Friends of Sausal Creek has been hosting their annual Creek to Bay Day, coinciding with California Coastal Cleanup Day, for many years now. Skyline Earth Team looks forward to this event each year as a perfect kick-off to their exciting program filled with work in the same community!
This year, the team worked with Mark, a Friends of Sausal Creek Volunteer Coordinator, to clear a hillside adjacent to Sausal Creek of invasive species. The hillside, which is near the entrance of Dimond Canyon trail and sits across the path from a stretch of the creek that is particularly valuable habitat for rainbow trout spawning, was completely covered with invasive blackberries and unwanted trees. The group of interns, along with several community volunteers, worked hard through the morning to clear a large swath of land.
This event served as the perfect introduction to the series of outdoor restoration events planned for the coming year; it gave Tech and Skyline interns the chance to get to know each other, introduced both Oakland teams to one of their main worksites, and got everyone excited for all of the diverse projects coming up!
Some interns reflected on their experiences and highlights at Creek to Bay Day 2018:
“The event on Saturday was fun but tiring. I enjoyed cutting plants and cutting down a tree, I learned about the invasive species and it was nice seeing how much plants we cleared.” – America
“I liked it cause it was easy and I just got to talk to new people and I thought the cutting down of trees was interesting.” – Jodiah“I really enjoyed the event from this past Saturday because I enjoyed cutting weeds out but was scared going up that steep hill and falling down. I like that they provided breakfast and the people were really nice too.” – Evelin“My favorite part of the day, was looking at the new improvements on the creeks. The day was good and fun.” – Amy“It was fun there were dogs and food. I was surprised to see how much we got done. I wish we could’ve done more. I saw people I recognized from another school.” – Christine