Strawberry Creek: Grand opening Wednesday for restoration site

Site of stabilization project, where Strawberry Creek’s north and south forks meet at eucalyptus grove

Members of the UC Berkeley campus and creek-restoration communities are invited to gather Wednesday, April 8, near Eucalyptus Grove for a ceremony celebrating the campus’s latest and most ambitious restoration project on Strawberry Creek.

The opening ceremony will be held from 11 a.m. to noon near the west side of the grove. Mark Freiberg, who heads the campus’s Office of Environment Health and Safety, will offer opening remarks. Project managers will be on hand to discuss the work at the site, where a failing check dam (built to slow water velocity) on a degraded section of the creek has been replaced by a rock pool that provides friendly habitat for native fish.

The ceremony will conclude with a dedication of the project to the memory of Steve Maranzana, former EH&S manager and Cal alum. Maranzana assessed Strawberry Creek check dams in his 1998 senior thesis in environmental studies, and became a dedicated creek steward as an EH&S staffer and manager.

The goal of the project, initiated by students, is to prevent further degradation of the creek bed and bank, improve habitat for native fish and plants, create safe access to the creek and create an outdoor classroom and lab for students.

“Our hope is this section of the Strawberry Creek will become a high-quality spawning habitat that will be an attraction to many students and members of the public,” says EH&S staffer Tim Pine.

Related information:

• Strawberry Creek Ecological Stabilization Project website
• Strawberry Creek website (including natural history and a tour)