Schoolhouse Creek Common, the beautiful community-build park at Curtis and Virginia, urgently needs help weeding and spreading new gravel on the paths! Join them 9 AM – noon, Saturday, May 12.
Work for all, all ages welcome! Snacks and drinks provided. Bring your own work gloves if you have them.
For information contact Jamie Day, day7715@gmail.com.
Sudden Oak Death is a fungus-like water mold that threatens our beautiful Coast Live Oaks. Besides their beauty, oaks are critical to the survival of many plants and animals, and the functioning of our watersheds. Dead or dying oaks greatly increase fire danger, and trees or limbs can fall suddenly, endangering people or property.
According to Dr. Matteo Garbelotto, head of the Forest Pathology Lab at UC Berkeley, writes: “2011 was a bad year for our oaks. Prolonged spring rains have resulted in a significant spread of Sudden Oak Death throughout the state,” including the East Bay.
Please mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, April 28-9. After an hour-long training by Dr. Garbelotto at 1 PM Saturday on the UC Berkeley campus, you’ll collect suspect bay leaves (the main carriers to oaks) on your own time, and where you choose, for lab testing. You return suspect samples to a drop-box on the UC Berkeley campus by Sunday evening.
We will gladly help you plan a route — just ask on the signup form. This year’s blitz will follow a new protocol that makes it possible to estimate the actual local SOD infection rate!
Sign up for the training at http://sodblitz2012.eventzilla.net.
Do you like photography? nature? Join the California King Tides Initiative documenting the year’s highest tides — levels likely to become the “new normal” as sea level rises due to global warming. King Tides will occur about 8:50 AM Fri., Jan. 20; 9:40 AM Sat., Jan. 21, and 10:30 AM Sun., Jan. 22. The idea is to (a) identify areas vulnerable to tidal flooding, erosion, or other damage and (b) gather compelling images to promote awareness and support action to deal with climate change. The project seeks photos of areas likely to flood or erode, that have infrastructure that might be affected. For information, go to www.californiakingtides.org.
Friends of Five Creeks would like to document the “heads of tide” — the farthest inland reaches of tides in creeks and channels. For information and ideas on good sites in the East Bay, click here.
Congratulations to Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association on restoring two of the giant concrete urns that graced the 100-year-old subdivision. (BPFP is fiscal sponsor for this project.) Please join Berkeley Path Wanderers Association on a 1 PM walk from Great Stoneface Park, exploring Thousand Oaks history and ending at 3 PM with dedication of the urns. All welcome!
Join us for the 9th annual tour of Berkeley’s eclectic fabric of gardens, paths, strange and familiar cultural and natural features…This year we’ll explore the many inventive and artful hidden gems of West Berkeley – from wetland and creek restoration projects, to community gardens and Victorian historic districts.
The tour will be led by John Steere, John Coveney, Marleen Fouche, and guest historians/guides who will lead participants in a 4 mile ride through the curiously historic and creative features of Berkeley’s bayside district. It will be sure to delight and surprise, and to provide you with ideas for shaping your community… Bring a lunch, water, and your curiosity!
The bike tour begins at a hidden gem: San Pablo Park in the lawn area near at its southwest corner (by Russell and Mabel) and will end at Codornices Creek’s restoration or day-lighting, near 9th Street and Albany Village.