There’s no doubt about it: Kids love creeks!

And if you live or go to school near the border of El Cerrito and Richmond, Baxter Creek lets you experience nature right in your own backyard.

Chances are, your most vivid childhood memories of nature will take place near a creek, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why.

Creeks offer everyone the prospect of endless discovery. Just watch Baxter Creek as it flows through Canyon Trail, Poinsett, Mira Vista, and Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Parks and the areas south of Albertson's and Angelo’s Delicatessen.

Each season brings new excitement: buds and blossoms in spring and crackling leaves throughout autumn, rushing waters during winter and quiet pools in summer.

Every day brings new educational challenges: tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, and baby birds one month, followed by frogs, dragonflies, and full-size birds the next.

Join the kids, teachers, and parents who’re helping to save Baxter Creek and its surrounding habitat:

• Jan Dunlop’s Richmond Girl Scout Troop #1685 drew the delightful drawing at the top of this page and painted the eye-catching mural on the mouth of the concrete Baxter Creek culvert at Key Blvd. and Conlon Ave. Passersby often stop to admire the girls’ handiwork while picking up Friends of Baxter Creek newsletters from the wooden creek information box mounted on the Ohlone Greenway sign.

• A group of parents with children attending El Cerrito’s Prospect Sierra Elementary School works with FOBC to remove nonnative vegetation in and around the Baxter Creek pond at Canyon Trail Park. Led by kindergarten teacher Kathryn Lee, the group is replacing Algerian ivy along the creek with native plants to improve habitat for the Pacific chorus frogs that breed in the pond.

• Kids of Friends of Baxter Creek members participate in an annual nationwide Frog Survey sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks and our group. After attending a frog-call identification training session, they listen for frogs near the creek shortly after sunset each spring. The information gathered in this survey helps scientists assess the health of our watershed ecosystems around the country.

With help from teachers Holly Ruff, center, and Emily Sederholm,
ten-year-old Stege Elementary School student Prince Gallop
hunts for microscopic bugs in Baxter Creek
during AOI's Kids in Creeks Workshop
on May 13th at Booker T. Anderson Park
(©2000 by Betty Buginas)

Let FOBC know if you’d like to participate in one or more of the following activities:

• Listening for frogs during our spring Frog Survey.
• Monitoring water quality throughout the year.
• Compiling lists of fish, birds, insects, and other wildlife spotted in or near the creek.
• Making paper, baskets, and other crafts from plants growing in and around the creek.
• Propagating and planting willow and dogwood trees from cuttings to revegetate the creek banks.
• Attending Kids in Creeks and Kids in Gardens Workshops offered by The Watershed Project, 1327 South 46th St. #155, Richmond, CA 94804, (510) 231-5655; staff@thewatershedproject.org.

For more information, look at our Announcements Page or send us an e-mail message.

Windrush School sixth-graders meet one of
Baxter Creek's numerous residents up close and personal
at the March 3rd Community/Baxter Creek Cleanup
(©2000 by Michael Mejia)

Clowning around on the footbridge over Baxter Creek
in Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Park, Richmond residents
Monquasha, Kevin, Marcellus, Prince, Larry, and Christopher
look forward to helping restore the creek in the coming months
(©1999 by Maryann Aberg)