Visit the gardens created by volunteers from Friends of Alhambra Creek and the California Native Plant Society to get ideas for your very own California native garden at home!
The goal of the Alhambra Native Plant Trail is not only to educate residents about our native flora, but also to create a wildlife corridor through Martinez for birds, butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects.
The CCRCD worked closely with the Friends of Alhambra Creek and the City of Martinez to install a native wetland garden at Ferry Point, Martinez. The plants in this garden are all native, which means they evolved with our native wildlife over thousands of years and are better adapted to live in local conditions and support local wildlife than non-native plants. To learn more about this project and the plants in this garden, click the button below.
The Alhambra Watershed Council (AWC) is a stakeholder group that was established in 1997 to produce the Alhambra Creek Watershed Management Plan (2001). The group’s mission is to protect and enhance the health of the Alhambra Creek Watershed by educating the public about the watershed, providing a forum for new ideas and projects, and acting as a community resource.
By representing diverse stakeholder interests and promoting healthy natural systems, the AWC aims to support the health and vitality of the entire watershed community. Contra Costa County, Friends of Alhambra Creek, National Park Service, New Leaf Collaborative, Mt. View Sanitary District, and residents are among the active participants. Past projects include the Alhambra Creek Watershed Map and Festival and the Strentzel Lane Flood Reduction Project. The AWC receives coordinator support from the CCRCD.
Meetings are currently held on the first Tuesday of every month (excluding August) at 6:30pm, on Zoom. Interested community members are welcome to attend AWC meetings. Come and share your ideas!
AWC Meeting dates for 2023 are listed below. If you would like to join a meeting and are not yet on the AWC email list, please contact Evan Green for the meeting access info.
January 2, February 6th, March 5th, April 2nd, May 2nd, June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th, October 3rd, November 7th, December 5th
Established in 1991, Friends of Alhambra Creek is a volunteer group that brings people and Alhambra Creek together to protect the health of the creek and its surrounding community. They have collaborated with other people and agencies to participate in, and carry out, a wide range of projects.
The group meets at 6pm on the second Tuesday of each month. These meetings are currently held on at the Martinez Senior Center (818 Green Street, Martinez). Meeting agendas are uploaded to the Friends of Alhambra Creek Facebook Page and a Google Drive folder a few days prior to each meeting. To view the agendas, please click this Google Drive Folder link.
If you have any questions, please contact the Friends of Alhambra Creek at foac@ccrcd.org.
The Mt. View Sanitary District (MVSD) provides wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal services for the northeasterly portion of the City of Martinez and adjacent unincorporated lands to the northeast. Their wetlands and pond restoration projects are one of a kind and provide both habitat and wastewater filtration. Tours of their beautiful site are available to the public.
The New Leaf Collaborative is a 501c3 non-profit corporation based out of Martinez, CA. Their mission is to provide hands-on learning and leadership opportunities in science, nature and ecological literacy to nurture the wellbeing of our students and communities.
NLC has 3 main programs primarily located in Contra Costa County; Community Science Workshops, Community Garden Workshops, and our Earth Ambassadors Program. All of these programs are offered to youth during and after school and through summer camps and community events.
Together with community partners, NLC seeks to provide equitable experiential learning experiences to youth that sparks curiosity about how the world works, to cultivate ecological intelligence and to foster community engagement in a way that supports these efforts.
Since 1916, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of our national parks. With the help of volunteers and partners, we safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 275 million visitors every year. NPS is the local steward of the John Muir Historical Site and Strentzel Meadow.
Skills: Ecological restoration, California native plant horticulture, volunteer coordination, environmental education, community outreach.
Fun Fact: Enjoys collecting more plants than he can fit in his yard, loves learning about restoration projects around the world for inspiration.
Evan developed a love of nature as a kid catching lizards and building forts in the canyons of suburban San Diego. This deep interest in the natural world evolved into a focus on the human relationship with nature. Following this interest, he studied Environmental Science at UC Berkeley and Environmental Horticulture at Merritt College in Oakland. He spent several years working in retail plant nurseries before obtaining a master’s degree in Regenerative Studies (environmental sustainability by another name) at Cal Poly Pomona. This led to an extremely rewarding position as a garden educator at an elementary school in an underserved community in Pomona, CA, growing his love for environmental education work.
Working as a California native plant horticulturist at California Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA, then caused Evan’s interest in ecological restoration to blossom. He considers restoration to be a crucial pursuit for preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and fulfilling people’s desire to heal the natural world. He worked several years as a restoration technician on projects throughout the Bay Area and is excited to be involved in community-focused watershed conservation with CCRCD.
