Annual Report for 2024
Chavez Park Conservancy: Draft Annual Report 2024
We’ve had a busy and productive year. We achieved significant steps forward in the Native Plant Area in the southwest quadrant of the park. In the northeast corner and elsewhere, we educated the public to love and protect our logo bird, the Burrowing Owl, which came back after last year’s absence. We worked hard to mitigate disturbances by regional agencies that ordered widespread excavations and raised alarms about buried hazards in the park. We took an active part in civic deliberations about the waterfront’s future. We supported seasonal celebrations at the Chavez/Huerta Tribute Solar Calendar. We published a blog displaying the work of numerous guest photographers and reported on events and issues affecting the park. Throughout the year, we enjoyed a stream of support from park visitors, including generous financial contributions. Though we did not win every battle, we had a great year.
- Native Plant Area
Our project to establish a Native Pollinator Habitat in the Native Plant Area received two big boosts early in the year. In February, the Alameda County Fish & Game Commission awarded a grant of $5,000. Then, in April, the UC Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund awarded an additional $15,525 specifically for signage for this project. Conservancy Board members Bob Huttar and Jutta Burger wrote and pursued both applications. Conservancy Board member Richard Walker served as UC faculty sponsor for the Chancellor’s grant.
Creating the Pollinator Habitat was a matter of many volunteers working to water, weed, dig, plant, and mulch the often difficult soil of the Native Plant Area. With the leadership of Bob Huttar, a growing roster of Conservancy volunteers did stewardship work in the park on January 15, February 11, February 22, March 9, March 30, May 11, June 9, July 7, July 11, August 17, September 27, November 2, November 9, November 16, and December 27. Teams of Berkeley middle school students and UC Berkeley undergraduates also took part.
We have now planted more than 200 natives in this area. The combination of our volunteer work and the active intervention of Parks Department landscaping staff headed by Jacob Several has profoundly transformed and rejuvenated the Native Plant Area. In addition to new plantings, we were able to clean out quantities of dead, imported, invasive, and diseased plant species from this area. Five years ago, it was a dense, chaotic, garbage-strewn, and dangerous jungle that many feared to enter. Today, it is a pleasant, airy, and safe refuge where teachers bring their pre-kindergarten classes to play in a natural setting. Thanks to the trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses we have planted, the area will foster wildlife with its pollinators and delight park visitors with its vibrant blooms in season.
- Burrowing Owls
It’s not a coincidence that the Burrowing Owl is in the Conservancy’s logo. The Conservancy owes its birth partly to concern for the Burrowing Owls that come — and sometimes don’t — to spend the winter months in our park. For many park visitors, the Burrowing Owls were a myth that only existed on a few signposts, but not really. Picking up from the expired docent program six years ago, the Conservancy has launched a citizen science project to track the birds, allow park visitors to see them in person, and educate the public about these extraordinary creatures. Last winter, not a single Burrowing Owl settled in the park. (One owl fell victim to an off-leash dog the year before.) This year, we have been very fortunate to see the Burrowing Owls return in an extraordinary way. We saw the earliest owl ever on record (September 27). We saw the first owl recorded on the east side meadow south of the Flare Station. We saw the first owl in at least a decade south of the Open Circle Viewpoint (the Spiral). We saw the first owl ever recorded on the west side of the park. And at year’s end, park visitors were able to see three Burrowing Owls in the park on the same day, a rare experience.
The Burrowing Owls got a legal boost in Sacramento on Oct. 10, when the State Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to consider the owl as a candidate for listing under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). The vote gives the species the same protections as if it were listed while a decision is finalized on whether it receives “threatened” or “endangered” status. Based on this ruling and on fraught experience in the park, the Conservancy on October 24 sent a legal letter to city authorities, drafted by attorney Susan M. Bradford of Berkeley’s Greenfire Law firm, urging the city to do more to protect the owls in the Burrowing Owl Sanctuary on the northeast corner of the park. Historically, the principal danger to Burrowing Owls in the park has been off-leash dogs. The “artistic” fence erected around the owl preserve in 2011 is not an effective barrier. Regrettably, the spirit of enhanced protection seen at the State level is not matched by the city, as the parks superintendent, backed by the city manager, refused the Conservancy’s offer to put up a temporary protective fence at no cost to the city. The head of the local bird group has played a disappointing role on this issue. The Conservancy’s stance drew more than 12,600 views and 120 supportive comments on the nextdoor.com social network in the first 48 hours. More than 500 people have signed a petition for a better fence around the Burrowing Owl Sanctuary.
