Friends of Baxter Creek has been negotiating with the owners of this property, Adachi Associates, to integrate a restored creek into its commercial plans for this site. This approach to redevelopment would enable the City of Richmond to extend the long-awaited Central Richmond Greenway through this property along a restored stretch of Baxter Creek.

Users of the Central Richmond Greenway would be able to walk or bicycle from the Adachi property east across San Pablo Ave. and continue toward El Cerrito, Albany, and Berkeley on the Ohlone Greenway.

Take a peek at a map of Wolfe Mason's study site and these "before" and "after" views of the area just south of Angelo’s Delicatessen at San Pablo and MacDonald Aves. Imagine walking along the creek on the Ohlone/Richmond Greenway as it winds through the Highway I-80 overpass toward Richmond, with a magnificent view of Mt. Tamalpais filling the horizon!

For "before" and "after" views of the Gateway site south of Albertson's in El Cerrito, take a look at views of the area from the vantage-point of the Adachi property. The first shows how the former Lucky Market (later Albertson's) looked in 1999. The latter, a photomontage created for FOBC by Steve Price of Urban Advantage, pictures how the area could look with a restored creek running through a mixed use development on the El Cerrito Gateway site.

If you're interested in helping FOBC restore the creek on the Adachi property, send us an e-mail message.

Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Park
In June 2000, Friends of Baxter Creek's mother organization, the Urban Creeks Council, received several grants to plan, design, and restore 800 feet of Baxter Creek in Richmond's Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Park, including a $45,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy and a $92,000 grant from the State Department of Water Resources. The group also received a $15,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation for community outreach activities related to this project.

For the past two years, FOBC has celebrated Earth Day at work parties, followed by free lunches, at the newly restored sectioin of Baxter Creek running through the park. Richmond mayor Irma Anderson, widow of the former mayor of Richmond after whom the park is named, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2001. And 40 volunteers from Community Impact, Richmond's John F. Kennedy High School, and neighborhood residents joined FOBC'ers in 2002.

Take a peek at these "before" and "after" views of Baxter Creek in the park, which has been an important part of its Richmond neighborhood since the early 1900s. The park includes play areas, several athletic fields, and a community center.

Revegetating the Channel
As part of park improvement efforts in the 70s and 80s, Baxter Creek was widened, straightened, lined with concrete in places, and fortified with boulders. By the time of restoration in 2000, little or no vegetation existed on the banks, boulders had tumbled from their original locations, concrete was undercut, and denuded banks were eroding.

In mid-August 2000, the creek's channel was reshaped to restore pools, riffles, and meanders. Boulders and riprap, unsuccessfully installed decades ago to stabilize the creek's banks, were removed and the banks rebuilt with plant material.

As vegetation planted during the restoration gradually grows leaves, branches out, and fills the now-empty spaces along the banks of the creek, the character of Baxter Creek will change over time.

When fully grown, the new trees and shrubs will help prevent erosion of the creek's banks and provide shade, habitat, and forage for wildlife. This vegetation will filter pollution that would otherwise enter the creek and, ultimately, San Francisco Bay.

Expanding Opportunities for Community Use of Park
At the time of the restoration, Gary Hernandez, chair of the Coastal Conservancy, said: "The Baxter Creek restoration will significantly improve Richmond's Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Park for use of the community, while creating wildlife habitat and helping to purify water that flows to the bay. It will demonstrate that urban streams have uses well beyond the conveyance of storm waters."

Garnering Political Support
This restoration project was supported by Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, County Supervisor John Gioia, and the Richmond City Council, San Francisco Foundation, Aquatic Outreach Institute, Save the Bay, Richmond Economic Development Council, Waterways Restoration Institute, and several other community and conservation organizations.

Urban Creeks Council is a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting urban creeks. The council coordinates a widespread network of volunteers and has helped restore several creeks in East Bay urban neighborhoods.

Requesting More Information
For further information about FOBC's efforts to save Baxter Creek in the park, send us an e-mail message.

Canyon Trail Park
El Cerrito's Canyon Trail Park follows the creek canyon from Mira Vista Dr. to Conlon St. and is in urgent need of restoration.

If you take a walk through the park, you'll see that:

• The understory native plants have disappeared, replaced by invasives like Algerian ivy and Cape ivy, which are difficult to eradicate, swallow up nutrients from the soil, and wrap themselves around trees, eventually choking and killing them.
• A variety of trees have been cut down over the years, and the "wild canyon" experience we once enjoyed is gone.
• Sediment builds up continually in the pond at the lower end of the park. When city workers dredge the sediment to ensure that the pond remains within its banks during the rainy season, important aquatic plants are pulled up and vital habitat for the frogs and insects that breed there is destroyed.

Many community members have tended the park over the years, including FOBC'ers Jim McKissock, Rosemary and Peter Loubal, and Prospect Sierra kindergarten teacher Kathryn Lee, who launched an ambitious project with her students to restore Pacific chorus frog tadpoles and aquatic vegetation to the pond. In addition, Emmy and Larry Damon have worked with the El Cerrito Lions' Club to clean up and maintain the park.

