Wildcat Creek Cleanup: Celebrating 30 Years of Impact

Thirty years ago, KIDS for the BAY joined forces with Dover Elementary School and the City of San Pablo to lead a creek cleanup at the local community park. Since the first cleanup, we have hosted this event every year with help from school students and their families. This year’s 30th Annual Wildcat Creek Cleanup was a huge success! KIDS for the BAY (KftB) staff, students and partner teachers, alongside representatives from the City of San Pablo, and high-school environmental leaders from Earth Team, removed 934 gallons of trash from Davis Park and Wildcat Creek. That’s 1,040 pounds of trash–over half a ton! 

This year’s anniversary event marked thirty years since KftB partner teacher Pam Auxter’s third graders were so inspired by their KftB Watershed Action Program that they wrote letters urging the City of San Pablo to start a creek cleanup at the local community park. Pam’s dedication to empowering students to take action for their environment has inspired a legacy of community action that spans generations. 

Over fifty volunteers joined this special community event in Davis Park. In the weeks leading up to the cleanup, KftB Educators visited classrooms at Dover Elementary School, Helms Middle School, and St. Paul School to teach students about the problems of trash pollution in their local watershed, and to encourage students to attend the cleanup. Students and their families from St. Paul School and Dover Elementary attended with their family members. The cleanup inspired multiple generations to work together to improve the health of Wildcat Creek. 

Earth Team, with a group of high-school environmental leaders from Richmond High, Berkeley High, and Pinole Valley High, arrived early to assess the types and amounts of trash pollution in the park. “Earth Team travels to locations around the Richmond-San Pablo area to complete trash assessments. We use a Mobile App called ‘Survey123’ to track and categorize trash pollution, to get an idea of what kinds of trash are in the area. That way, we know what to expect when we come out here to do a cleanup. One of our main goals is to increase the data available about the trash pollution impacting the health of our communities in the East Bay,” explained Alexa, an Earth Team intern from Richmond High School. 

Earth Team interns are using the ArcGIS surveying tool, Survey123, to collect itemized trash counts and on-land visual trash assessments in areas in San Pablo, Richmond, Pinole and Berkeley. This project is in coordination with UC Berkeley, Sacramento State University, and Keep California Beautiful. Learn more.

“What types of trash do you think you will find the most of?” KftB Communications Coordinator Amy Asmussen asked a group of KIDS for the BAY students as they grabbed their tongs and buckets, ready to get started. “I think I’ll find lots of plastic,” said Frankie, a sixth grade student at St. Paul School. “I think we’ll find tons of Coca-Cola and soda cans!” added his brother, Raul, a fifth grade student at St. Paul School. “We need to look for all the tiny pieces of plastic. They’re called microplastics and they’re really bad because we can’t see them to pick them up and also sometimes fish or other animals will swallow them because they’re so tiny,” added Sara, a Dover Elementary School student.  

Raul rushed to a nearby trash can and exclaimed, “I think the best place to look for trash is right by the trash cans. They can overflow, and plastic and other trash can fall onto the ground and then it gets blown into Wildcat Creek.” Raul’s brother, Frankie, said, “I found a Jell-O Cup and a bunch of cigarette butts and cans. I think people just left all of this here and didn’t care about hurting the environment.” 

“I think I won the most unique item award!” shouted Raul, holding up a stainless steel fork for Teacher Javi’s inspection. “I found a bottle cap, but the real prize is finding the whole bottle!” said Frankie. “I am going to keep looking until I pick up every piece of trash – as many as I can. I really want that prize!” said Raul. When Dover Teacher Mr. MacLean asked his students how they felt about volunteering at the cleanup, they shared, “Being able to clean up the Wildcat Creek helps us feel proud of our community.”

Amanda Booth, Environmental Programs Manager for the City of San Pablo, wrapped up Wildcat Creek Cleanup with congratulations for a job well done. “Thank you for coming out today. It was a really great event. I hope you can all look at all those trash bags and feel really proud that we got all of that trash pollution out of the creek.” 

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful volunteers and we hope even more Environmentalists can join us next year!

KIDS for the BAY