Update 9-27-2007

Oct. 1 F5C board meeting:
All are welcome to attend the Friends of Five Creeks board meeting, 7 pm Mon., Oct. 1, at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. Among the topics will be a permanent memorial to our longtime vice president, Ruth Meniketti.

Oct. 13 Art-Making on Cerrito Creek:
From 10 am to noon Saturday, Oct. 13, environmental artist Zach Pine will join us in "Celebrating Cerrito Creek through Art," making ephemeral art with natural materials at restored Cerrito Creek at El Cerrito Plaza (south edge of the Plaza parking lot, near the Saturday Farmers' Market). Photos from the three sessions of art Zach led on Codornices Creek have been widely displayed; you can see them, along with other work by Zach, at http://homepage.mac.com/zpine/. Don't miss this experience!

Oct. 14 Work party on Bay:
We have postponed our "progressive" work party in the Upper Codornices watershed to November (hoping rain will soften soil). Instead, at 10 am on Sunday, Oct. 14, we'll remove invasives from the mouth of Strawberry Creek in Eastshore State Park (behind Sea Breeze Deli, south side of University Avenue just west of I-880/580).

Thanks, more "re-leaf" for rock parks Sept. 30:
Huge thanks to more than 40 volunteers who took a mountain of ivy out of Berkeley's Mortar Rock Park Sept. 16, including neighbors, Berkeley Parks gardener Pam Boland, co-leaders Tom and Jane Kelly, Berkeley High School AP Environmental Science students led by Mardi Mertens, and UC Berkeley Roots and Shoots members.

The "re-leaf"effort for Berkeley's rock parks continues this Sunday, Sept. 30, at Grotto Rock Park, Santa Barbara just north of Indian Rock. Please contact lesliecfloren@yahoo.com if you can help.

Many thanks to Albany Councilmember Jewel Okawachi and all the others who contributed to the wonderful memorial service for Ruth Meniketti last Saturday, especially to F5C new vice president Shirley Jowell, who also spent Sunday at our table at the UC Botanic Garden's "Cross-Pollination" event.

Events of others: Talks on wild boar, groundwater
At 7:30 pm Mon., Oct. 8, Close to Home's series of talks on Bay Area wildlife presents "Tracking the Wild Boar," pictures, sounds, poetry, and mythology about these feral descendants of Eurasian wild boar. The speaker, Jay Salter, is a poet, natural-sound recordist, and teacher living in the Santa Cruz mountains. The talk is at Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701Thornhill Rd., Oakland (from Thornhill exit on Highway 13, go east 1/2 mile). For information contact 510-655-6658, spring5@mindspring.com, or www.close-to-home.org.

From 5:30 - 7 pm Tuesday, Oct. 9, Dr. William M. Alley, Chief of the US Geological Survey's Groundwater Office, speaks on "Tracking the Nation's Ground Water Reserves," Rm 112 Wurster Hall near Bancroft and College, on the UC Berkeley campus. The talk is part of the Water Resources Center Archives' California Coloquium on Water; information http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/ccow.html.

Action alerts to protect clean water and wildlife

Ask Governor to keep plastics out of oceans:
Plastics have become a serious threat to water creatures - in parts of the Pacific Ocean, tiny plastic fragments that fish and sea turtles mistake for food are six times as abundant as actual edible eggs and floating creatures. Much of this plastic originates as "nurdles," tiny plastic balls used to transport plastic to factories that produce consumer products. AB 258, a bill to keep industrial "nurdles" out of storm drains, streams, and the ocean, is on Governor Schwarzenegger's desk for signature. Both the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Save the Bay have asked for letters, faxes, phone calls, and emails asking the governor to sign this bill (actual letters work best). For a sample letter go to http://www.mbayaq.org/oa/ and click on "Join Our Ocean Action Team."

TO CALL: Dial 916-445-2841, press 1 for English, press 2 for Assembly Bill, press 0 for "All Other Bills," and speak to one of the Governor's Constituent Affairs Representatives.

TO FAX send your letter to the Governor's office at 916-445-4633.

TO EMAIL log onto http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email. Select "have comment" as purpose of communication, "Environment - issues/concerns" as the subject, and "Pro" as your position.

Fill in your contact information and click "submit." This gets you to a form where you can write, or cut and paste, your message. It's not as hard as it sounds!

Tell Senators to use Farm Bill for conservation, not corporations:
The giant federal Farm Bill is our nation's largest single source of federal conservation funding. But too many dollars subsidize commodities and corporate farms that do not need it. These subsidized farms' polluted, over-fertilized runoff creates huge "dead zones" offshore nationwide, from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, four of five farmers are turned down when they apply for conservation funds, for example to set aside strips of land along streams to stop pollution and create homes for wildlife. Please write California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to urge that the Senate adequately fund programs like the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, Conservation Reserve Program, and Wetlands Reserve Program. Studies show that this would benefit more farmers, in more states, than the current program. For more information, go to www.pcl.org (Planning and Conservation League), www.environmentaldefense.org (Environmental Defense), or www.nwf.org (National Wildlife Federation). For contact information for the senators, go to http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/ and http://boxer.senate.gov/.