Transforming neglected natural areas, one step at a time.

Recent volunteering:  Below: F5C interns hunted re-sprouting French broom at Berkeley's shorebird park. Seeds still re-sprout from the wall of broom we removed 15 years ago. Above: VUC Berkeley students from service grou Alpha Phi Omega did spring weeding at the mouth of Strawberry Creek.  Below: Members of Congregation Beth Israel platted natives for the Jewish Holiday of the trees. Above: Beth Israel volunteers and F5C Weed Warriors finished off the huge patch of Arundo, giant cane at Berkeley's Aquatic Park. Below: Interns worked at Cerrito Creek.

Helping Nature in the East Bay – Hands On

All-volunteer Friends of Five Creeks has worked hands-on for 27 years for clean water, healthy watersheds, and natural areas that welcome both wildlife and people. We work from Berkeley to Richmond on the urbanized east side of San Francisco Bay.

• Learn more about our work: Subscribe to our e-news, to keep up with what our volunteers are doing, Bay Area environmental news, and a "feature of the month." (We don't share your information with anybody.) See maps, history, and slide shows of some of our projects.

• Check out our list of events with others -- online here and now being updated within the month!

Remove invasives, enjoy spring on the Bay shore at the mouth of Schoolhouse Creek 10 AM - noon Sun., Mar. 16!

Meet at 10 AM at the gate on the shoreline at the north end of the strip, south end of the sports fields (map here). From the Bay Trail or West Frontage Road between University and Gilman, in Berkeley, turn into the dirt parking lot, follow it to its end, and take the short dirt trail to the Bay shore, where you will see the gate. It's an easy bike ride via the pedestrian-bicycle bridges at Gilman or south of University Ave.

All ages welcome -- tools, gloves, and light snacks provided. Dress to get dirty, with sun protection and layers for changing weather. Long pants, long sleeves, and closed-toed shoes with good traction strongly recommended. Heavy rain cancels. Groups of more than five please RSVP so we will have enough supplies. For information, email F5creeks@gmail.com. Heavy rain cancels!

This also is a chance to think about the future of this 20 acres of McLaughlin East Shore State Park. A second planning workshop is expected this spring. Scroll down for background.

Join our informal, friendly group maintaining varied natural areas: Our "Weekday Weed Warriors" gather Tuesday mornings 10 AM - noon. Email f5creeks@gmail.com for more information or to get weekly email notification of locations.

We work with local agencies in important planning processes and  issues. We also collect data, especially citizen-science data focused on climate change. Here's some of what we're doing, and how you can contribute, participate, and have your voices heard!

New: How are our East Bay shorelines changing? Tracking history as climate changes. Click here to view slide show in a new window. This is a large file! Please be patient. It is meant to be viewed on a large screen. Slides are set to advance slowly, for reading and a close look. This is a beginning effort -- please help us build these records!

Helping plan the future of the North Basin Strip, part of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, in Berkeley.  The East Bay Regional Park District is planning the future for 20 acres and almost a half mile of Bay shoreline west of the I-80 Frontage Road, between the foot of Gilman Street and where Virginia Street would reach the Bay if it crossed the freeway. It includes the south shore of the North Basin Cove and the service road/trail there. This land is part of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. (The Tom Bates Sports Fields are on a long-term lease to Berkeley and not included in the planning, but ideas on how they could work together are welcome.) Another public meeting is expected in spring.

Friends of Five Creeks has worked for years maintaining this area, and we are taking an active role in planning. (Three of our interns also were part of a "New Voices" group that the Park District convened before public planning, but their participation was independent. We did not discuss their suggestions.) Friends of Five Creeks seeks "daylighting" of the mouth of Schoolhouse Creek in the park and consideration for the varied and beautiful volunteer-planted natives along the shoreline, as well as coordination between the East Bay Regional Park District and Berkeley on a wide range of issues. These range from dealing with sea-level rise through parking and traffic safety, responsible use by high-school mountain-bike teams, and effective links between the sport-field complex (on long term lease from the park) and the rest of the North Basin Strip and surroundings. More background here.

