Friends of Sausal Creek Blog

New pest parasite, Cuscuta japonica or Japanese dodder

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:04:08 +0000

A new pest parasite, Cuscuta japonica or Japanese dodder, has been found invading the East Bay. Please be on the lookout and inform your county agriculture office if you see it.

The leafless, bright-yellow parasitic vine forms dense tangles on willows, blue elderberry, and wild plums on Cerrito Creek, on the Albany-Contra Costa border. Friends of Five Creeks, a volunteer creek-restoration group, reported the infestation after seeing an Alameda/Contra Costa Weed Management Area alert. There are many native and non-native California dodders, but no other forms thick, twisted, bright yellow mats in broadleaf trees and shrubs. This dodder is capable of parasitizing many hosts.

The two previous California reports were on orchard trees in the Central Valley and pittosporum at an apartment building in San Pablo. There is a Department of Agriculture quarantine against importing plants or viable seed. But the rules are weak. Vince Guise of the Alameda/Contra Costa Weed Management Authority reports that seed from a recent, supposedly sterile shipment, imported as herbal medicine, were found to sprout readily.

Plants spread both by seed and vegetatively. Once the sticky seed, or the long, twisting growing tip, finds a home, it sends root-like hausatoria into the host’s limbs, sucking out water and nutrients.

Plants should be handled and disposed of with extreme caution. The Weed Management Area recommends that you contact them for removal rather than doing it yourself. If you do work on the parasite, their recommendation is removal of the entire tree or shrub down to the ground, careful double bagging of all debris, and disposal where nothing could possibly take root (buried in landfill with good soil cover, not composted).

In Alameda or Contra Costa Counties, contact Vince Guise, vguis AT ag DOT cccounty DOT us.

(Please also let me know if you find it in the Sausal Creek watershed!)

– Karen

Chimes Creek Homeowners File Citizen Suit

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 05:37:02 +0000

A Citizen Suit under the federal Clean Water Act was filed today in federal court by the Millsmont Homeowners Association, an unincorporated association representing residents along Chimes Creek in central East Oakland. The suit charges the City of Oakland and DeSilva Gates Construction, L.L.P. with violations of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for stormwater and wastewater discharges as well as other violations under the Clean Water Act.

The full text of the Citizen Suit, the Press Release in pdf format, and the 60-Day Notice are posted on the Chimes Creek website.

Images of the creek and sewer overflows.

Channel 7 News at 6 pm today ran the following report:

Oakland Residents Sue New Housing

“Some East Oakland residents have filed suit against the city and a major housing developer charging the project is adversely affecting their homes. The city says it’s really the homeowners’ problem. So the matter is going to court.”

May 17 Meeting

Wed, 10 May 2006 06:21:14 +0000

Next Wednesday evening, May 17, the Friends of Sausal Creek Environmental Speaker Series is pleased to host Eddie Dunbar, Executive Director of Bug People. Eddie will explore the insect diversity that lies at every footstep in Sausal Creek.

Please join us from 7pm-9pm at the Dimond Library, 3565 Fruitvale Avenue, in Oakland

Sea Rise Map

Sat, 06 May 2006 06:23:06 +0000

This web map-app allows you to set the sea rise height from global warming and then uses a basic Google road map or a satellite photo to see the results. Find your favorite low-lying place and set the sea rise. It’s global so you can see anywhere.

My fave was looking at I-80, between Ashby and University. Under water, at 2-3 meters.

– Karen

Trout Picture

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:19:14 +0000

And here’s a picture from the Oakland Public Works Web Site of two of the trout in Sausal Creek:

Steelhead in Codornices

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 04:55:59 +0000

Steelhead trout at least 24″ long were seen trying to spawn in Codornices Creek in early March. A short movie of these rainbow trout, and their smaller creek-resident cousins, is on the Friends of Five Creeks website and the Urban Creeks Council website.

Report on today’s steelhead rescue

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:30:18 +0000

I thought you might be interested in happenings in a bigger East Bay creek. Alameda Creek is the biggest creek in the East Bay and they found an 11 pound steelhead trapped below the BART weir. The fish was transported upstream so it could spawn. More dams are coming down in Alameda Creek this year and fish passage is in the works for the BART weir so within a few years steelhead will have access to much of their historic habitat.

Sam Cohen

Trout seen in El Centro Pool

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 07:49:52 +0000

During todays SCExplorers program we were looking into the pool along with Eric Swinderman, the Glenview 3rd grade teacher (an oldhand at flyfishing) when he said ” there’s a 6″ trout!!.. and another and a 3rd"… I was able to see 2 of them they are so well camouflaged.. But marvelous to know they are there… now the question is were they hunkered down.. or did they recently come up the creek…..

Sue

2006 Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 07:21:35 +0000

Free! Sunday, May 7, 2006, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at various locations throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Register for passes and a printed guide to 65 bird- and butterfly-friendly, pesticide-free, water conserving, low maintenance gardens that contain 30% or more native plants. Native plants will be available for sale at more than twenty gardens, and more than 40 talks will be offered throughout the day. Registration is required at www.BringingBackTheNatives.net prior to April 20. Volunteers are needed and rewarded with free, private tours of beautiful native gardens.

December Dimond Public Safety Council meeting

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:11:49 +0000

How will Dimond residents help each other when the next major disaster strikes? – Help assess our neighborhood’s hazards and resources at 12/7 meeting

Reminder: The next Dimond Public Safety Council meeting will occur on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005, at 6:30 p.m. at the Dimond Library, 3565 Fruitvale Avenue (across from Safeway).

At this meeting, we will be establishing standing committees to inventory neighborhood hazards (wildfire, earthquake, flooding, etc.) and to organize neighborhood-wide disaster planning and response. Neighborhoods have to look at the emergency resources available, how to access these resources, and how to prepare for emergencies using the available resources. Then we need to put those solutions into action BEFORE disaster strikes.

This is a working meeting so put on your thinking caps and be ready to share/identify some of the problems in the community.

See you there!

Edward B. Goehring
Coordinator
Dimond Neighborhood Public Safety Council
A Committee of the Dimond Improvement Association

PS One step that every block in a neighborhood can take right now is to inventory your block’s emergency resources. Get together with your immediate neighbors, your crime watch or block/area association and make a list of who has what resources that could be helpful in a disaster. Distribute copies of the list to neighbors who agree to pool their resources in an emergency. As an example: in a lengthy power blackout, if one neighbor has a generator and another has 200 feet of extension cord, together they can save the life of a third neighbor on a respirator.

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Sample Block Tools and Equipment Inventory

Communications