Elementary students hiking through Sausal Creek in Dimond Canyon during their FOSC field trip.
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FOSC is a volunteer-based, community organization. We need donors like you to support another great year of FOSC education and restoration programs in the Sausal Creek Watershed.
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Check out
the multiple ways to support FOSC, including contributions to our
For the Future
endowment fund.
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You Make the Difference!
Help us raise $5,000 on Giving Tuesday, December 3!
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Join Friends of Sausal Creek in celebrating Giving Tuesday, a global movement that inspires individuals to generously support community organizations like FOSC, right at the start of the holiday season.
Pat and Robert Raburn and other anonymous donors are kicking off our #GivingTuesday fundraiser by offering to
match the first $2,500 raised
!
Your donation supports the many FOSC activities including:
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- Endangered Species Monitoring
- Citizen Science and Monitoring
- Youth Outdoor Education
- Community Outreach
- Native Plant Nursery
This is your opportunity to support our community’s efforts to restore and protect the Sausal Creek Watershed and engage the next generation of environmental stewards. With your contributions, Friends of Sausal Creek can look forward to another year of safeguarding the ecological splendors that exist right here in Oakland, California.
To share our fundraiser campaign and donate on Facebook
click here
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Celebrate the winter solstice by joining us for planting and restoration along Sausal Creek. As we move into the rainy (planting) season, we want to get as many seedlings in the ground as we can on December 21, and we can use your help!
Winter Solstice Planting
Dimond Canyon and Barry Place
Saturday, December 21
9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Tools and plants provided.
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Explore the Watershed
Eureka! New Fish Species in Sausal Creek
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This October FOSC board member and ecologist Rob Leidy discovered a new fish species, the riffle sculpin, in Sausal Creek! Riffle sculpins are found in the coastal drainages of California (excluding Oregon) from Morro Bay to just south of the Klamath River, including Sacramento-San Joaquin drainage streams, San Francisco Bay tributaries, and in the lower Columbia River drainage in Washington. In Bay Area streams, riffle sculpins are invariably found with rainbow trout. These species often prefer small headwater and mid-elevation streams that are moderately shaded, contain shallow riffles and pools with low conductivities, cool water temperatures, clear water with high dissolved oxygen levels, and a substrate dominated by gravel and cobble (Leidy 2007). Like rainbow trout, riffle sculpins are indicators of good water quality. Riffle sculpins rarely occur in stream reaches with nonnative fish species.
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FOSC Environmental Education Programs
Reaching and Teaching: The Next Generation of Environmental Stewards
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We talk a lot about our restoration efforts, but did you know that environmental education is also a key part of FOSC’s mission? Last year FOSC conducted 102 field trips and restoration activities comprising over 1,830 student contacts. Through our youth environmental education program, we get students out of the classroom and into the “laboratory” of their own watershed. Here are just a few of the activities that engage K-12 students in the watershed:
- Restoring biodiversity and mitigating erosion in Dimond Canyon by planting and watering California native plants
- Conducting field skill tutorials on topics like bird monitoring
- Water quality testing from Fern Ravine to the mouth of Sausal Creek and analyzing the data for trends
- Storm drain mural painting with a local Jingletown artist to remind community members that storm drains connect to the creek and the bay
- Benthic macro-invertebrate monitoring for indications of creek health in Dimond Park
- Invasive French broom removal and native plant restoration in Wood Park
- Conducting natural history walking tours through the redwood forest along Fern Ravine Trail in Joaquin Miller Park
Our environmental education program is growing, and FOSC staff are working hard to secure the funding needed to provide free field trips for schools with underserved students.
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Kudos Korner
Bob Roat, Stan Dodson, Karen Paulsell -- Fern Ravine Watch Team
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It takes a village to watch over a watershed. And it takes ongoing vigilance. Stan Dodson, the ever-watchful Oakland Trails executive director, alerted FOSC to higher than normal water flow coming from Fern Ravine, the headwaters of Sausal Creek in Joaquin Miller Park.
