local ecologist

Tour participants creekside, University Village, Albany

The Cordonices Creek bike tour co-sponsored by Sustainable Pacific Rim Cities and Cycles of Change was held this Saturday with fourteen participants. Grey of Cycles of Change led the tour with help from me. We met at Berkeley BART at 10 a.m. and rode uphill to Cordonices Park where we parked our bikes and walked to the waterfall. After a brief guided meditation at the fall, we biked to several more sections of the creek at the Beth El Synagogue, at Live Oak Park, at Albina Street near St. Mary’s College High School, at two places in University Village in Albany (the first of which was a restoration by EcoCity Builders), and finally, where the creek meets the bay at the Albany Mudflats Ecological Preserve. The preserve was the official end of the tour but several of us continued to Albany Bulb.

The next bike tour will be held on July 5 and will tour gardens, parks, and water features in Oakland and Berkeley. The full schedule can be downloaded here.

Sign at the Beth El section of the creek

St. Mary’s section - note the cascading pools design; steelhead trout were first spotted in this section of the creek.

University Village (section 1) - note remnants of the deconstructed culvert

Sign in orchard located in the floodplain of the creek

University Village (section 2)

This is the Marin Creek outfall. The Cordonices Creek outfall is slightly northwest of this location. The creek meets the bay

Slough and protected mudflats

Cairn at Albany Bulb

Albany Bulb

For a photographic timeline of the most recent restoration of the creek (at University Village), click here.

To participate in creeks restoration at the grassroots level, contact Friends of Five Creeks.