Friends of Sausal Creek
Going Native

by Pete Veilleux

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." John Muir

There are many wonderful reasons for installing native plants in your garden. Those folks who have been gardening for many years, and have used natives often, say that a native garden is the most sensible garden to have. Besides providing food and shelter for native birds, butterflies, and bees, native plants are naturally adapted to the local conditions, and they are beautiful! Just take a walk in one of the parks or open spaces around the East Bay. In many places you can still glimpse natives, especially up in the hills. A detectable magic permeates these increasingly rare wild places.

I found a meadow up a fire road near my East Oakland home that was a carpet of "gold nuggets," Indian pinks, purple nasella grass, lupines, and purple coyote mint. As I stood there, mouth wide in awe, a family of four adult wild turkeys and 11 babies came ambling through this little piece of paradise. All this was only a few blocks away from the deep bass bump, thump, and grind of East Oakland. We are very lucky to live surrounded by one of the most unusual and beautiful bioregions in the world. Ironically, many of the native species that make the Bay Area so special are threatened by the encroachment of nonnatives.

Cape and English ivies are snuffing out the yerba buena, native orchids, ocean spray bushes, and baby blue-eyes at an alarming rate. French broom is creating impenetrable and homogenous barriers to the complex oak woodland ecosystems. The invasion of exotic species is a very real threat to hundreds of native species and the landscape that we treasure.

The Friends of Sausal Creek (FOSC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, restoring, and promoting awareness about Sausal Creek and the area around it, encourages each of you to consider planting native species in your gardens and yards.

FOSC is a great resource for getting to know plants native to our region and those that are invasive. The best way to do this is to volunteer to help on one of our many workdays. Projects include clearing nonnative weeds from the watershed, collecting seeds, and propagating plants in our nursery. The FOSC staff and many of our dedicated volunteers are experts on native plants. You can find out where to purchase and how to grow natives by volunteering and asking questions. For information about volunteering, call 501-FOSC (3672), or visit our Web site at www.sausalcreek.org.

"Native" has many different meanings. Increasingly, "native" seeds and plants are available, even at some local drugstores. For FOSC, "native" plants are those growing inside the Sausal Creek watershed or are the offspring of these. Sometimes volunteers are surprised to find out that we will not propagate plants for Sausal Creek that are growing outside of our watershed. What's the difference between a mugwort growing in Joaquin Miller Park and a mugwort growing in Tilden Park? The truth is, we are not sure. But the more we learn about genetics and biodiversity, the more we believe that local is best.

It is up to you to decide what type of native garden you want, but do a little research and find out what was probably growing in your garden 200 years ago. If you call or e-mail us at FOSC, we can answer many of your questions about "going native," or at least point you in the right direction.