During the spring 2025 semester, Strawberry Creek intern Julia Lambert taught a DeCal course centered on Strawberry Creek. Twenty-two students spent the semester learning about the creek and its management from guest speakers, including Bob Charbonneau, the author of the original Strawberry Creek Management Plan for UC Berkeley, and Sharon Harichandran, Environmental Specialist with UC Berkeley’s Office of Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S). Students came from varying academic backgrounds, with some folks knowing nothing about restoration prior to the class. The first half of the course focused on topics that can be learned in the classroom: the history of the creek, spanning from Muwekma Ohlone management of the land, to Spanish colonization, to the University’s errors and successes with caring for an urban creek; the ecology and native and invasive plants of California; and the principles behind restoration projects in urban areas.
Students were outdoors for the second half of the course, putting these ideas into practice! Students used their knowledge to identify and pull invasive plants on the South Fork of Strawberry Creek and plant native plants on the North Fork. Students spent a rainy day with creek expert Tim Pine, retired EH&S Environmental Specialist, investigating how rain flows off impervious surfaces and into the creek. Students connected with Strawberry Creek restoration efforts off-campus at Kingman Hall, a student co-op, with a presentation from Eytan Stanton, Kingman Hall Creek Restoration Project Lead and Kingman Hall Landscape Manager.
Students created final projects to teach others about Strawberry Creek and keep the restoration of Strawberry Creek ongoing. Students created zines about the plants of campus, hosted their own invasive plant weeding days, wrote stories about the creek, created website guides to the creek, and painted the creek with their friends. On the last day of class, students shared their projects at Strawberry Creek Park with the sounds of the creek bubbling in the background. The class allowed busy UC Berkeley students to take an hour and a half out of their week to enjoy the presence of Strawberry Creek and contribute to its care.
For anyone interested in learning more about Strawberry Creek or gaining access to learning materials used during the DeCal, reach out to Julia Lambert at julia.lambert@berkeley.edu.
