More than two dozen students, staff and local community members
banded together at Lion Creek on campus to clear out invasive
species and help make the creek more accessible to students.
The creek cleanup on campus last Saturday, Sept. 18, was
sponsored by Mills Botany Club and Friends of Two Creeks. Lion
Creek was one of 18 cleanup sites in Oakland alone, on a day known
as Creek-to-Bay Day.
Volunteers removed non-native plants around Lion Creek behind
the CPM Building, making it visible to those on campus. They also
cleared a pathway to the creek to make it more accessible for the
college to enjoy the local eco-system.
“I like helping the environment and I decided to get out and get
involved with something,” said freshwoman Hayley Dawson.
Another student who volunteered was Johanna Sayo, a sophomore
and environmental studies major at Mills College. Last year Sayo
took Intro to Environmental Science, where a fellow student did a
report on the non-native species in the creek.
“A lot were brought over and growing, and actually harming the
species that were native here at the creek at Mills,” said Sayo.
“This was just something I wanted to get involved in.”
One local Oakland resident to volunteer at Lion Creek was Jan
Erwin. This was her eighth year of volunteering for creek
cleanups.
“I do it every year. I go to a site where help is needed,” said
Erwin.
Creek-to-Bay Day is a part of a Coastal Cleanup Day, which is
now in its 20th year, and is sponsored annually on the third
Saturday of September by the California Coastal Commission.
According to the Coastal Commission there are over 400 cleanup
sites in California where over 40,000 volunteers turn out
yearly.
