April 2025 Watershed News | | |
This striking shot of two Red-Shouldered Hawks in Oakland’s Dimond Canyon showcases a fascinating trait among raptors—reversed sexual size dimorphism, where females are noticeably larger than males. Unlike most birds and mammals, this size reversal may help reduce injury during courtship and make females more effective nest defenders.
Photo by Mark Rauzon
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Friends of Sausal Creek is a volunteer-based, community organization. We appreciate your support of our education, monitoring, and restoration programs in the
Sausal Creek Watershed.
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Upcoming Events
Geology Walk and Talk with Author Andrew Alden
Saturday, May 3, 2 - 4:30 p.m. | Castle Canyon
| | | | We have only 5 spots left! Join geologist Andrew Alden, author of Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City, for a 2.1-mile hike tracing the natural and geologic history of all three of the watersheds that unite to form Sausal Creek. This guided walk through Castle Canyon will explore headwater streams, dramatic fault lines, and the fascinating forces that shaped this landscape that gives Sausal Creek its water. | |
FOSC Volunteer Appreciation Picnic
Saturday, May 17, 1 - 3 p.m. | Dimond Park — Sequoia Grove Picnic Area
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You’re invited! Volunteers are the heart of Friends of Sausal Creek. Meet others from across the watershed and celebrate the remarkable impact we’ve achieved this year at our spring volunteer appreciation picnic.
Light bites and beverages will be provided–gluten free and vegan options included. You are welcome to bring a dish or dessert to share, but this is totally optional.
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FOSC Awarded Major Grant for Fern Ravine
$408K to Restore Sausal Creek Headwaters
| | We are thrilled to announce that Friends of Sausal Creek has secured a highly competitive grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Enhancement Fund to restore the headwaters of Sausal Creek within the redwood forest of Joaquin Miller Park over the next three years. Our project was one of only eight selected statewide from a competitive pool that received over $154 million in requests. | |
Kudos Corner
Earth Day Volunteers
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Thank you to everyone who joined us for a beautiful Earth Day 2025!
Over 129 volunteers, including 60 students, joined us at six sites to clean up the creek and thin invasive species, giving our new native plantings a strong start to the year. Volunteers cleared 127 cubic yards of green waste, including brush that would have posed a fire risk during the dry summer months. At several sites, they also removed dead wood from fallen trees.
Local students made up a tremendous part of this effort—we are thrilled to see the collaboration among generations to protect and enhance our Oakland wildlands and waterways.
We are grateful to the California Natural Resources Agency Youth Community Access Fund and the Dimond Improvement Association that support this community event and to La Farine-Dimond and Peet's Coffee & Tea-Dimond for generously donating delicious pastries and coffee that sustained the volunteer force at the Dimond sites.
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Native Plants for Your Garden
Sisyrinchium bellum - Blue-Eyed Grass
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Don't let its name fool you — blue-eyed grass isn't a grass at all, it's actually in the iris family. Dainty but brilliant purple flowers with striking yellow centers cluster atop bunch grass-like tufts of long, slender leaves. The flowers begin their seasonal showing in mid-winter and continue through spring. As spring brings warmer temperatures, blue-eyed grass begins to go dormant, dying back for the summer months and waiting for cooler temperatures and the rainy season before reappearing again.
Blue-eyed grass thrives in grasslands and woodlands and is blooming right now along trails in the Oakland Hills. It’s also well-suited for East Bay gardens and readily reseeds—so one plant can quickly become many, transforming your garden into a sea of purple flowers during the winter months. Intermix blue-eyed grass with summer and fall blooming plants like yarrow and buckwheat to provide pollinators with many months of flowers to visit.
We have blue-eyed grass growing in the FOSC nursery - save a spot or two (or three) in your garden and pick some up this fall! Stay in the loop about our plant sale by signing up for email updates here.
—Kristy Brady, FOSC Board of Directors Vice President
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Calling All East Bay Photo Enthusiasts
Share Your Watershed Moments
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Friends of Sausal Creek is dedicated to protecting and restoring the vibrant Sausal Creek Watershed in Oakland—including special places like Joaquin Miller Park, Dimond Park, and Shepherd Canyon. To help tell the story of this incredible ecosystem and the community that cares for it, we’re looking for photos that capture the beauty, wildlife, people, and places of the watershed.
If you’d like to support FOSC’s work by sharing your photos, we’d be thrilled! Your images may be featured in our newsletters, social media, or outreach materials—with credit, of course (unless you’d prefer to remain anonymous). Just let us know how you’d like to be cited in the photo submission form below.
Thank you for helping us bring the watershed to life—one photo at a time!
| | FOSC Highlights From Our Watershed | | | | |
Blue Rock Vista, Joaquin Miller Park: FOSC staff and volunteers removed invasive grasses growing around our native Tiburon buckwheat to avoid the need for weed-whacking in this sensitive area and to protect and encourage the growth of this rare species. Thanks to FOSC’s stewardship, the Tiburon buckwheat population here is beginning to thrive!
Nursery: Our restoration and nursery manager learned a new germination trick at the Northern California Botanists Symposium earlier this year—and it’s paying off! We’re seeing great germination success with toyon, ocean spray, and irises. Look for these beauties at our native plant sale this fall.
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Dimond Park: Our education and outreach manager is partnering with Oakland High School’s Environmental Science Academy on a new weekly effort to remove invasive English ivy from Dimond Park. These areas will be replanted during the rainy season with native species that support Oakland’s biodiversity.
Wood Park: FOSC and Civicorps continued their collaborative effort to remove highly invasive French broom from the park.
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Join the General Plan Community Advisory Subcommittee!
Help Guide the Future of Oakland’s Parks and Public Spaces
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The City of Oakland is now accepting applications for the General Plan Community Advisory Subcommittee—and we’d love to see members of the FOSC community get involved!
This is a unique opportunity to guide policies around land use, transportation, and parks—key areas where we can advocate for healthy, biodiverse ecosystems, equitable access to high-quality green spaces, and stronger protections for our natural resources.
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The Community Advisory Subcommittee is open to all Oakland residents and aims to reflect the city’s diversity of identities and lived experiences.
Applications are due by midnight on May 15.
Learn more and apply here.
Questions? Email generalplan@oaklandca.gov
Let’s bring a strong environmental voice to the table—apply today or share with someone who should!
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We need volunteers in the watershed now more than ever!
Join us for one of our many workdays.
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Friends of Sausal Creek is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Our mission is to restore, maintain, and protect the Sausal Creek Watershed.
We educate future generations, involve the community in local environmental stewardship, and collaborate with agencies and other nonprofits to have a positive impact on the local ecosystem.
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Photo credits:
Mark Rauzon, Andrew Alden, Kate Berlin, Callie Rhoades, Kristy Brady, Elena Stenger, Richard Kauffman, Wholly H2O
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