Pollinator Project
In an effort to do our part to help the California Monarch butterfly–and pollinators in general–FOPCW applied for and was granted a California Monarch and Pollinator Habitat Kit through the Xerces Society in 2022 and again in 2023. These kits contained 175 woody and herbaceous transplants (including milkweed) native bunch grasses, and creek-friendly trees. FoPCW, in partnership with Earth Team, the Contra Costa RCD, and East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), has planted and is maintaining the plantings in the upper Pinole Creek watershed.
Many thanks to EBMUD for the use of the site, Grifols Diagnostic Solutions for their donation, Pinole High School Swim Team for their fundraiser, EarthTeam interns for their enthusiastic support, and the many volunteers that have gone above and beyond on this project.
How You Can Help
The Pollinator Garden has thrived in 2024, due to the consistent work of a dedicated team of volunteers. EBMUD supplied two large water tanks and has kept them full for the summer watering needs — thank you to Bert Mulchaey for his support!
Every two weeks through the dry months, the team has met to carry buckets of water to the three planting areas, watering every single plant. The rewards have been great! The vast number of plants survived the hot summer, put on significant growth, and some have even begun to flower!
Our visits will continue until the rains begin, and resume for the dry season of 2025. Given that these are all native plants, we hope to reduce the frequency of watering until they are able to survive on their own, adding beauty and supporting our pollinators!
We could use all hands on deck to weed around the plants and give them a good shot at survival. Just click the contact us button to sign up for our email to be notified of our next work day and join a dynamic team doing this good work.
Total monarchs reported and number of overwintering sites monitored for the Western Monarch Thanksgiving count from 1997 to 2023. Click here for more information about the Western Monarch Count.
Image credit: Xerces Society
File name: 2024_WMC_Graph_English_c.XercesSociety
Update from Earth Team Intern, Nicole Castillo:
The Pollinator Garden is a private area where Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed was given the opportunity to plant California native pollinator plants to give monarch butterflies a resting space while migrating and to stimulate their reproduction to increase their population! The garden, in the upper watershed, is vast and beautiful and separated into three sections — Perfect Picnic, Holy Cow!, and Athletics Field (named for their characteristics) — with a group of interns responsible for their respective areas. My peers and I work on Perfect Picnic — open, grassy, and the ideal sun-to-shade ratio— the recipe for a perfect picnic. Each area holds a variety of CA native plants — lovingly planted by volunteers —and our garden has proven to be resilient, many surviving through recent weather conditions and hungry deer. How do we know? We often visit the Pollinator Garden for maintenance and data collection.
Want to know more? Please see the full story as reported by Earth Team Intern Nicole Castillo in the Friends of Pinole Creek Summer 2022 Newsletter HERE
Many thanks to those terrific 2022-2023 Earth Team Interns for their creativity and beautiful artwork about native plants. They’re bee-utiful!
Angella Dayrit, Carl Lawrence Rimando, Derek Manahan, Elizabeth Duarte, Maddox Krashna, Melanie Saenz, Natalie Szumlas, Nicole Castillo, Jordan Le, Randy Snook, Samantha Zapanta, Simran Gurung, Vannapa Douangphrachanh
