San Francisco Bay

It has been a journey, but Strawberry Creek has finally reached the sea. In a previous era, this shoreline was a rich estuary, with Strawberry Creek being one of several creeks that drained the East Bay Hills into San Francisco Bay. The freshwater streams mix with the saltwater to create fertile, brackish ecosystems that support a vast number of algae, plants, birds, mollusks, crabs, and fish. The tides invigorate the mudflats, and life is concentrated at the mouth of the creek. Ducks, geese, and gulls congregate where Strawberry Creek emerges, as the birds jockey for position to have a proper bath. Three-spined Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) swim in these flows, and along the muddy banks, the footprints of Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and California Ground Squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) mingle with those of egrets and herons. One of the largest Native American communities of the West Coast flourished on these banks for millennia. Huge mounds formed where the people lived, died, and buried their loved ones. These shellmounds were unceremoniously bulldozed in the race to urbanize, and only a few intact shellmounds remain. Standing here at the mouth of Strawberry Creek with a strong sense of place, we do well to reflect on what it means to be an ecological citizen on an interconnected planet.