LOWER DIMOND PARK WALKING WATERHOODS TOUR

When: Saturday, April 6, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM- 12:30 PM

Where: Dimond Park, Oakland, CA (more information upon registering)

Sausal Creek winds through the dramatic Dimond canyon, which has seen thousands of years of human activity. As European colonists moved into the area and displaced the native Ohlone from their land, the area now known as Dimond Park went through several iterations as an elite homestead, water source, recreation area, Boy Scout camp, and eventually a public park with the rare above-ground Sausal Creek.

Some highlights of the tour will include:

• Ohlone plant, animal and creek use
• The Peralta Family colonization
• The Sausal Water Company
• Redwood trees
• What does it mean to daylight a creek?
• Devastating effects of stormwater and what you can do to help
• The heroes of the watershed: Friends of Sausal Creek

Our tours are interactive, so we hope you'll come with your own tidbits of knowledge and stories to offer. In addition, we encourage you to check out our Lower Dimond and Upper Dimond Walking Waterhoods Tour on Pocketsights, as there's so much more to learn than we'll be able to get to in person.

If you need free tickets, reach out: info@whollyh2o.org



To sign up for this event, use this link or the "register" button above.

WILD AND SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL 2024

When: Saturday, April 20, 2024

Time: 7:00 PM- 9:00 PM

Where: The David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley

Come celebrate Earth Day with The Wild and Scenic Film Festival, hosted by Citizen's Climate Lobby, at The David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley! The Wild and Scenic Film Festival combines stellar filmmaking, beautiful cinematography, and first-rate storytelling. These films explore nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, and more.

This year’s program features the audience favorites from the nation’s premier environmental and adventure film festival, the 2024 Wild and Scenic Film Festival.

For more information and tickets go to www.tinyurl.com/wsff24 or use the "register" button above. Get a $5 discount on tickets with code CCLALA.

To sign up for this event, use this link or the "register" button above.

Spring From the Ground Up: Watershed Ecology

From earth to sky, a snapshot of Bay Area watershed biota

Long a subject of prose and paintings, photographs and poems, spring has popularly symbolized new beginnings and natural beauty. As English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote almost 150 years ago, “Nothing is so beautiful as Spring”. With yet another spring on the horizon, the Bay Area is poised to see quite a vibrant season, thanks to all the rain we’ve received in the past few months. To celebrate, Wholly H2O will be taking you on a journey from the earth to the sky, highlighting various local species. 

Candy Cap Mushrooms / Mushroom Appreciation

Starting in the soil, candy cap mushrooms are one of the more common fungi found in the Bay Area. Candy caps fall under the Lactarius genus, which is a family of mushrooms that secrete a milky substance called “latex” when their gills are cut. Lactarius rubidus and Lactarius rufulus are two of the main candy cap species that can be found growing mostly under Bay Area oak trees. 

Candy caps are sometimes called “maple mushrooms” for their sweet scent reminiscent of maple syrup. These fragrant mushrooms are also edible, and are sometimes used to flavor desserts or serve as an aromatic complement to savory dishes. When dried, the sugary aroma is magnified, making candy caps a popular mushroom for drying and powdering. Color-wise, candy caps range in color from brown and burnt orange to muted red. 

Candy caps form symbiotic relationships with other plants, including trees, which allow them increased access to water and nutrients. If you go out hunting for candy caps, be sure to triple check you have the right mushroom and consult an expert to be safe. 

Briones Regional Park Oaks / Deanne Little, East Bay Parks

Moving up into the trees, the East Bay Area is known for its variety of native oaks. The Bay Area is home to several species of oak, the most common being the coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and the valley oak (Quercus lobata). In many Bay cities, you’re likely to spot oak trees, or at least evidence of their presence in murals, signs, and street, store, city, and even school names. And for good reason – oak trees often sit in the center of diverse ecosystems, serving as a home and food source for hundreds of plant and animal species, including the previously-mentioned candy cap. Oak woodlands also account for around two-thirds of the land where drinking water flows through in California, making them vital to watershed health. 

Oaks have also been a source of human fascination for thousands of years. Oaks are enshrined in Bay Area culture (Oakland, for example, got its name from the plethora of oaks growing in the area), including that of the Bay’s Indigenous tribes. With their majestic, twisting boughs and vivid emerald leaves, it’s easy to see why.

The Ohlone, in particular, view the oaks as sacred. Part of ancient Ohlone food culture involved special acorn gatherings where poles were used to shake acorns off the trees to be used in various dishes. When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 1700s, they marveled at the sheer number of oaks, naming the area “encinal”, meaning “oak grove.” Even today, oak trees stretch across many sections of the Bay Area, dotting hiking trails, shading roadsides, and gracing homes. Their gnarled limbs and furrowed trunks lend them an almost spiritual quality, providing a regal beauty to the areas they inhabit. It’s no wonder they’ve been such a lasting California image.

