Trillium ovatum growing at Fern Ravine in Joaquin Miller Park.
Photo by Robert Leidy.
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Friends of Sausal Creek is a volunteer-based, community organization. We appreciate your support of our education, monitoring, and restoration programs in the
Sausal Creek Watershed.
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At FOSC we celebrate Earth Day every day, but we plan to go REALLY big on Saturday, April 23! We have opportunities for you to get your hands dirty from the hills to the estuary. See more information about the below workday events on our web calendar.
If you are unsure of which site to go to, meet us at the Dimond Park Scout Hut at 8:45 a.m. on April 23 and we can help direct you to a site.
If you would like to bring a group out to volunteer (4 or more), please send us an RSVP!
April 23 Earth Day Volunteer Sites and Event Times:
- Barry Place: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Beaconsfield Canyon: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Dimond Park/Dimond Canyon: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Fern Ravine (Joaquin Miller Park): 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Jingletown Garden: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Bridgeview Trail (Pollinator Garden): 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- FOSC Native Plant Nursery (Joaquin Miller Park): 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
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Explore the Watershed
Bringing Back the Canyon
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Richard Kauffman—dedicated FOSC site leader, volunteer copy editor, and riveting storyteller—reflects on the volunteer effort in Beaconsfield Canyon, the trials and tribulations over the years, and the motivation to keep on going. |
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We moved to Montclair to a house on the rim of five-acre Beaconsfield Canyon in 1997, having fallen in love with this big, wooded greenspace in our backyard. For the longest time, we didn’t know it had a name, we didn’t know it was city property, we had no idea what was down that steep hillside just beyond our backyard fence. It wasn’t till our kids got old enough to lose basketballs down into the impenetrable maw of ivy and blackberry that I got curious about what was down there.
Staring into the knee-high jungle of vines, broken limbs and decades of duff from the Monterey pines and cypresses, one thing was clear—it was a fire waiting to happen.
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Upcoming Community Talk
Shuumi Land Tax: Indigenous Solidarity on Lisjan Ohlone Land
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Drawing on the work of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, we will learn about the Shuumi Land Tax, the indigenous women-led movement for rematriation, and how we can be part of a historic healing that honors the land's Ohlone ancestors as well as future generations.
Our speaker for this community talk is Ariel Luckey. Born and raised in Huchiun/Oakland, California, Ariel is the development director at Sogorea Te' Land Trust. A descendant of Ashkenazi Jewish and white settlers, Ariel works to create and support pathways of redistribution and rematriation. He is also a co-founder of Jews on Ohlone Land, a vibrant Jewish community learning together how to be good guests here in the East Bay.
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We hope you'll join us for this virtual event, please register in advance with this link:
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Friend of the Month
Oakland buildOn
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For almost 20 years, FOSC has partnered with the inspiring youth of Oakland's buildOn program. These are students who lift up their communities by serving where they’re needed most—tutoring younger kids, engaging in park restoration, and cooking meals for the unhoused.
The students came out to do restoration work in Dimond Canyon last month to improve creek and riparian habitat. We're grateful for the incredible effort they put in as well as for sharing their thoughts with us on this experience:
Azineth Jao says that volunteering makes her feel inspired by the people she does the restoration work with, noting, "It makes you want to do more in the future."
Victor Diaz says he wants to learn more about plants—he was interested to learn about invasive species and how they quickly reproduce and impact the ecosystem.
Devani Santos, the leader of the Oakland buildOn crew, shares, "I love being able to do restoration work in the city I am from. I have been volunteering here since I was in high school. How can we get more BIPOC folks out here and get them more connected to nature and restoration?"
Thank you buildOn students and Devani for your commitment to the community!
Find out more about buildOn's mission and impact here.
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Kudos Corner
Volunteers Across the Watershed
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This Earth Month we want to recognize and thank FOSC volunteers across the watershed. Your time, effort, and enthusiasm stewarding our local habitat through restoration, monitoring, environmental education, and nursery activities inspires all of us! Below are just a few of our volunteers in action in 2022.
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Welcome New Restoration and Education Manager
Ella Matsuda
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Some of you may have already met Ella recently at the nursery or on a restoration workday where she has jumped right into the action, but we are thrilled to formally introduce you to our new restoration and education manager, Ella Matsuda. |
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After falling in love with plants while studying lemurs in Madagascar, Ella moved home to restore local ecosystems. She looks forward to coordinating volunteers and restoration efforts, leading seed and native plant ID hikes with the community, and conducting field trips with students in the Sausal Creek Watershed. She has research and environmental monitoring expertise and previously worked at the Houston Arboretum in resource management and native horticulture in addition to comanaging the nursery. Ella has degrees in ecology and environmental sciences from Rice University and has been leading backpacking trips and environmental education programs for over a decade.
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Arts in the Watershed
Mushroom Spore Printing
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Jay Cassianni shared with us a series of spore prints he created with Oakland mushrooms. Click here to read more about this unique scientific and artistic process.
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To keep our community safe, please come prepared to wear a mask and social distance. |
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Marj Saunders Park Cleanup
Monday, April 4, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Marj Saunders Park, Chelton Drive and Ascot Drive
Restoration Workday in Dimond Canyon
Saturday, April 9, 16, and 23 (Earth Day),
9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Meet at the Scout Hut in Dimond Park
Native Plant Nursery Volunteer Drop-In Hours
Wednesdays in April 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 9 and 23 (Earth Day), 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Friends of Sausal Creek Native Plant Nursery
FOSC Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, April 13, 7-8:30 p.m.
Via Zoom
Bridgeview Trailhead Workday
Sundays in April 9-11 a.m.
Saturday, April 23 (Earth Day),10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Bridgeview Pollinator Garden
Barry Place Workday
Saturday, April 23 (Earth Day), 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
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Beaconsfield Canyon Restoration Workday
Saturday, April 23 (Earth Day), 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Beaconsfield Canyon, Montclair
Fern Ravine Workday (Joaquin Miller Park)
Saturday, April 23 (Earth Day), 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Jingletown Garden Workday
Saturday, April 23 (Earth Day), 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Sausal Creek Trail Stewardship Crew
Sunday, April 24, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Location TBD
Community Talk - Shuumi Land Tax: Indigenous Solidarity on Lisjan Ohlone Land
Wednesday, April 27, 7-8:30 p.m.
Via Zoom
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We need volunteers in the watershed now more than ever!
Join us for one of our many workdays this April.
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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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Contact:
Anna Marie Schmidt
Executive Director
510-501-3672
Ella Matsuda
Restoration and Education Manager
Jay Cassianni
Restoration and Nursery Manager
510-325-9006
Rosa Nelson
Outreach and Stewardship Intern
Kate Berlin
Communications and Restoration Intern
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Photo Credits: Robert Leidy, Richard Kauffman, Jay Cassianni, Ella Matsuda, Rosa Nelson, Kate Berlin, Bob Roat
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