We are building baseline data on what lives between the tides along the Berkeley and Emeryville shorelines, focused especially on the Albany shoreline from the southwest tip of the Albany Bulb to the sandstone outcrop at Golden Gate Fields. It is best done during spring to fall daytime low tides.  If you'd like to help with these citizen-science efforts, please email f5creeks@gmail.com.

We are working with the informal Friends of Aquatic Park to make sure that this new plan, and other city actions, adequately deal with the complex and longstanding issues of water quality and poor circulation in the park's lagoons, as well as new and increasing challenges from climate change. This so far includes building the informative web site aquaticpark.org along with other efforts, from posting signs about how to report problems to developing baseline information on water quality and the sometimes surprising plants and animals that live in the park. 

Our interns' survey of woodrat nests, important "ecosystem engineering" in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area, is here. El Cerrito's draft final plan for reducing fire risk in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area is online here, along with public comments and the consultants' responses. Our interns presented their work at a Dec. 10 joint meeting of the El Cerrito Environmental Quality and Urban Forestry Committees, and may do so again when this plan goes to the City Council. Although the plan has been improved in response to comments, we still have concerns about whether it adequately protects wildlife and habitat, and whether the city is being realistic about the needs and costs for maintenance. (We worked for more than a decade and transformed the main, 75-acre portion of the Hillside Natural area, reducing fire danger mainly by removing French Broom.) F5C's detailed comments on El Cerrito's draft plan for the Hillside Natural Area are here. For earlier comments:  Friends of Five Creeks' January input on what this plan should include is here. A short slide show is here. An earlier handout is here.

Report drainage and runoff trouble spots to help Berkeley and Albany write new plans for their storm-drain systems. The Nov. 22 storm was just a preview of stronger deluges expected with climate change. Both cities need to update aging infrastructure. Both Berkeley and Albany are writing new plans for their storm-drain systems.  Berkeley wants report of possible trouble spots using an online survey -- info here (scroll down, or go straight to the form here.) Please report a broad range of issues:

• frequent flooding or backups of runoff
• wet spots that may indicate leaks, backups, or slide danger
• failing culverts or other infrastructure
• lack of needed storm drains -- saturated soils can wash out or slides. More drains may be needed as storms become more intense.
• catch basins that don't get cleaned, rain gardens that need maintenance. (You also can volunteer to maintain these.)

More handouts, slide shows, and reports

• See our native-plant signs, linking species to their roles in history and the environment. Free to all to download, modify, and use!
• Intern Paulina Lara's guide to how native plants and animals "get along" on Codornices Creek (helpful for other local creeks as well) -- her senior honors project at CSU East Bay. Click here for English or Spanish versions. (These are large files. Please be patient.) It's on display now on the Codornices Creek trail at the net at Sixth Street. See more of our displays on the Codornices Creekside trail: A schematic map of the creek between San Pablo and Tenth Street done by Berkeley High student Evan McMurtrie, "tree trolls" and "tiny things" designed by our interns, at the creekside meadow across from the Little League ballfields, between 10th and 8th Streets, on the Berkeley-Albany border.
• See our flyer on how to de-clutter the environmental way and Saving Water -- Rain or Shine.
•  Click here to see our slide show: Codornices Creek, Chapters in an Unfinished History
• Do-it-yourself Nature Treasure Hunt for families with young children. Print out these two sheets back-to-back for fun aimed to engage young children in nature -- along with queries designed to intrigue and challenge adults. This hunt focuses on Codornices Creek, but is easily adapted to other places. You can even use it on a cell phone!

F5C selected older letters to agencies

• Need for toileting and RV sewage pumpout for unhoused in Berkeley: Read F5C's June 2023 letter on the need for portable toilets and sewage pumpout for the unhoused, for human dignity, public health, and pollution prevention.
• Considering likely effects of climate change in Berkeley's plans for development in its Marina area: Read F5C's May 2023 letter on the draft Waterfront Specific Plan.
• Protecting Codornices Creek as part of re-paving the Hopkins-Gilman corridor in Berkeley: Read F5C's February 2023 letters on the importance of including green amenities, pollution reduction, and protection for Codornices Creek in a "complete streets" project for Hopkins Avenue, which follows the creek a half block away. The project was shelved.