Path Production!

Fellow environmentalists!
This past Friday I got to help out with building a path on the west side of campus (for those of you as directionally challenged as I, the Starbucks on Oxford is close to this side). Initially we were simply building upon the work that Tyler had started and making sure the sides of the path were high enough by clearing and widening the path with shovels and rakes. This soon shifted over to carrying wood chips back and forth between the giant pile seen here:

 and the beginning of the path. Unfortunately we realized that the wood chips did not stand out against the background as much as desired and are now hoping to get either another wood chip type or another material altogether for the path. Ideally however the trail would one day become legitimate and would be made of decomposed granite. Until then however, we will keep working hard at the route and making sure that the frequent Berkeley rains do not wash it away. If you have the time, stop by the path and see how it's doing! Its purpose after all lies in both allowing more people to enjoy the beauty of the Creek as well as make the soil less compacted for future plants to flourish there. Hope to see you there! Lastly, here is one last group picture:

Until next week (when hopefully I will finally be able to stop by the nursery)!

I have my hunting license and have gone on hunting trips for various wild animals, but never for seeds. This week in class Tyler taught us about what native plants give what seeds... and then we were off. We were on a race to see who could find the most seeds.... sadly I lost. But I did learn a lot about the trees I walk under everyday. I never knew we had acorns on campus.... no wonder why we have soooo many squirrels. It was very interesting to learn about all the seeds, and I can't wait to see what we do today.

Comments and Concerns

Fellow environmentalists!
Ah Homecoming Week. A time of numerous parents, hugs, ridiculously difficult to find parking and of course, investigating our local creek to check on its health.
My investigation this past week has resulted in some concern. I am of course, nowhere near an expert on biological matters, but my discovery of the presence of water sliders (family Gerridae, species unknown since there are over 1700 of them that differ in extremely intricate ways) on the surface of the water for the entire duration of the Creek on campus had me a bit perplexed. Although having a diversity of bugs and other creatures is touted to be an indication of good health for any aquatic environment, I have never seen these particular insects on healthy bodies of water that I have visited. If anyone can put my fears to rest please feel free to comment.
My walk down the Creek also resulted in me seeing a lot more trash along the entire length of the Creek than in previous runs. Although I would like to attribute this to a larger number of people present on campus I am saddened to see that this larger volume seems to necessitate a greater degree of litter alongside the riverbed. There really is no reason that we cannot make the extra several feet to the nearest recycling bin to throw away our water bottles and instead find it more acceptable to throw it in the Creek. If any of you see any trash along the riverbank, please do Cal, yourselves and the Creek a favor and pick it up! It makes for a much cleaner, biologically stable and overall more pleasant environment for all of us.
Observations aside, hopefully this next week I will finally be able to make it to the Nursery! I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands dirty and making a contribution. Until next week!

Cal Creeks: A Walk to Remember (and Shameless Borrowing Of Famous Movie Titles)

Fellow environmentalists,
As you may or may not have noticed (for those of you that stayed inside and crammed for midterms) IT RAINED THIS PAST WEEK! I decided to take a stroll down Strawberry Creek to see what was going on within the stream itself.
As expected, the water flow was much faster in most parts of the river, except where fallen debris (both natural and man-made) had clogged up the flow. People tended to shy away from the creek, choosing instead to take the longer, less wet way around to Dwinelle from the SLC area, which was a shame if you took the time to look at the creek itself. The water may have been a dark murky brown due to the rapid flow of the water taking off parts of the bank with it but it still remained intriguing (especially for those that didn't mind getting their feet wet!). Areas with higher traffic, as expected, tended to get more polluted but I was still saddened to see a newspaper  and a sandwich wrapper making their way down the stream. The areas underneath falls in height (since calling them waterfalls would be a tad dramatic) were also murky, and in some areas of the stream it was nearly impossible to see into the water or even walk your way past it with knee-high boots on! It seems that the power of the Creek never ceases to amaze.
I did wonder as I was passing by about how those crayfish that we saw earlier last week were faring. How did they fare against the elements? What happened to the species that resided in the river such as the 3 species of fish that were introduced to the habitat? It seems that some questions will have to wait until the next event however.
As much as I enjoyed the rain perhaps this next week, we will get to enjoy the Creek without the torrents of rain and thus have more individuals appreciating the beauty of a clear and hopefully unpolluted force of nature. Until next week!

Restoration Induction

Greetings fellow environmentalists!
My name is Larisa and I'm going to be using this blog to detail my foray into the effort to restore Strawberry Creek at UC Berkeley to its original, undisturbed form- one free from any invasive species that choke off biodiversity and reduce the native plants' ability to thrive. Although a thick mat of ivy often gives the illusion of prosperity, last week taught me that not only does it choke off the native flora but also diminishes the local fauna since numerous species live in an mutually interdependent way that is extremely threatened by the disappearance of one of its constituents.
The several hour long restoration project was a battle against invasive species and the onset of physical exhaustion if you pulled the invasives out incorrectly (there is a reason that squatting low to the ground and pulling with our entire bodies was the way to go, a fact that I quickly discovered). The beginning of our session sported safety demonstrations and a bit of the history of the area as presented by Time Pine (the staff adviser for the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program) but also incorporated lighthearted jokes as we listened in on the wise advice to aim any sharp tools we would be using away from ourselves as well as any offending digits. It was a privilege to hear the advice and trials of those who had worked on the project before us, and I managed to widen my knowledge of the myriad of forms that knowledge takes as our facilitator rocketed off the Latin names of all of the species that we were out to protect (including Heteromeles arbutifolia and Umbellularia california). We also were personally assured of the presence of life in the Creek itself since we saw several pointer crayfish scrambling amongst the rocks at the bottom of the creek. I had realized that restricting oneself to interaction with the stereotypically "intellectual/difficult" majors had limited my views and I was glad to have gained the knowledge that nomenclature, among many other details associated with protecting the environment, were not easy systems to commit to memory or understand. With this newfound knowledge I trekked onwards, my clothes a little dirtier, my shoes a little scruffier but my mind a little sharper.
But why limit myself to just restoration events? Mayhaps the nursery awaits me this week as well? Only time will tell. Until next week!

MY FIRST DAY!!!

The first day I was on the job was Tuesday August 30th, sorry it has taken me so long to post this... figuring out how to blog was a lot harder than it sounded. But I'm finally up and going!!!! On Mondays I help with an AP high school class who is learning about Strawberry Creek and helping the restoration project. Last week I met the students for the very first time, not gonna lie I was pretty intimidated because I just got out of high school, so what kind of authority do I have going around and telling them to pick weeds? Oh yeah did I mention... we picked weeds on our first day, how exciting right? Haha but it was more than just picking weeds, we learned what the trees do for our ecosystem along with what plants are native to the Berkeley campus. All in all it was a fun day in the sun and I am excited to see what Tyler has in store for us new week!