Hundreds of park visitors have stopped to view the owls in person and have become believers that they are really present. Dozens of park visitors have sent in reports and photographs about the owls in our park, as well as owls spotted in Pt. Isabel and in Emeryville. Many (but not all) dog owners have leashed up because the birds are there. Everyone who sees an owl loves the owls, and what you love, you will protect.
- Regulatory Disturbances
This year, the park drew the attention of a major regional regulatory agency, the Bay Area Air Quality Monitoring District (BAAQMD or “backmud”). In February, BAAQMD summoned the city to a tribunal in the BAAQMD office in San Francisco, charging a series of violations in the way that the city’s contractor, SCS Engineering, operated the landfill gas extraction and processing system. I gave a brief statement at the hearing, urging minimal disturbance to the park. By a vote of 3 to 1 the BAAQMD judges upheld the BAAQMD staff charges and forced the city to dig up and rebuild all 42 landfill gas extraction wells in the park. During May and June, park visitors had to contend with diesel-powered excavator rigs and other equipment digging holes ten feet square and four or more feet deep, creating torn-up soil in patches 50 feet wide around the work.
The BAAQMD ruling showed little concern for the park. The BAAQMD lawyer even accused the city of running the site as a park instead of as a landfill, as if that were a crime. But the execution was carried out with sensitivity. The city’s environmental compliance supervisor, Mary Skramstad, the city engineering staff, and the SCS project manager reached out early to the Conservancy. Two of the targeted landfill gas extraction wells, EW7 and EW8, are located in the Native Plant Area. We moved a native flowering currant plant that sat almost on top of EW7, and the SCS crew reworked that well by manual labor instead of using the diesel excavator. A first attempt to rework EW8 manually failed. After consultation with Conservancy board chair Jutta Burger, a PhD in botany, and board member Bob Huttar, a certified arborist, we gave SCS the green light to remove a large sprawling Myoporum laetum tree, an invasive species from New Zealand, so that the excavator could access this well. A budding California Buckeye sprout very near that site was preserved. We appreciated the sensitivity of the project managers and gave high marks to the working crews on this project. Later in the year, we used the space cleared by the Myoporum to plant more than a dozen native pollinator shrubs.
A second disturbance came in May. An article in the L.A. Times revealed that the State Department of Toxic Substance Control had just released to the regional Water Board a 44-year old letter in which the Stauffer Chemical Co. in Richmond admitted to dumping “alum mud” in several area landfills, including Berkeley. Alum mud is a byproduct of processing bauxite ores, some of which are mildly radioactive. Measurements of the mud dumped at the Blair landfill in Richmond showed no levels of radioactivity higher than normal background. Nevertheless, the Board ordered Berkeley to survey levels of radioactivity throughout Chavez park. Articles in the L.A. Times and in Berkeleyside baited readership with alarmist stories about radiation perils. Some people avoided going to the park out of radiation fears. When the city dragged its feet, the Conservancy purchased a portable Geiger counter and on June 13, holding the device, I walked almost four miles in the park, including all gathering spots and significant trails. I found no areas with radioactivity above normal background. At the start of October, the city finally launched its own radiation survey managed by UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley rad lab faculty using a highly sensitive detector suspended from a drone. On December 30, the city released the result, confirming that there is no radiation above normal background levels anywhere on the park’s surface.
- Waterfront Specific Plan
In 2019 the city hired Hargreaves Jones, a landscaping contractor, as chief consultant for a plan to make the Berkeley waterfront more profitable. Its initial product was the Berkeley Marina Area Specific Plan (BMASP), which proposed building a major amphitheater on the eastside meadow and a zip line and ropes course in the Native Plant Area. Those ideas provoked a major groundswell of opposition, in which the Conservancy played a leading role. See the Love Letters to the Park book. The city then publicly backed off commercial development in the park. But the consulting firm continued with a new effort, now called Waterfront Specific Plan (WSP). It issued its fourth draft on November 8 this year. I penned a public response on November 13, taking on issues of financing, food trucks, fencing, signage, and the consultants’ pathetic grasp of the area’s ecology. The plan, if implemented, would bring about major commercial development on the waterfront.
After several postponements, the WSP went to City Council on November 18. Instead of rubber-stamping the plan, having had only 10 days to look at it, Council voted to pause the project pending completion of two related studies. One is a study of waterfront parking. The other is a proposal for a “Master Plan” for Chavez Park.
