It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Us!
Last Saturday I had the most inspiring day I've had in a very long time. I felt like a superhero. Here's my little story, which is the big story of all of you Friends.
I imagine that many of your lives are like mine--it often doesn't seem possible to add one more thing to the calendar or the to do list, especially when one is counting down the final days of the year. Since I started with FOSC in 2009, I've found it nigh impossible to do academic things like attending the annual UC Berkeley River Restoration Symposium; when I'm not working, I want to spend time with my family. This particular event has always been especially alluring as it features presentations from a class focusing on completed stream restoration projects and comparing the outcomes to the goals. My master's thesis was a post-audit of New Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River. So I'm passionate about post-project assessments.
Even though there was laundry and a backlog of FOSC work and holiday shopping, I found my way to Wurster Hall, and I was immediately rewarded by swapping stories and laughs with one of my watershed heroes, Susan Schwartz, president of Friends of Five Creeks. When keynote speaker Robin Grossinger gave a preview of the Urban Biodiversity Strategy and talked about filling in the gaps between natural areas, he mentioned that local volunteer groups like FOSC and Friends of Five Creeks have been tackling this for years. The challenge--our challenge--is to widen our patches of green space or make the patches more effective. This is what FOSC site leaders have been doing on their monthly workdays. This is where we are heading with our Walkable Watershed effort. We are striving to meet the needs of people and wildlife.
Afterward, I met new Friends of Five Creeks Board Member Margo Schueler, whose eyes lit up at FOSC's name. She shared that she and her two daughters had been early FOSC volunteers and that both her children grew up to have careers in the environmental sector--field biology techs, working on wildlife preservation and restoration. We both got goose bumps echoing each other's "that's what it's all about"--kids who experience the watershed and go on to do great things for their local habitat, wherever they land. Much like the diverse group of 19 graduate students we'd just heard present on their cool fieldwork, their conclusions, and their ideas.
Every week FOSC volunteers make time for our creek and our watershed despite their full lives. Or, through a different lens, the watershed is what helps make our lives full--as in complete, satisfying, and beautiful. Our playground for stewardship superheroes.
Thank you for donning your superhero cape and supporting me in wearing mine.
--Kimra McAfee, Executive Director
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FOSC is a volunteer-based, community organization. Your donations go directly to support our projects and programs in the Sausal Creek Watershed. Check out the multiple ways to support FOSC, including contributions to our For the Future endowment fund!
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Thanks to our nursery volunteers, we have 4,200 plants ready to go into the ground--this would make winter 2017-2018 our second largest planting year in FOSC history! We really need your help this planting season. Rest assured that we do have our eyes on the weather forecast, and we are providing guidance to site leaders on planting and irrigating techniques to help ensure survival of new plantings. If you arrive for a planting day and instead find that the agenda has shifted to more site preparation or watering, we appreciate your flexibility. Please always check the event calendar before heading out to a workday--we love the rain, but too much rain and we have to cancel the workday.
Solstice Planting Day
Barry Place, Dimond Park and Canyon
Saturday, December 16, 9 a.m.-noon
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Start 2018 off with an invigorating walking tour of the history and science of the Oakland estuary. Local historian Dennis Evanosky will share the fascinating history of the waterway along the shoreline. FOSC Education Manager Jill Miller will discuss how sea level rise is expected to impact our city. This event takes place during one of the King Tides of 2018, so bring your camera to help document what our daily tides might look like in the future as a result of a rising sea.
King Tides Walk Along the Waterfront
Fruitvale Bridge Park
Monday, January 1, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
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Sometimes our institutional memory fails us: We can't actually say what year Elaine Geffen started leading monthly workdays at Marj Saunders Park, but we know that when we added this site to the FOSC event calendar in 2010, Elaine was, and had been, the lead steward. At the time she was also serving her community as beautification chair of the Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association. You can still find Elaine, cheerful and welcoming, at this special place at Chelton Drive and Ascot Drive on the first Monday of every month (or thereabouts--next month find her on January 8 given the holiday) weeding, picking up litter, and removing graffiti. Over the years, Elaine has also worked with many groups of students from Joaquin Miller Elementary, training the next generation of park stewards. Thank you, Elaine, for your patient persistence at this labor of love.
