Berkeley Path Wanderers: New Year’s waterfront walk , Saturday, January 3, 10 a.m. View wintering waterfowl and discover how Berkeley beaches are rebuilding themselves. Binoculars are recommended. Walk is leisurely and level but not wheelchair accessible. Optional coffee/tea stop at Sea Breeze Deli. Meet at Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave. (South side, west of Adventure Playground). f5creeks@aol.com , 510 848 9358, www.berkeleypaths.org
UC Berkeley funding for BPFP “Greening Berkeley” partners
For the third year in a row, BPFP’s “Greening Berkeley Hands On” partnership has been awarded a Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund grant by UC Berkeley. This year’s award of $24,000 will help BPFP affiliates carry out a wide variety of hands-on environmental projects. The grant pays for both materials and a UC student intern, who organized student volunteering through CalCorps, UC’s public-service arm.
Projects in the 2008 grant range from path construction and a solar light for the Santa Fe Right of Way, projects of Berkeley Path Wanderers, to tools and gloves for the city’s 14 public-school gardens, through Friends of School Gardens. The community-built Schoolhouse Creek Common will install chess tables and a bench. Nearby, Friends of Westbrae Commons will continue transforming the Ohlone Greenway south of Gilman with native coastal-prairie plants. Friends of Shorebird Park Nature Center will spread fresh sand and build new racks at Adventure Playground, while Aquatic Park EGRET will get upgraded nataive plants and upgraded wheelbarrows. Friends of Five Creeks will be able to install signs on local natural history and plant drought-tolerant natives in a variety of sites, from the Santa Fe Right of Way to Mortar Rock Park.
Aquatic Park EGRET also will partner with Earth Team Environmental Network, Berkeley Community Media, College of Natural Resources, and Berkeley Community Garden to involve local teens in habitat restoration days that teens also will film for showing on local cable TV. This project received a $5000 Chancellors Community Partnership grant.
Join us to carry out these projects! Contact BPFP or the affiliate group you are interested in — click on “Affiliated Groups” at right.
Help stop flooding and habitat damage to Aquatic Park
The City of Berkeley plans to use $2 million in Clean Water Bond money from the State Coastal Conservancy to open discharge outlets from the City’s primary storm drains into the tidal bay ponds of Aquatic Park. Discharge of contaminated storm water into the enclosed ponds has been prohibited by the State since 1971, but the City hopes to overturn that restriction and replace it with a permit allowing such toxic discharges in perpetuity. The use of high-pressure pumps can increase the capacity of the City’s drains and avoid violations of the Water Board’s prohibition. Improving circulation within the lagoon system must begin with regular maintenance of the existing culverts, the option selected by Council in 1994 when staff first proposed the project in an earlier version. Additional water circulation can be safely engineered with a one-way flow out of the lagoons, thus prohibiting the introductions of toxic storm runoff. Such one-way outbound options have been recommended for consideration by the State Water Board regulator in his project analysis, but they have not yet been modeled.
This item is on the City Council agenda at their June 24 meeting. For more information, visit Aquatic Park EGRET’s web site: www.egretpark.org
Spring work groups at Aquatic Park
It’s been a busy early spring for Aquatic Park EGRET. Plenty of planting, weeding, and cleaning.
Highlights:
- March 2008 75 young people coordinated by EarthTeam gathered to commemorate the life and purpose of Cesar Chavez Chavez. The large group split into three smaller ones and tackled Shoreline trash pickup, removal of invasive vegetation, and spreading woodchips around native plantings (woodchips help the soil retain moisture while also keeping weeds from growing).
- April Head-Royce 6th graders participated in a service learning project and spread woodchips along shoreline plantings, including three Cyprus trees that had been planted by 4th graders from Rosa Parks one year ago.
Upcoming:
- On Wednesday, April 30, 15 high school students from College Prep will spread woodchips along Western shore of Middle Pond.
Come on down to see the results of all this work. If your group would like to help, contact Mark Liolios at mark AT lmi DOT net.
Annual update of 2007 Activities
Our annual Update highlights activities of BPFP and our affiliate groups from 2007:
- High resolution (PDF: 9.7 MB) (recommended for those with high speed internet access)
- screen resolution (PDF: 0.15 MB) (recommended for those with dial-up internet connections).
From the Board introduction:
We are hopeful the energizing power of partnerships will become a theme of the 21st century. Around the world individuals are organizing in their local areas to improve their lives, and Berkeley Partners for Parks is a leader in those efforts in our community.