This was on Halloween, but it can be scary for other reasons. Besides wasting water and reducing fire hydrant pressures in Joaquin Miller Park, the leaking of treated water containing chloramines into the creek can kill our native rainbow trout. EBMUD and the City of Oakland (311) were notified, and FOSC volunteer Bob Roat met EBMUD staff, the City of Oakland plumber, Yosief Haile, and Park Services staff member, Kevin Charles, on site several times to help them locate the leak, perform water quality testing, and continue to answer questions.
Native plant expert Karen Paulsell monitored the protective measures for native plants around the repair site. It’s almost a month later and Bob, a professional environmental engineer, continues to pursue these pesky leaks, chasing down other mysterious sources of water identified by Stan at the Fern Ravine p
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cnic area and Palo Seco Creek. Many thanks, Bob, Stan, Karen, and Oakland city staff for your diligence and devotion to the watershed!
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FOSC Friend of the Month
Wendy Tokuda
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Wendy started volunteering for FOSC in Beaconsfield Canyon more than 10 years ago. She'd seen Richard Kauffman on the news, expressing his outrage with the city's lack of maintenance and the fire danger that presented. Made sense to her. When Kauffman set up monthly work parties, she was all in.
The canyon was full of invasive weeds, overgrown brush and garbage. "It was creepy in there," Tokuda remembers. For several years, volunteers simply kept a dumpster in place to handle all the bags of thistle, Erharta, and cape and Algerian ivy “with trunks as big as your arm.” They hauled out tires, bottles, a broken computer, and, famously, a washing machine.
Tokuda began spending a lot of time in Beaconsfield, and since retiring from television news, she is there regularly during the week. "It's the only time my mind goes quiet," she says. "It's my sanctuary."
Beaconsfield has transformed into a kind of “nature preserve,” thriving with native plants from the FOSC nursery under the guidance of Karen Paulsell. At a time when species are disappearing, Tokuda sees preserving this habitat in our own backyards as vitally important.
About three years ago, “in a moment of abandon,” Tokuda adopted the open space around PAL Camp in Joaquin Miller Park and started organizing regular work parties there. Friends of Sausal Creek provides plants and volunteers. A big focus there is fuel reduction as climate change drives a whole new kind of fire danger in the hills.
"I love the hands-on work and the ability to see the changes in Beaconsfield and PAL Camp over time," Tokuda says. "It gives me a great sense of purpose, but it also gives me real happiness. I feel like I have the biggest garden in the world."
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RESTORATION WORKDAYS
Beaconsfield Canyon
(Last Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 28, 9 a.m.-noon
Bridgeview Trail Restoration
(2nd Sundays)
Sun., Dec. 8, 9-11 a.m.
Bridgeview Trailhead Pollinator Garden
(1st and 3rd Sundays)
Sun., Dec. 1 & 22, 9-11 a.m.
Dimond Park Native Plant Demonstration Garden
(1st Saturdays)
Sat., Dec 7. & Jan. 4, 10 a.m.-noon
Marj Saunders Park
(1st Mondays)
Mon., Dec. 2 & Dec. 8, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Montclair Railroad Trail
(2nd Saturdays) CHANGED
Sat., Dec. 14, 9 a.m.- 12 p.m.
Wood Park
(3rd Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 21, 10 a.m.-noon
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Fern Ravine Work Day
Fern Ravine Trailhead
(2nd Saturdays)
Sat., Dec. 14, 9 a.m.-noon
SAVE THE DATE
WINTER SOLSTICE PLANTING
Dimond Park and Barry Place
Sat., Dec. 21, 9a.m.-12p.m.
STATE OF THE WATERSHED
Dimond Library Branch
Wed., Jan. 22, 6-9 p.m.
MLK JR DAY OF SERVICE
Multiple Site Locations
Mon., Jan. 20, 9a.m.-10p.m.
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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 --
Amazon Smile purchases donate 0.5% to FOSC
--
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Contact:
Becca Sanchez
Education and Outreach Coordinator
510-853-3533
Jay Cassianni
Restoration and Nursery Manager
510-325-9006
Anna Marie Schmidt
Executive Director
510-501-3672
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Photo Credits
: Nicki Alexander, Robert Leidy, Anna Marie Schmidt, Becca Sanchez, Wendy Tokuda
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