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UC grants for better Berkeley available!

May 14 is the deadline for applying for 2010’s UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund grants — awards of $5,000 to $50,000 for projects to enhance community safety and livability (a priority this year), environmental stewardship, education, and arts and culture.

Grants are for community groups partnered with UC faculty, staff, or students. Proposals must come from a legal nonprofit organization, but if you have a good idea and a few supporters, you can find a fiscal agent. BPFP, for example, serves as fiscal agent to large and small groups dealing with parks, outdoors, recreation, beautification, environment, and the like. We have received numerous grants from the Chancellor’s Fund and can help with practical advice, including how to find a UC partner. Please get in touch with us! (See the “contact us” page.)

Projects should be completed in one or at most two years. They must be in Berkeley. Keep in mind what permits and approvals you may need — funds won’t be handed out until they are obtained. Reasonable stipends can be paid, e.g. if the project needs experts.

For UC’s press release, with links to information and application forms, click here.

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Spring Equinox Gathering, Cesar Chavez Memorial Solar Calendar

Date and time

Saturday, March 20, 2010; 6:30 pm
Hope rock

Sunset is 7:15 pm, gathering is 45 minutes before sunset. The event ends about 15 minutes after sunset.

Event information

Led by David Glaser, Science Educator

  • A mini-workshop on the Seasons
  • Celebrating HOPE -  The Chavez virtue that is associated with the East
  • Norouz –  In the interest of sharing cultural celebrations associated with the Spring Equinox, Mojgan Saberi will give a brief overview of the Iranian Spring Festival called Norouz.

Notes

This years city-wide theme for the Cesar Chavez Commemoration (March 20th – April 23rd) is on “Teaching Tolerance.” www.ecologycenter.org/chavez

Thank you to all the dog walkers who have been helping by keeping their dogs on a leash. This is particularly important when there are a lot of people, dogs and excitement in the center circle. It makes for a more orderly and enjoyable experience for all in attendance. You are some of our biggest supporters.

Those of you who have been there in the past know that we regularly review four virtues of Cesar Chavez which are metaphorically associated with the four cardinal directions. Tolerance is also one of those virtues. And it is a good one to be reminded of as we learn to be with one another harmoniously in a special space and moment.

Links

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F5C annual outing: Restoration & Art Making at Muir Beach

Join Friends of Five Creeks on their annual trip to another restoration area — this year Sat., Feb. 13, at beautiful Muir Beach, the mouth of Redwood Creek in Marin County, a major project of the Golden Gate National Park and its Conservancy. Former EB MUD ranger Bob Flasher will lead us in restoring habitat in the morning. After picnic lunch, environmental artist Zach Pine will lead us making environmental art and balancing rocks on the beach. (See Zach’s projects here.) We’ll also have directions for short self-guided walks for those who want to explore, including glimpses of local food production at Slide Ranch and the Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm.

The program will run from 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM (carpools leave Berkeley about 8:30 AM). Please plan to dress in layers, with rain boots or shoes that can get wet (a change of footwear is a good idea). We’ll work in a drizzle, but heavy rain cancels.

Please let us know you’re coming by Feb. 8 at f5creeks@aol.com or 510 848 9358, so we can arrange carpools!

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Three new bike paths due for Berkeley!

The City of Berkeley hopes to extend three important bicycle-pedestrian routes in the next 2-3 years, using about $4.5 million in state and federal grants:

  • The long-planned extension of the Bay Trail west along the south side of University Avenue to the Marina includes a launch pad for windsurfers near Hs Lordships Restaurant, but leaves out a controversial swath through Shorebird Park.
  • Emeryville’s Doyle Street Greenway will be linked to Berkeley’s 9th Street via the old railroad right-of-way.
  • The Santa Fe Right-of-Way between Delaware and the Ohlone Greenway between Cedar and Virginia will get a paved trail, and the right-of-way between University and Addison will be opened. This will create a long-distance bicycle-pedestrian connection from Bancroft (the south edge of Strawberry Creek Park) to the City of Richmond (where the trail also is being extended).

Stay tuned for planning announcements!

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Jan. 4 talk on Toxic Legacy: Mercury in SF Bay

Invisible but deadly, mercury threatens San Francisco Bay wildlife, complicates restoration, and is the major reason that people must avoid eating Bay fish. But what to do is a conundrum. San Francisco Estuary Institute ecologist Kat Ridolfi speaks on sources of mercury, current research, and choices that can reduce contamination, 7 PM Monday, Jan. 4, at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin (at Masonic).
Free; refreshments; all welcome! Information at f5creeks@aol.com, 510 848 9358, www.fivecreeks.org.