ORAL HISTORY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Everyone has great stories to tell and we’re looking for some of those stories and old images related to the living and playing in the East Bay Creeks before they were buried, specifically Sausal Creek and Strawberry Creek at this time.

Maybe your stories are about fighting to get the creeks filled in or fighting to keep them open to the sky, working in a factory along the shoreline, being Ohlone in a land of covered creeks, or your great grandparents arriving in the East Bay as colonists in the 1800s. We are particularly interested in the stories of Black, Indigenous, Chinese and Latinx and other people of color, as these are often the most buried stories.

What are we doing with these stories and images? Wholly H2O has been creating Walking Waterhoods tours in the Sausal, Strawberry, Glen Echo and Temescal Creeks. You can access these tours anytime on the app PocketSights. In order to deepen our experience of the history of creeks we’re also creating StoryMaps that include oral histories of the creeks. And that’s where your memories and experiences along the creeks come in.

Please be in touch if you or someone you know would like to be interviewed or contribute your written stories and images. Reach out to us at Wholly H2O: info@whollyh2o.org with the subject Creek Stories.

Access the WalkingWaterhoods tour with the QR codes below:

Android QR Code

iPhone QR Code

Local Creeks and the WPA: Past and Present

How has the WPA affected Sausal Creek over time?

For most of the Bay Area’s history, local creeks were largely untouched. These complex waterways managed themselves, filling out natural floodplains during rainy seasons, shifting their courses for better flow, and providing the abundance of Bay Area biodiversity with water and shelter. Only in recent history have our creeks seen human development, which has largely been detrimental to creek health and stability. One of the first agents of creek development in the Bay Area was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) with their extensive work in Sausal Creek. Over the course of several years, the WPA culverted and channelized Sausal Creek, installed sewer lines, and built along the creek’s shores. This month, we want to highlight the WPA’s efforts and explore how this work changed Sausal Creek in the past as well as its implications today. 

Concrete Wall in Sausal Creek / Gray Brechin, Living New Deal

In the early 1920s and 30s as more people settled in the San Francisco East Bay, building farms and homes along the creeks' edges, the local creeks could no longer keep up with demand, and the distant Mokelumne River was tapped as the water source. As people built their farms, homes, schools and businesses tight along the creek, they started to consider the creeks as nuisances with frequent flooding into their natural floodplain now built-in and erosion. Sausal Creek in particular was prone to erosion because of its strong flow, and its wide floodplain meant that any development on its shores often flooded during intense storms. The WPA began working on the area in 1935 with $38,000 from the City of Oakland. Workers were initially called in to clean up landslides and create fire trails in Dimond Canyon; however, because of the need for improvement in Sausal Creek, the WPA started reworking the creek itself in 1936 by adding concrete structures in place of rocks at the creek bed. This launched the start of almost five years of WPA creek development, and decades worth of subsequent repercussions. 

After reworking the creek bed, the WPA constructed a sanitary sewer alongside the creek, running through Dimond Park to Leimert Bridge. Then, between 1939-1940, workers culverted and channelized Sausal Creek in order to prevent flooding, increase water drainage, and mitigate erosion by stabilizing the banks. By this point, the creek’s walls had been transformed from soil to cement, and many sections of the creek were buried underground alongside the sewer pipes. The Sausal Creek that the Bay Area had known was essentially gone, and was replaced with manmade materials that have since negatively impacted the health of the creek and organisms that rely on it. 

WPA Stamp / David Colburn, Living New Deal

This is not to say that the WPA did no good in the area. At the time, these methods of creek stabilization and control were seen as practical and necessary, and for a while, they did help lessen some of the issues that needed attention. Plus, the WPA is responsible for many of Oakland’s parks and recreational areas, including the Dimond Recreation Area, the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center and Park, and the Lake Chabot Clubhouse and Municipal Golf Course. 

Despite all of the effort that the WPA contributed to fixing Sausal Creek, much of its development has ironically exacerbated the issues it was trying to prevent in the first place. The sewer lines break up the creek’s natural flow, destabilizing the creek. In addition, water from the sewer pipes occasionally leaks into the creek, which harms the creek’s water quality by increasing sewage and stormwater runoff levels. The channelization of the creek also contributes to stream bank erosion because it causes the water to flow more strongly in straight paths, leading to sedimentation and soil erosion. Some of the old concrete structures in the stream bed have also failed and broken, impeding on the stream’s flow. Moreover, the culverting of sections of the creek have made it impossible for wildlife to find ample shelter and water, decreasing the area’s biodiversity. 

Sausal Creek Restoration Plan / City of Oakland

To combat the unintended damage done by the WPA, groups like the Friends of Sausal Creek have been working to restore the creek to its former glory. A large contribution to this was the daylighting of Sausal Creek, which took place from 2012-2016. Funded by Measure DD, a 2002 bond measure, it took efforts from the Friends of Sausal Creek, the City of Oakland, and the Alameda County Flood Control District to remove the culverts from a 250-foot section of the creek. The Friends of Sausal Creek have also removed concrete structures from the creek bed to improve water flow and restore native habitat, allowing a greater diversity of wildlife to thrive in and around Sausal Creek. 

The next important step is to educate those living in the neighborhoods around creeks, be it Sausal, Strawberry, Codornices, Cortland, or any other creek, to manage the rainwater that falls on their property. Currently, too many home owners and businesses still send roof rainwater from their downspouts straight into streets, creeks and stormdrains. Especially nearby creeks, this itself can be a significant source of erosion. Instead, there are ways to collect that rainwater that will deter damage. By collecting rainwater from the roof into rain cisterns to distribute to plants and soil slowly over time as needed, or planting the water in the ground via berms and swales, rainwater can benefit your property and the surrounding watershed rather than causing issues in creeks and other waterwyas.

While restoration projects do help improve creek quality, they are unable to completely undo all of the damage that initial development causes. The story of Sausal Creek exists as a cautionary tale — a reminder that manmade attempts to control nature will often cause more trouble than they’re worth. But the lesson to take away here is not to despair over the losses we’ve seen over the decades; rather, to rejoice in the fact we still have something left to care for and appreciate, and to continue to do our part to ensure that Sausal Creek — and all of our creeks — continue to flourish. 

Our lives depend on healthy watersheds, and Wholly H2O depends on YOU!

Our important (and fun) work takes cash, plain and simple. Will you help us keep our events coming? Please use the link below to flow some cash in our direction! We're having our end-of-the-year fundraiser with a goal of $5,000 from all sources. If you are on Facebook, you are welcome to donate here. Otherwise, use our link to help us meet our goal. We love you!

During the last 100 years, California has been in on-and off drought conditions. We also have one of the five most important delta systems in the world, yet, most Californians do not know where their water comes from, how much they use a day, or what watershed they live in. At Wholly H2O, we are creating deep connections with watershed ecosystems in order to inspire people to take long-range personal and political action, while still having fun. And our Board of Advisors is a crucial part of how Wholly H2O functions. We ask for a solid commitment to:

• Join a 1.5 hour board meeting every four months.
• Put the word out about at least 3 Wholly H2O events a year
• Attend two Wholly H2O events per year
• Assist us in making connections for program content, partners, funding, and growth.

We're looking for experts in:

• Bay Area creek and marine ecosystems
• East Bay history - particularly BIPOC histories
• curriculum development
• connecting with East Bay K-12 schools
• marketing

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, apply using this link. Also, be sure to check out our current Board of Advisors to learn more !