Striped Skunk
Look out for the striped skunk along your path. An adaptable watershed resident that does well in human environments, striped skunks eat a variety of plants and animals, but their diet consists mostly of insects. Lawns and landscaped areas provide them with foraging areas for beetles and grubs, and they are one of the primary predators of honeybees. Their thick fur protects them from bee stings and their spraying protects them from other predators.
California Slender Salamander
If you look closely along the creek, you might spot the California slender salamander, the San Francisco Bay Area's most common salamander. They are active on the ground surface from fall to spring then seek out burrows to hibernate in during the summer months. They forage under leaf litter for small mites, spiders, and snails and hide from larger salamanders, snakes, and scrub-jays. If they are caught by the tail, it will detach from its body and grow back over time.
Stone Folly
Here you will find an interpretive sign:Have you ever wondered about the pile of gray rocks set close to the sidewalk at the second curve in the road? Look more closely and you will see that they form a kind of a room or grotto. This garden folly is a very tangible remnant of the Frederick and Marie Russ estate and its landscaped grounds. Water was an important part of the folly. The grotto surrounded the well head and water pipes doused the structure with a spray of water when the paddle wheel in the well was turned by quacking ducks. Waterfalls ran down among rockery plantings and miniature carved stone castles and towers. The basin was used as a water trough for horses as they drew carriages along the driveway that is today Oakvale Avenue.—Anthony Bruce (Printed on the sign)
California Scrub Jay
California scrub jays inhabit scrublands, oak woodlands, and backyards. They eat mostly insects and fruits during the summer, and move on to a variety of nuts and seeds in winter. They will bury food throughout their territory and can remember these sites over long periods of time. Nesting pairs will defend their territory year-round and are known for deterring predators by diving, calling, and occasionally pecking. Predators include raccoons, skunks, crows, and bobcats, among others.
Exposed Temescal Branch
It is unfortunate that it is so rare to see Temescal Creek winding through a neighborhood. Much of the creek here has a constructed stream bed, with efforts to constrain the movement of the creek from side to side and reduce erosion. Once a flourishing, stunning year-round creek ecosystem, now the creek is controlled by the dam at Lake Temescal, with very little flow moving out below the lake. At times, no water is released from the lake when sewage spills and/or stormwater increases the algae to dangerous levels.
Creation of Claremont
Duncan McDuffie built the Claremont subdivison in 1905 using Frederick Law Olmstead's philosophy of urban design for undeveloped land. (His own house was constructed at 156 Tunnel Road, Claremont, Berkeley, CA) His ideas centered around the inclusion of the landscape’s natural features, which are reflected in the layout of the streets, retaining walls, tree plantings, and other public amenities. Homes were built between 1905 and 1930 around Temescal Creek’s meandering path. This neighborhood was, like many other upstream communities, restricted for sale to white people only. Redlining and redistricting have been serious issues in the development of the East Bay, resulting in low-income people of color having less access to wild places. Claremont was specifically designated as an area where no "Negroes, Chinese or Japanese" could buy or rent homes. Banks also labeled other low-income areas as too high of a lending risk.Today, even in preparing this tour, an African American intern was followed and he and his license plate photographed while walking this neighborhood to gather tour information. Racism remains active in Oakland along property lines. As of 2020, 83% of housing in the city remains single-family, but there is a renewed effort to diversify options for home-owning.
Anise Swallowtail Butterfly
The anise swallowtail butterfly can be found near its favorite food plants in gardens and on hilltops in the upper parts of the Temescal Creek Watershed. Its primary food sources are members of the carrot family, fennels, and some plants in the citrus family. It has adapted to using fennel as its host plant in the San Francisco Bay Area since its native host, Lomatium, is now harder to find. As a result, these butterflies are helping to reduce this invasive plant population.
Belladonna Lily
The Belladonna lily is mostly cultivated as an ornamental flower but really adds to the brown landscape of late summer in the Bay Area. This flower blooms in August thru September. It can be found in many locations in the hills of Temescal Creek, including the Uplands road section of our map. It is native to Cape Town in South Africa which makes sense why they like the San Francisco Bat climate; the plants are drought tolerant! Like most lilies, it grows from a bulb.
Cow Parsnip
Cow parsnip is a common plant in the Temescal Creek Watershed. Native Americans used to remove the outer skin of cow parsnip and use it as a food source, dermatological aid, straws, and a yellow dye.
Brookside Creek View
This view of Temescal Creek, seen from Brookside Avenue, holds many native plants like California buckeye, cow parsnip, and coast live oak. California Buckeye (Aesculus californica) is a plant native to Oregon and California. The Ohlone Tribe specifically used the California buckeye to make traditional meals such as Dihsa. Coast Live Oaks (Quercus agrifolia) were a very abundant species of trees in the East Bay and the Ohlone used the high-protein acorns from the trees for food. The bark of the tree was also used for remedies for toothaches. They even used the acorns as a remedy for diarrhea.
