD executed a 30-year agreement for EBRPD to manage the park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Isabel Regional Shoreline</span> Multi-use park

Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond, California, is operated by East Bay Regional Park District, and is a multi-use park for joggers, windsurfers, kayakers, photographers, picnickers, and people walking dogs. It has access for pedestrians and via public transit, private vehicles, and bikes. It also features a concession offering food for people and grooming for pets. A longtime community organization and nonprofit, Point Isabel Dog Owners and Friends (PIDO), is active in the maintenance and improvement of the park.

Point Isabel is a promontory on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in the Richmond Annex neighborhood of Richmond, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baxter Creek</span> River in California, United States

Baxter Creek or Stege Creek, is a three-branch creek in Richmond and El Cerrito, California, United States, forming the Baxter Creek watershed. The creek has three sources and flows from the Berkeley Hills to Stege Marsh and the San Francisco Bay. The Baxter Creek watershed at-large has 10 sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerrito Creek</span> River in California, United States

Cerrito Creek is one of the principal watercourses running out of the Berkeley Hills into San Francisco Bay in northern California. It is significant for its use as a boundary demarcation historically, as well as presently. In the early 19th century, it separated the vast Rancho San Antonio to the south from the Castro family's Rancho San Pablo to the north. Today, it marks part of the boundary between Alameda County and Contra Costa County. The main stem, running through a deep canyon that separates Berkeley from Kensington, is joined below San Pablo Avenue by a fan of tributaries, their lower reaches mostly in culverts. The largest of these is Middle or Blackberry Creek, a southern branch.

Fluvius Innominatus or Central Creek is a stream in Richmond and El Cerrito, California, in western Contra Costa County. There is one main source and a secondary unnamed tributary. The creek drains into Hoffman Marsh and then flows into the bay through Point Isabel Regional Shoreline's Hoffman Channel. However, before the area was developed and as early as 1899 the creek had as many as 11 sources which stretched far higher into the Berkeley Hills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrography of the San Francisco Bay Area</span> Waterways and watersheds draining into the bay or Pacific Ocean

The Hydrography of the San Francisco Bay Area is a complex network of watersheds, marshes, rivers, creeks, reservoirs, and bays predominantly draining into the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin Creek</span> River in California, United States

Marin Creek is a creek tributary of Codornices Creek in northwestern Alameda County, California. The lower stretch of Marin Creek is also known as Village Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleming Point</span>

Fleming Point is a rocky promontory in the U.S. state of California. The rocky promontory is part of a band of rock, that geologists call the Novato Terrane. Which has been formed through titanic clashes of plates that have pulled the rock upwards. This area is the only original existing shoreline in the East Bay Region today. It is situated in Albany, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Albany Bulb is an extension of the point, having been formed in the 1960s from construction debris.

Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) is a United States environmental organization that focuses on the acquisition and preservation of parkland in the San Francisco Bay Area. CESP works to protect open space along the East Bay shoreline for natural habitat and recreational purposes through a combination of advocacy, education, and outreach. Since its founding in 1985, CESP has worked to secure approximately 1,800 acres (730 ha) of public land, primarily through the creation of the 8.5-mile (13.7 km) long Eastshore State Park in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany Bulb</span> Former landfill in Albany, California

The Albany Bulb is a former landfill largely owned by the City of Albany, in California. The Bulb is the west end of a landfill peninsula jutting west from the east shore of San Francisco Bay. The term "Bulb" is often used to refer to the entire peninsula, which includes the Albany Plateau, north of Buchanan Street at its base; the high narrow "Neck," and the round "Bulb." The Bulb is part of the City of Albany, and can be reached via Buchanan Street or the Bay Trail along the east side of San Francisco Bay. Landmarks include, Mary's Mask, Gritchell's Bay, and Mad Marc's Castle. The Geotag for Gritchell's Bay is 37.8908083, -122.3257826.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific East Mall</span> Shopping mall in California, United States

Pacific East Mall is a shopping mall anchored by an Asian supermarket in Richmond, California. It is owned by Pacific Infinity Company Incorporated.

Middle Creek is a major tributary of Cerrito Creek in Albany, California.

References

  1. ↑ "Articles of Incorporation of Berkeley Partners for Parks". 18 October 2007. Endorsed (1884392) and Filed in the office of the Secretary of State of the State of California on 18 Mar 1994.
  2. ↑ The Right Shade of Green / We're being invaded by alien species. Kurt True. 29-04-2003. Retrieved 28-01-2011.
  3. 1 2 Friends of Five Creeks Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . California Coastal Commission. 2011. 27-01-2011.
  4. 1 2 3 Environmental advocate nurtures a love for nature. Shellah Moody. San Francisco Chronicle . 05-10-2008. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  5. 1 2 "Worldwide Work Party" with Friends of Five Creeks Archived 15 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . El Cerrito Patch. 2011. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  6. 1 2 3 Creeks. El-Cerrito.org. City of El Cerrito website. 2011. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  7. ↑ Kauffman, Turk; Puchall, Lauri (May 2006). "Paved Paradise in Berkeley". European Social Ecology Institute. Retrieved 28 January 2011. In recent years, grassroots groups such as... Friends of Five Creeks are attempting to daylight and restore the local network of creeks and bring back wildlife to the watershed.
  8. ↑ Water warriors / United Creeks Council quietly fights to bring streams to light . Katherine Redding. San Francisco Chronicle. 03-04-2003. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  9. ↑ Friends of Five Creeks Never Stops, Catch Up With Them Sunday Archived 15 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Albany Patch. 2011. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  10. ↑ Environmental advocate nurtures a love for nature San Francisco Chronicle, 5 October 2008. Retrieved 1 February 2011]
  11. ↑ Cerrito Creek watershed map Archived 8 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Museum of California. 2011. Retrieved 23-01-2011.
  12. 1 2 3 Garden Variety: An Ecological Calamity Below Albany Hill. Ron Sullivan. Berkeley Daily Planet. 26-01-2007. Retrieved 23-01-2011.
  13. ↑ Creek mouths along the Bay Trail in Berkeley, Albany, and south Richmond Archived 19 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine . Susan Schwartz. Friends of Five Creeks. 09-03-2004. Retrieved 25-01-2011.
  14. ↑ Beth El decision set for Tuesday Berkeley Daily Planet, 21 July 2001. Retrieved 1 February 2011
  15. ↑ "Friends of Five Creeks". Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  16. ↑ Crampton, Matthew; Martin, John (2007), A Re-design Proposal: Connecting Whole Foods Market and Codornices Creek, University of California, OCLC   657366554
  17. ↑ Berkeley Takes Action Archived 9 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine . Global Work Party. 10-10-2011. Retrieved 31-01-2011.
  18. ↑ Eastshore State Park’s Berkeley Meadow Restoration Nearing Completion Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine . 2010. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  19. ↑ Friends of Five Creeks Archived 8 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine . CalRotract. 16-02-2010. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  20. ↑ Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) E-Newsletter. December 2004. Retrieved 27-01-2011.
  21. ↑ Environment for learning / At one Oakland alternative school, lessons grounded in ecology help guide students onto the right track, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 November 2003. Retrieved 1 February 2011
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.