HAYWARD DAILY REVIEW

San Lorenzo Creek needs help
Workshop will train volunteers for restoration project's first phase

From Staff Reports, Inside Bay Area
Thursday, September 17, 2005

HAYWARD — Fall Saturdays can be filled with football, festivals and raking through garage sales with a fine-tooth comb.

In the greater Hayward area, however, residents can make a long-term difference by participating in the first phase of San Lorenzo Creek restoration.

A Sept. 24 workshop will kick off efforts, more than two years in the planning, to restore the portion of San Lorenzo Creek bordering the south side of City Center Drive to Foothill Boulevard.

Work along this 700-foot stretch will include protecting the creek banks beneath the Second Street bridge and restoring native plants along the creek's south bank.

This area, adjacent to De Anza Park at Foothill and City Center, is strewn with trash and has been the site of Earth Day and other past cleanups.

A second phase next year, according to Paul Modrell of the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, will include the construction of trails, interpretive panels and a mural, and restoration of native plants on the creek's north bank.

The county and state are in charge of this project.

The area is part of the 48-square-mile San Lorenzo Creek watershed, which includes nearly all of Castro Valley and parts of Hayward and San Lorenzo. This is the second-largest watershed in the East Bay. Watersheds are land areas across which water flows toward a single body of water, in this case San Francisco Bay.

The native plant propagation workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 24 at the Alameda County Public Works Agency office, 951 Turner Court, in Hayward. For information, call Paul Modrell at (510) 670-5248, e-mail paulm@acpwa.org, or visit http://www.baysavers.org/Programs/SLZ/greenway.htm.