For the second year, FOSC is participating in East Bay Gives instead of our usual appeal for support this time of year. Each hour on May 3, cash prizes will be awarded to nonprofits meeting certain donation criteria. From 4-5 p.m. is the Environmental Hour, during which the environmental organization with the most individual donors will win $3,500. What a way to leverage your donation to FOSC! The minimum donation is only $20, but we hope you'll be generous as you have been in the past to support our great work.

All you have to do is visit our website, www.sausalcreek.org, on Tuesday, May 3, and click on the DONATE button. You will be linked to FOSC's East Bay Gives page and an online donation form will appear. If you can't donate between 4 and 5 p.m., an online donation any time that day will help. Check out these highlights from the prizes list if you want to try to leverage other cash prizes for FOSC.


Last year Friends generously donated more than $11,000 during East Bay Gives and earned $5,000 in cash prizes for FOSC. With your help, we can achieve our goal of raising $20,000 this May. We will use these gifts for our year-round environmental education programs, to grow native plants and provide other support for restoration sites throughout the watershed, and for our watershed advocacy work ... every day of the year.

If you cannot give online on May 3, mid-year donation checks are still very much appreciated. Thank you!

How did planting relate to residential development? What are the consequences and public costs of dealing with its legacy today? Jerry Kent, recently retired after a 41-year career with the East Bay Regional Park District, will document the history of large-scale tree planting in the East Bay.  Jerry will specifically address fire and its inevitability in urban wildland areas.

Teens--make your sign, put on your trash monster costume, and grab your drum! Let's get the word out that trash in our steets and parks and illegal dumping are not okay. Community members are encouraged to support the student leaders by participating in this march.

The march will move around the Fruitvale neighborhood and end at Wood Park at 10 a.m., where a community workday will follow from 10 a.m.-noon. Participating students will enjoy a picnic lunch following the workday to celebrate your role in making FOSC 20 years strong! If you plan to participate in the workday and are under 18, please bring FOSC and City of Oakland waivers signed by your parent or guardian. For groups of five or more people who would like to participate in the march and/or Wood Park workday, please RSVP to Michelle Krieg at field@sausalcreek.org.

We are excited to release an updated version of Birds of the Sausal Creek Watershed: A Checklist. When this birding checklist was last published in 2003, there were 92 species; since then, our intrepid bird monitoring team, under the stalwart leadership of Mark Rauzon, has documented 129 bird species in the watershed! Thank you to the many volunteers who have lent their keen ears on the quarterly outings. A peregrine-sized thank you to Lisa McGinty for laying out the brochure, especially for squeezing in two more species after the brochure was "final," and to Karen Paulsell for patiently tweaking the map until it was just so.