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On our recent walk and talk with Saumitra Kelkar (see below for part 2!) participants collected samples of native and non-native grasses in Joaquin Miller Park to create ID booklets.
Photo by Eliana Thompson
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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
Grasses Walk and Talk
Saturday, July 18th, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
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Join FOSC and Saumitra Kelkar for a walk and talk in Joaquin Miller Park, exploring the ecology of native grasses.
As summer progresses and grasses move beyond their peak flowering stage, we’ll have fewer key features to go on for identification. With a bit of botanical detective work, we’ll learn how to recognize species using subtler clues.
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Fern Ravine Fencing Fridays
Fridays, 2 - 5 p.m.
| | | | As part of our 50-acre Fern Ravine headwater restoration project, we will be installing 3,000 linear feet of protective fencing to safeguard sensitive habitats. Join us each Friday to help us work towards this goal! | |
FOSC 30th Anniversary Summer Sausal Fair
Saturday, July 25, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
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To celebrate three decades of protecting Sausal Creek, we're hosting a free, all ages fair in Dimond Park!
Come spend the day with the volunteers, neighbors, and community members who have helped shape our watershed over the years.
Help us spread the word by sharing our Facebook event, Instagram, or LinkedIn posts, and inviting your friends, family, and neighbors to the fair.
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Who’s Coming to the Summer Fair?
The Lineup
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11 a.m. We’ll kick off the day with a grounding circle, taking a moment to honor the creek together.
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. Jenny Papka from Native Bird Connections will give an educational presentation featuring live raptors, artifacts and taxidermy.
12:30 p.m. Watershed appreciation ceremony and cake cutting!
12 - 2 p.m. Skilled artists from Face Paint by Summer Sky will be making works of art on our cheeks.
1 - 2 p.m. Watershed local quintet Mostly Marys will close out the fair with a joyful performance of bluegrass and old time.
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Fruitvale based artist Simone Lassar will lead a blockprinting activity using custom designs inspired by the watershed. Bring a piece of clothing or another fabric item made of natural fiber to print, or we'll have some available.
Learn from Eddie Dunbar, community educator and President & Founder at Insect Sciences Museum of California, about insects of the Sausal Creek watershed.
Throughout the fair, we’ll offer opportunities to create cyanotype (sun print) bandanas, using plant material to create your own designs.
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Karen Paulsell
Tribute to a FOSC Icon
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Karen Paulsell passed away on May 10, 2026, shortly before her 79th birthday. A foundational member of Friends of Sausal Creek, Karen brought deep botanical knowledge, insatiable curiosity, and decades of dedicated stewardship to the Sausal Creek watershed. Her impact on FOSC is woven through so much of our work: in the native plant communities she helped restore, the maps and lists she created, the nursery know-how she passed on, and the many volunteers and staff she taught along the way.
These reflections offer a glimpse of Karen’s impact, from some of the people who worked alongside her, learned from her, and whose work carries her legacy forward.
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Arts in the Watershed
Simone Lassar
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Simone Lassar (she/her) is an Oakland based visual artist and educator exploring cycles through printmaking, papermaking, and natural pigments. Raised by biologist parents and the Massachusetts mud, a curiosity and connection to the Earth has flowed through her body as long as it has existed. After studying environmental engineering and working as a fish biologist and research engineer, she left engineering to pursue art and teaching full time. Simone’s art reflects many themes of her scientific work: plants, cycles, fish, but is infused with a little more play, magic, and community than science allows.
This year, Simone designed a new interpretive sign for Barry Place, our restoration site at the corner of East 27th and Barry Place, which is being renamed Sausal Creek Preserve. She shared with us about her artistic practice, her connection to the Sausal Creek watershed, and the process of shaping the design in collaboration with community members:
“A few themes emerged repeatedly: humans as active participants in the site, the somatic experience of being near a creek, showcasing the creek's ecology, and the cultural significance of Fruitvale to this site. I started the design thinking about how I could visually represent these themes”
Read the full interview to learn more about Simone’s work and the inspiration behind the new Sausal Creek Preserve sign, a project made possible with support from Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment and San Francisco Baykeeper.
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Native Plants for Your Garden
Western Columbine/Crimson Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)
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With its many bright red and yellow flowers, western columbine is a cheerful addition to any garden. It's also a great plant for our wildlife— hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies visit the nectar-rich flowers and finches dine on the seeds.
Western columbine is a widespread native that grows from Alaska to Baja. A member of the buttercup family, it prefers moist places and can be found in seeps and along streams from coast to headwaters, in habitats ranging from woodlands to alpine meadows.
Here in the East Bay, western columbine does best in partly shady areas with some supplemental water. Plant it among fringecups, alumroot, and woodland strawberry for a charming spring and early summer floral display that will support bees, butterflies, and birds.
| | We have western columbine growing in the FOSC nursery—you can get email updates about our plant sale by signing up here. | | |
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We Need Your Pots!
Request for Nursery Containers
| | | | The nursery is in need of 1-gallon pots (~6-inch diameter), square 4” pots, deepots, and square flats. Drop them off anytime in our flowerpot recycling bin in front of the nursery. If you have a large load you would like to drive down, contact ella@sausalcreek.org to schedule a dropoff. Please do not drop off pots of any other sizes, as it is difficult for us to dispose of them. Thank you so much! | | Join us for one of our many upcoming work days, or support this work with a gift. Your contribution helps support habitat restoration, environmental education, and community connection in the Sausal Creek Watershed. | | |
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:
Eliana Thompson, Saumitra Kelkar, Simone Lassar, Native Bird Connections, Face Paint by SummerSky, Mary Cranley, Kate Berlin, Elena Stenger, Ella Matsuda
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