Some in Berkeley may think that an urban creek is little more than a concrete trench and that creek restoration is accomplished merely by planting a few trees along the banks. There are likely others who would say that, the only way to return any of the city's creeks to their natural state is to reintroduce grizzly bears to Berkeley. Perhaps there are some valid arguments for both of these perspectives. More importantly, each points out that there are obvious limits in which urban creeks can exist. Often times, these imposed urban restrictions challenge the very existence of a creek. So, when is an urban creek not an urban creek? When Is an Urban Creek not a Creek?L A Wood, Daily Californian, April 6, 2000

ALSO SEE: Save Strawberry Canyon Website

CanyonWalks with Ignacio Chapela, Associate Professor, Ph.D. College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley. March 06, 2007...A pictorial Essay

Walk, Talk, Buck the Fence: What's at stake in the Ecology of Berkeley's Strawberry Canyon

Dr. Ignacio Chapela, Associate Professor, Ph.D.
College of Natural Resources, University of California Berkeley

The Memorial Grove, a humble stretch of land, sustains more than is apparent from the sidewalk of Piedmont Avenue. The trees and the cameo ecosystem they hold together form a lynchpin corridor connecting two large masses of wildscape where foxes, mountain lions and many others find a home.

Closing this corridor would reverberate across those wildscapes from the Berkeley Hills to Pinole and Chabot, and beyond to the rest of the network of parks that make the East Bay the envy of the world. This is what makes Berkeley not Stanford, this is the identity that roots deep in our campus history and will outlast the ups and downs of each year's football season.

This pictorial essay reveals the wildscape implications of what may be lost with the possible demise of Memorial Grove: what the Oaks sustain. http://www.canyonwalks.blogspot.com