Cleaning up Oakland’s Sausal Creek

Friends of Sausal Creek (FOSC) is a volunteer-based, nonprofit, community organization dedicated to the restoration and protection of Sausal Creek and its watershed.

Their 2015 grant project involved supporting volunteer site leaders at 15 locations throughout the watershed in leading public workdays, hands-on restoration field trips for local students, public in-the-creek cleanups, and public trail stewardship workdays. FOSC staff assisted site leaders with restoration and planning, outreach and volunteer recruitment, city coordination and tools procurement. FOSC also provided local native plants grown at the FOSC Native Plant Nursery to the sites.

Over the course of the one-year project, a total of 1,282 volunteers contributed 3,516 hours picking up trash, removing invasive nonnative plants, putting in native plants and addressing erosion and hydrology issues on trails. A highlight was a Student March Against Litter and Illegal Dumping through Oakland’s Dimond and Fruitvale neighborhoods.

More grant funding for projects like this is available! Learn more.