Friends of Five Creeks President Susan Schwartz received the California Invasive Plant Council’s Ryan Jones Catalyst Award “for exceptional initiative in invasive plant management and the protection of California ecosystems,” at Cal-IPC’s annual meeting Thursday, Oct. 11. A large part of all-volunteer Friends of Five Creeks’ work in natural and restored “green threads in the urban fabrid” goes toward controlling invasive weeds that threaten plant and animal diversity and increase risk of fire or flood.