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Scientific name:
Pseudacris sierra
Common name: Sierran tree frog
If you hike the Sausal Creek Watershed after the first fall rains in November any time through May, then you will likely hear the following telltale "krek-ek" sound:
http://www.californiaherps.com/sounds/psierratldn408solo.mp3
The breeding call of the Sierran treefrog is perhaps the most recognized frog call in California. It's so distinctive, the species was named for it: The Latin
Pseudacris is derived from the Greek words
pseudes meaning "false" and
akris meaning "locust."
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Formerly known as the Pacific chorus or Pacific treefrog, genetic research indicates that the Sierran treefrog is a separate species, one of three that are closely related. It is likely the only frog species remaining in the Sausal Creek Watershed. This frog is a classic habitat generalist. It is often found far from permanent water outside of the breeding season (like the frogs pictured here found in a greenhouse at the FOSC nursery!), seeking moist refuges in redwood forests, oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands, abandoned fields, streamside riparian vegetation, suburban gardens, and even urban areas. Its small size (0.75 to 2 inches in length) and distinctive black eye strip make it easy to identify. It comes in several color forms from green to yellowish-brown to reddish. It can change from light to dark in minutes to better match its surroundings. All toes have toe-pads for climbing, and the hind toes are partially webbed as a swimming aid.
Sierran treefrogs typically breed from January to July. You might find eggs and tadpoles in standing, still waters, such as in permanent or seasonal natural or garden ponds, stream pools, roadside ditches, and wetlands. The species owes its success in part to the tadpoles' ability to metamorphose quickly from June to late August, typically in about 2 to 2.5 months. Snakes, birds, mammals, and large aquatic predatory insects prey upon Sierran treefrogs and their tadpoles.
--Dr. Robert Leidy, Ecologist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Do you shop on Amazon.com? If so, please make sure that before you check out you go to smile.amazon.com and choose Friends of Sausal Creek. We will get .5% of eligible AmazonSmile purchases donated to FOSC. Thank you!
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Event Calendar
RESTORATION WORKDAYS
Barry Place
Sat., Dec. 16, 9 a.m.-noon
Beaconsfield Canyon
(last Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 30, 9 a.m.-noon
Bridgeview Trail
(2nd Sundays)
Sun., Jan. 14, 9-11 a.m.
Bridgeview Trailhead Pollinator Garden
(1st & 3rd Sundays)
Sun., Dec. 17 & Jan. 7, 9-11 a.m.
Dimond Park and Canyon
(3rd Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 16, 9 a.m.-noon
Dimond Park Native Plant Demonstration Garden
(1st Saturdays)
Sat., Jan. 6, 10 a.m.-noon
Marj Saunders Park
(usually 1st Mondays)
Mon., Jan. 8, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Montclair Railroad Trail
(3rd Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 16, 9-11 a.m.
Wood Park
(3rd Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 16, 10 a.m.-noon
Bridgeview Trailhead
(last Sundays)
Sun., Dec. 31, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
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NURSERY WORKDAYS
FOSC Native Plant Nursery
Joaquin Miller Park
(2nd and 4th Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 23, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
COLLECTION HIKES
Location TBD
Fri., Dec. 22, 10 a.m.-noon
KING TIDES WALK ALONG THE WATERFRONT
Fruitvale Bridge Park
Mon., Jan. 1, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
BOARD MEETING
Park Blvd. Presbyterian Church
Wed., Feb. 7, 7-9 p.m.
Save the Date
MEMBER MEETING
Dimond Library
Wed., Jan. 17, 7 p.m.
Annual State of the Watershed Meeting
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Get Involved
Our mission is to restore, maintain, and protect the Sausal Creek Watershed. We educate future generations, involve the community in local environmental stewardship, and collaborate with agencies and other nonprofits to have a positive impact on the local ecosystem.
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FOSC needs your support --
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Contact:
Jill Miller
Restoration & Education Manager
510-853-3533
Freddy Gutierrez
Fruitvale Outreach Coordinator
Kimra McAfee
Executive Director
510-501-3672
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Photo Credits: Andrew Aldrich, Rebecca Armstrong, Devin Cormia, Jill Miller, Erin Todd
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