On a recent weekday, a group of young people were hunched over a strip of greenery at the Booker T. Anderson Community Center parking lot in South Richmond, weeding. The lot is located next to Baxter Creek, where runoff, including car oil and other contaminants, often ends up accumulating. So eight years ago, two sections of pavement were torn out and replaced with a bioswale, a drainage channel that uses plants to slow down and filter stormwater runoff so that fewer chemicals end up in the bay.
Today, the median is bursting with native plants like yarrow, California poppy, gray rush and buckeye. The area essentially acts like a giant sponge, mopping up gunk before it has a chance to contaminate local water sources.
The improvements were done by The Watershed Project, a Richmond organization that, for nearly 30 years, has quietly helped “green” the city by designing water-wise gardens in public spaces, planting trees, installing bioswales and teaching local students about the environment.
“Many people might live next to a creek, but have never visited or even thought about it,” said Marla DeKlotz, a restoration and water quality technician at the nonprofit. “Our creeks end up hidden.”
Staff and volunteers from The Watershed Project can often be found picking up trash, testing water quality in local creeks and planting native plants on former parking lots. The group works in local schools to teach students about the watershed, bringing its curriculum to more than 1,000 students each year. It also provides design and technical input to the city and agencies like EBMUD on local projects, and is collaborating with the city to prepare for the impact of sea level rise. Up to 7 feet of sea level rise is expected by 2100, with low-lying areas such as North Richmond particularly at risk of flooding.
“Our dream is to help people realize that we can all make a difference and make our communities more sustainable, pedestrian-friendly and more connected to nature,” said Juliana Gonzalez, The Watershed Project’s executive director. “We want to invite nature into the community so that all cities can be like a forest.”
The Watershed Project is behind many Richmond improvements
Founded in 1997 as the Aquatic Outreach Institute, The Watershed Project has been pivotal in many green infrastructure improvements in Richmond, including reviving The Richmond Greenway, a former abandoned railroad corridor that today boasts water-wise gardens, a playground and a dirt bike track. Starting in 2006, the group rallied more than 400 volunteers to help plant more than 1,000 trees, rain gardens and bioswales along the three-mile corridor.
The organization also wrote a grant that netted $2 million toward the Richmond Wellness Trail, a mile-long pedestrian and bike path from the Richmond BART station to the Marina. The path is separated from the road by a stormwater buffer planted with natives that protects cyclists and filters pollutants from storm water while creating a habitat for birds, butterflies, pollinators, and beneficial insects. The goal is to eventually extend the path all the way to the Rosie the Riveter museum and ferry terminal.
This week, the organization, together with the city, hosted a workshop on sea level rise and resiliency planning at the RYSE Center. There, residents learned about the effects of rising sea levels on Richmond and had the opportunity to come up with creative solutions to mitigate its impacts.
Councilmember Cesar Zepeda, one of several local elected officials at the event, said that The Watershed Project has become a more visible presence throughout the community over the years. He said he was impressed by the project’s recent visioning workshop in Parchester Village that focused on flood threats to the neighborhood and gave residents a chance to offer input about how they could access the shoreline. (Although located next to the water, Parchester Village is walled off by a high levee and railroad tracks.)
“They didn’t just come in and say ‘You have a flooding problem or this is what you need to do, but actually engaged the community by bringing different ideas forward,” Zepeda said. “They are working together with neighbors, finding partners and helping residents understand how all the pieces fit together.
Taking kids outside, offering self-guided walks
Jocelyn Rohan is a teacher at Nystrom Elementary School, one of six elementary schools in the district that collaborates with the organization. The school offers five in-class lessons and all-day field trips to Pt. Pinole, Wildcat Canyon’s Alvarado Park and Tilden Park’s Jewel Lake. Students learn about the watershed – an area of land into which all the rainwater drains — and why it’s crucial to protect it. Small watersheds, like a creek, are part of larger watersheds, such as the one that drains into the San Francisco Bay.
The curriculum is unique because many elementary teachers don’t have much time to teach science, according to Rohan. “Most of the kids have not spent a lot of time in the forested areas and they get really excited, hopping rocks on the creek and have enormous smiles on their faces,” Rohan said. “The fact that they’re seeing this wildish area, they truly think they’re in the jungle.”
The Watershed Project’s most recent initiative is a self-guided walk through North Richmond which users can do via the PocketSights app. The walk takes them along Wildcat Creek trail, where they learn about the plants and animals in the area, to Urban Tilth Farm and other local sites. Visitors also learn about the tribal history of the community and learn about the planned fish passage The Watershed Project is retrofitting in hope that for salmon or steelhead one day to return to the area.
The group is also collaborating with Contra Costa County to write an urban tree master plan, and training residents of unincorporated areas on principles of urban forestry so that they can advocate for more greenery in their communities.
“People need to have civic power and be involved with what the government does with their tax money,” said Gonzalez. “As residents, we get to tell them what we want them to do.”