Unfortunately, and perhaps a little ironically, the city famed and named for these trees has seen a dramatic decline of its native oaks in the past few decades. Oakland, despite its deep-rooted history with oaks, has scarce numbers of the tree actually growing in the city. Recent efforts to restore oak trees to the area have proven difficult but largely worthwhile. As Tim Vendlinski, Oakland’s resident “Oak Saver” and former EPA Bay Delta Program Manager, said in a 2021 SF Chronicle article, “[Oak trees are] valuable for people who can find some solace in them when the world has gone mad.” Couldn’t we all use a little natural solace? 

Archie the Peregrine Falcon / Cal Falcons, Berkeley News

Finally, we ascend. To close off this month’s newsletter, we will be revisiting the topic of last March’s monthly: Berkeley’s famed peregrine falcons. You read that right – the saga continues. 

If you haven’t read our March 2023 newsletter, which details the drama in full, we recommend you check it out first to contextualize this segment. With that out of the way, let’s dive (back) in. 

We left off last March on a high note. Annie, UC Berkeley’s resident raptor, had just settled down with a new mate named Lou after her previous partner Alden disappeared a few months prior. But as of late, much like the villa in ITV Studios’ Love Island, it seems the Campanile has become an oasis of drama and romance. 

After Annie and Lou had a successful breeding season, raising three chicks together and watching them flock the nest in July of 2023, Lou decided he'd had enough this past January and flew the coop – much like New York City's famous (and famously tragic) resident owl, Flaco. R.I.P.

Continuing on with the Berkeley drama, however, Cal Falcons remarked after Lou's mysterious disappearance that without identification tags, knowing exactly what happened to him is pretty much impossible. 

Not to fear, though. Like a raptor version of Rapunzel, Annie has already welcomed a suitor into her tower. At the end of January, a sleek new peregrine showed up and a naming contest was held, with “Archie” being the overarching winner. Archie is named for Berkeley engineering alumnus Archie Williams, who was a 1936 Olympic gold medal runner and Air Force pilot during WWII. 

Archie has been described by Cal Falcons ornithologist Sean Peterson as “svelte” and “relatively relaxed" around Annie. And Annie herself seems keen on courting Archie, as she has been "soliciting him very aggressively", according to Cal Falcons member Mary Malec.

Typically, peregrine falcons will remain at a single territory for about 5 years, so while Annie has lasted longer than expected (this is now her 8th year at the UC Berkeley Campanile), time will tell if Annie’s era of ephemeral lovers is yet to end. So far, things are looking good. Annie and Archie have been steadily mating, and Annie is expected to lay eggs sometime this March as usual, though perhaps a little later due to the recent inclement weather. 

If anything, Annie’s turbulent love life serves as a beacon of hope to all – proof that it is always possible to find love again. Or perhaps that’s the reason why television romances are so popular. Either way, the timeless question remains: has she finally found The One?

Closing note: Like our last edition of the Berkeley falcon drama, this segment takes on a sensationalized and anthropomorphic tone. This is only for entertainment purposes, and if you’d like a more in-depth peek into the lives and characteristics of peregrine falcons from a scientific point-of-view, check out this article from National Geographic. Also, to see the birds for yourself, take a look at the various Cal Falcons nest cams for live footage of Annie's nest on the Campanile.

Spring at Bishop Ranch Regional Preserve / Meghan Boyle, Wholly H2O

Poppy in Corona Heights Park / Meghan Boyle, Wholly H2O

Watersheds, at their core, are highly interconnected ecosystems – environmental neighborhoods, if you will. The organisms present in watershed environments interact with one another constantly; no species exists in isolation. The image of a watershed existing “from the ground up” is just one way to visualize these interdependent spaces. The best way, though, is to get out and see the magic for yourself – and what better time than the blooming cusp of spring? Before you click away, be sure to check out Wholly H2O’s various Walking Waterhoods tours to explore your local watershed!

Our lives depend on healthy watersheds, and Wholly H2O depends on YOU!

Our important (and fun) work takes cash, plain and simple. Will you help us keep our events coming? Please use the link below to flow some cash in our direction! We're having our end-of-the-year fundraiser with a goal of $5,000 from all sources. If you are on Facebook, you are welcome to donate here. Otherwise, use our link to help us meet our goal. We love you!

During the last 100 years, California has been in on-and off drought conditions. We also have one of the five most important delta systems in the world, yet, most Californians do not know where their water comes from, how much they use a day, or what watershed they live in. At Wholly H2O, we are creating deep connections with watershed ecosystems in order to inspire people to take long-range personal and political action, while still having fun. And our Board of Advisors is a crucial part of how Wholly H2O functions. We ask for a solid commitment to:

• Join a 1.5 hour board meeting every four months.
• Put the word out about at least 3 Wholly H2O events a year
• Attend two Wholly H2O events per year
• Assist us in making connections for program content, partners, funding, and growth.

We're looking for experts in:

• Bay Area creek and marine ecosystems
• East Bay history - particularly BIPOC histories
• curriculum development
• connecting with East Bay K-12 schools
• marketing

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, apply using this link. Also, be sure to check out our current Board of Advisors to learn more !