Drawing up a Plan
A task force of FOBC members is being organized to coordinate activities at Canyon Trail Park into a unified restoration project. With input from native plant consultant Jim McKissock and El Cerrito Maintenance/Engineering Services Division Manager Bruce King, this group will draw up a restoration plan for restoring the park and present this information at an upcoming FOBC meeting.

Pitching in to Help Out
Volunteers will be needed to:

• Plan, schedule, and publicize work parties
• Organize volunteers
• Solicit plant and mulch donations and funds for restoration
• Propagate land/aquatic plants within the watershed
• Remove nonnative plants after frog-breeding season this year
• Plant native trees and shrubs
• Water new plants

If you're interested in helping out with any of these tasks or just finding out more about this restoration project, send us an e-mail message.

Mira Vista Field
With funding from the Nature Restoration Trust, a grant program funded by PG&E and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Friends of Baxter Creek began a Children's Wetland and Wildlife Habitat Garden project with Mira Vista Elementary School in 2001.

This project will help restore a seven-acre parcel of rare serpentine grassland that lies adjacent to Mira Vista School in Richmond. Many watershed residents are familiar with this field, which was at risk for several years from commercial development. The Mira Vista Neighborhood Association, formed in 1998 by Sandra Kristensen, has been active in beautifying and maintaining the area.

Restoration Efforts
Our new project involves schoolchildren and local community groups in identifying, weeding around, and propagating native plants found on the site and in restoring a freshwater seep at the grassland.

Although this grassland has been disturbed over the years, it boasts a remarkably intact plant community. Nearly 30 species of native plants, primarily remnants of the original serpentine grassland, can still be found in the field.

Restoration efforts are focusing on the northeast corner of the field, where lupines, soaproot, buttercups, blue-eyed grass, white flowering death camus, several species of native grasses, and a few gumplants are found.

February Groundbreaking
Ground was broken on Feb. 23, 2002, on Mira Vista Elementary School grounds for the Children's Wildlife Habitat Garden. Prominently located near the classrooms, this garden will feature plants from the field as well as other California natives. An area will also be installed where students can study native plants, propagate seedlings, and learn in an outdoor setting.

Fourteen Mira Vista school teachers have volunteered to raise Pacific chorus frog tadpoles in their classrooms, after an inspiring presentation by Annette Thompson of the Golden West Women Flyfishers. Once the tadpoles become frogs, they'll be released at a natural seep in the field.

In March, students from eight classrooms will begin visiting the field regularly to carry out restoration activities, including planting natives that they've raised from seed. If you see us congregating at the school, don't hesitate to stop by and find out more about this project!

Walking Tour
Over two work days in 2001, FOBC member and native plant expert Jim McKissock led volunteers on a walking tour of the field. With the assistance of Laurie Swiadon and Irene Juniper, Jim planted seeds collected from native plants found on the site.

Volunteers are now growing native wildflowers and grasses, including purple needlegrass, gumplant, and soaproot. In addition, high school students from Marin Academy have helped transplant over 300 gumplant seedlings, Berkeley High School Key Club members have weeded the demonstration garden and removed ivy from the creek banks, and seven classes at Mira Vista Elementary School continue to grow their own seedlings.

Learning Laboratory
Classes at the elementary school are an integral part of all FOBC's restoration activities. Jim has led teachers on a tour of the field, which we're turning into a "learning laboratory." Mira Vista teachers are looking for volunteers, particularly those with expertise in local birds, insects, or plants, to accompany their classes on walks in the field. Adults are also needed for one to four hours per week to help students with field observation activities (e.g., drawing and journal writing) and on planting days.

To volunteer, call Apple Szostak of the Aquatic Outreach Institute or send her an e-mail message.

Mira Vista Park
Baxter Creek runs above ground in only a few stretches in El Cerrito and Richmond. Fortunately, most of these stretches flow through city parks where the creek can be enjoyed by the public.

For several years, a group of Friends of Baxter Creek members who live near Richmond's Mira Vista Park has been working to restore the stretch of Baxter Creek that flows through the park, the riparian plants that grow in and along the creek, and the landscaping and recreational equipment in the rest of the park.

Signs of Renewal
An evening frog chorus, the blooms of freshly planted native irises, and newly cleared pathways are recent signs of renewal at this, one of Richmond's smallest and most natural parks.

In 2003, the Mount Street Neighborhood Watch/Mira Vista Park Association learned that the park had received an extended East Bay Regional Park grant. A subcommittee of the Association was asked to research options and recommend appropriate furnishings for the park that would enhance residents' enjoyment of the park, resist vandalism and graffiti, be readily serviced by city personnel, be of low or no impact to creek habitat, and require little financial outlay to design, plan, and install.

Richmond Sculptor John Toki
The committee recommended and the city approved the selection of Richmond sculptor John Toki to design furnishings for the park. Toki is a ceramic/concrete artist whose street furnishings and public art installations are well known in urban communities across the country.

For Mira Vista Park, he created a children's learning bench (installed where the old play structure once stood), a concrete table with surrounding stools, and an informational kiosk for neighborhood and creek restoration announcements.

For questions about the changes at Mira Vista Park, please call Jan Brown at (510) 234-5232. A member of Mount Street Neighborhood Watch, Jan spearheaded this amazing effort.