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Befriending the Sausal Creek

"Planting things is easy," says Sam Cohen of Friends of Sausal Creek, as he waters a baby redwood. "Taking care of them the first year or two is the hard part."

Cohen was talking about the tree, planted last winter, but he might have been referring to any start-up volunteer group. Cohen says that having a variety of tasks available helps keep people interested.

That's one reason the two-year-old Friends of Sausal Creek group has succeeded. Along the creek itself - which runs from the Oakland Hills, through a deep canyon into heavily-used Dimond Park, then roughly parallels busy Fruitvale Avenue before flowing into the Bay - the group has ripped out exotic plants, especially Algerian ivy and blackberry, replacing them with species indigenous to the creek watershed. They've also created a sunny hillside garden filled with California natives generally available in gardening shops, so people can get ideas for their own backyards. In addition, a separate team is repairing a trail that runs through the canyon, and another monitors water quality and riparian wildlife.

The Friends organization was founded in 1996 - after locals began attending watershed awareness meetings organized by the Aquatic Outreach Institute - and continues to grow with logistical help from the Institute and funding from Alameda County. It's one of 30 community-based creek and watershed and restoration groups now thriving in the Bay region. Workdays draw 20-30 people, and the group gets help from city crews and youth groups. "It takes an incredible number of people to fix something once it's been messed up," Cohen says.

The creek's largely urban setting has its advantages and disadvantages, says member Michael Thilgen. Local kids hung a rope swing over the creek and trampled the ivy underfoot, saving the Friends from having to clear it, he recalls. But they've also skidded down freshly planted hillsides and engaged in outright vandalism.

And sometimes nature does its own restoration. Thilgen points to a brightly blooming scarlet monkey flower - winter floods carried its seeds downstream, he explains. "That's the real force we're working with."

Contact: Anne Hayes (510)231-9566

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