The parking study centers on the presumed needs of the proposed commuter ferry, a project without construction funding and with numerous financial unknowables, estimated to happen no earlier than 2028.
The proposed Master Plan for Chavez Park does not at this point have a specific content. It could be a Trojan horse for smuggling BMASP commercialization schemes back onto the agenda. Park lovers need to keep a sharp eye on the Master Plan project.
Two park projects are currently funded and in early stages of execution. One is the renewal of the paved perimeter trail, scheduled for 2025. The other is one permanent restroom, replacing the porta-potty near the parking circle at the end of Spinnaker Way, scheduled for the following year. The Park administration held two Zoom meetings during the year to publicize these projects. These projects are overdue and welcome. The nebulous Chavez Park Master Plan is separate from these projects.
- Other Matters
The Conservancy this year continued its tradition of publicizing and supporting the seasonal gatherings at the Chavez/Huerta Tribute Solar Calendar on the summer and winter solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes. Conservancy board member Santiago Casal is founder and curator of the solar calendar site and designer of the Mobile Tour that gives online commentary about it. Conservancy board member Sheila Jordan is one of the stewards who does periodic maintenance there.
The Conservancy this year again participated as an exhibitor in the Bay Fair on April 27. We observed and covered a Palestine Ceasefire Pilgrimage, an election campaign rally by Kate Harrison, observance of Black Birders Week, the Waterfront Manager’s Walk on October 18, and the King Tides of November and December. We also reported on the commuter ferry issue, the effort to evict the sailing school, progress at Pt. Molate, developments at Schoolhouse Creek, dredging in the harbor mouth, and related issues.
The chavezpark.org website has now been up for ten years. It began in December 2014 with a campaign to replace the porta-potties with permanent toilets, and gradually expanded into a newsletter (blog) covering more or less the whole 90 acres and neighboring areas. To date, the site has published 2550 posts containing more than 11,000 photos. A related YouTube channel contains more than 1,400 videos about the park, organized into playlists by topic. You can, for example, view a playlist of 252 Burrowing Owl videos, or 48 videos about Ground Squirrels, 37 videos about Red-winged Blackbirds, and so on. Thanks to contributions from knowledgeable people, the chavezpark.org website has an inventory of 128 bird species photographed in the park, and a list of 187 plant species, each with photographs taken in the park. Taken all together, the Conservancy is the key source for accurate, field-based and documented data about Chavez Park ecology.
The Conservancy itself this year passed its fifth anniversary. Founded in the fall of 2019, the Conservancy today enjoys a broad base of support, both moral and financial. We have a capable board of directors. We have benefited from generous donations. We have the resources to do what we need to do. To have reached this point, we owe great thanks to our friends among park visitors, among the broader public, and in the Berkeley city government and staff.
- Looking Ahead
At year’s end, we have work ahead of us.
In the Native Plant Area, the signage for the pollinator plants remains to be installed, and is on track for completion in the first quarter of 2025. As the year progresses, the new plantings will need regular TLC in weeding, mulching, and watering.
The Burrowing Owls will need continuous observation and protection. Owls that display openly in the Burrowing Owl Sanctuary are particularly vulnerable to off-leash dogs. We need to persuade the powers that be of the need for an effective fence and other measures to protect the birds in that area. The support of dozens of park visitors in spotting and reporting the Burrowing Owls is vital to their protection.
There are issues of grassland management that need to be addressed again and again. There is too much mowing outside the Off-Leash Dog Area, particularly on the east side meadow. Mowing destroys the breeding and foraging habitat for ground-dwelling birds such as Western Meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrows, and others. Mowing also promotes the growth of foxtails that are a peril to dogs. There is a growing worldwide movement away from mowing and toward rewilding lawns with native grasses and wildflowers. The city needs to join this movement and give its mowing machines a rest, most especially in the spring and early summer bird breeding season.
We have been remiss in the maintenance of the Peace Symbol hilltop. This historic anonymous public art is in danger of being buried by weeds. Three of the four barn owl boxes on the east and north sides have succumbed to the weather and need replacement. We have been too busy with other matters this year to tackle these projects.
We have talked for several years about beginning a park docent program with volunteers trained to lead park tours. This may be the year when we have the time and the resources to launch this project.
The work of the Conservancy has made Cesar Chavez Park a better place. We can take pride in our accomplishments. In the new year, we look forward to continuing those efforts.
— Martin Nicolaus, CEO
January 5 2025
Thank you to all the folks of the Chávez Park Conservancy. I will be sending a donation as soon as I receive my RMD for this year.