Creek to Bay Day, the massive citywide cleanup effort that attracts nearly 1,000 volunteers each year, arrives this Saturday, Sept. 19. The event is Oakland’s contribution to the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, and it’s also a public demonstration of all the ways Oakland’s residents show their love for the place they call home, as dozens of local nature groups, neighborhood committees and business districts step up to weed, clean and restore.

Volunteers will be picking up trash along the shorelines of the Oakland Estuary, weeding invasive plants in Dimond Park, sifting the sand at Rockridge’s Frog Park playground, and sprucing up neighborhood parks, from East Oakland’s Josie de la Cruz Park to Mosswood Park near Temescal. There are five cleanup efforts around Lake Merritt alone, some focused on its plantings and gardens, some on its docks and shores.

Each cleanup effort is being organized by a different Oakland community organization, from the nonprofit arts organization The Crucible to Friends of Sausal Creek, and the city is offering up the supplies, from trash bags to safety vests. Volunteers of all ages are welcome to participate.

Anne Pauley, a metal worker and Crucible board member, is the organizer behind the arts organization’s first Creek to Bay Day action, one of only a handful taking place in West Oakland this year. The center for arts education, which offers workshops for adults and kids teaching everything from ceramics to woodworking to glassblowing, has a 56,000-square-foot building that borders long stretches of 7th and 8th streets. “We have a lot of street front and rampant littering,” she said, “and honestly it’s a constant struggle to respond to that.”

She said they also have a vision: to turn the front of the building into a native plant garden. So the Crucible needs help not only with street cleanup, but also with prepping the large planters so seedlings can go in once the rains begin.

Anne Pauley, of the Crucible, a West Oakland arts education space, and Chuck Baker, an assistant city administrator, work on a series of new native plant beds during a January volunteer day. Credit: Courtesy of Anne Pauley

On the other end of the spectrum are experienced environmental groups like Friends of Sausal Creek, which manages more than 20 restoration sites throughout the watershed and has been participating in Creek to Bay Day for a decade. Noé Romo Loera, the group’s restoration ecologist, said volunteer interest has grown over the years, with last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. day of service attracting nearly 150 people. Friends of Sausal Creek is hosting multiple cleanups this year, from a community garden site in Jingletown, where volunteers will weed and pick up trash, to the restored creek in Dimond Park, where they’ll remove invasive species and help with bank stabilization.

“We try to make a point if people already have a relationship to the creek to strengthen that relationship,” Romo Loera said, “and if they don’t have one, to build one, by sharing that experience of restoring what a natural creek and watershed should be.”

Western columbine, a California native plant, blooms in restored habitat along Sausal Creek. Credit: Courtesy of Friends of Sausal Creek

This year also marks more than a decade of participation in Creek to Bay Day by I Heart Oakland-Alameda Estuary. But this year is different, executive director Mary Spicer told The Oaklandside, as Saturday’s cleanup is part of a $3.8 million federal grant to help restore the estuary. She said on MLK Day in January, volunteers pulled 6,000 pounds of garbage from the shoreline, and her goal for Creek to Bay Day is to get the shores cleared again before King Tide season sweeps all the onshore refuse into the harbor.

“It’s a dirty cleanup,” Spicer said. “It’s not for the faint-hearted.” But while participants are wading into the muck, they may catch a glimpse of shorebirds or harbor seals.

Spicer invites those with experience on the water to join her kayaking cleanup crew the same day; volunteers should register in advance and can bring their own vessels or rent one for $20 (doubles for $40) from California Canoe & Kayak.

Thanks to the federal grant, Spicer said, the salvage company Lind Marine will be arriving two days after the cleanup to haul out more than a dozen sunken ships, which can pollute the estuary by releasing oil, gas or other toxins into its waters.

Trees planted by volunteers at the Oakland City Stable in the Oakland hills on Martin Luther King Jr. day of service, January 19, 2026. Credit: Courtesy of Melanie Diamond

Those who are more partial to horses than herons can head up to the Oakland City Stables. Melanie Diamond, the owner of Diamond Equine Services, which operates the stables, said she has been the environmental stewardship coordinator there for a decade.

The stables, up in the hills off of Skyline Boulevard, are part of the historical Peralta land grant property, and sit next to a Spanish-style home built in the early 1900s and several old barns. There are active paddocks and stalls, where riders have direct trail access to the East Bay Regional Parks, and Diamond offers a range of therapeutic programs there for kids, first responders and veterans who have experienced trauma. “It feels like you’re in the country,” she said. “Being up here can help people connect with themselves, horses, nature and other people.”

Diamond said she’ll probably bring out a pony or a miniature horse on Saturday so anyone who volunteers “can love on them a little bit.”

When she first got involved with the stables, she said, they were abandoned and overgrown. Volunteers in past years removed a whole slope of juniper to limit fire risk. This year, the focus is removing invasive species, cutting back weeds, and raking and sweeping around the paddocks and stables.

Volunteers rake the paddock at the Oakland City Stable in the Oakland hills on Martin Luther King Jr. day of service, January 19, 2026. Credit: Courtesy of Melanie Diamond

Several of Saturday’s 46 cleanup sites, representing every city council district, already have all the volunteers they need. But The Oaklandside has compiled a list of more than 30 sites that could still use extra hands. Anyone who wants to help out is encouraged to register in advance, so organizers can come equipped with the right number of tools and safety gear.

Shoreline

Jack London Aquatic Center / Estuary Park
115 Embarcadero
8 to 11:30 a.m.
Organizer: I Heart Oakland-Alameda Estuary
Trash cleanup.
Registration link

Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
2777 Middle Harbor Road
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash cleanup, native plant gardening work including weeding, mulching and planting.
Organizer: Nurture Nature
Registration link

Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt
568 Bellevue Ave.
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Remove litter from the shorelines and water using pickers and nets.
Organizer: Lake Merritt Institute
Registration link

Lake Merritt Boating Center
568 Bellevue Ave.
11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Trash removal around docks, pulling weeds, sweeping.
Organizer: Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development
Registration link

Lakeside Park Snack Shack
666 Bellevue Ave.
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Trash cleanup, weeding, pruning, mulching.
Organizer: Lake Merritt Conservancy
Registration link

Sailboat House Marsh
568 Bellevue Ave.
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Native plant identification and planting, plankton monitoring, waste removal.
Organizer: Rotary Nature Center Friends
Registration link

The Gardens at Lake Merritt
666 Bellevue Ave.
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Garden maintenance.
Organizer: Friends of the Garden at Lake Merritt
Registration link

West Oakland

East Oakland

Courtland Creek Park
2362 Cortland Ave.
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Gardening and cleanup.
Organizer: Melrose 27X Neighborhood Council
Registration link

Jingletown
2999 Glascock St.
10 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash pickup, pruning, weeding, graffiti removal.
Organizer: Jingletown Arts, Businesses & Community
Registration link

Josie de la Cruz Park
1637 Fruitvale Ave.
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sheet mulching, prepping and filling raised garden beds, light landscape work in the education garden.
Organizer: Carmen Flores Recreation Center
Registration link

King Estate Open Space
Crest Avenue entrance to King Estate Open Space
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Habitat restoration.
Organizer: Oak Knoll Neighborhood Improvement Association
Registration link

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park
2465 34th Ave.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Trash pickup, weeding, pruning, graffiti removal.
Organizer: Frontline Catalysts
Registration link

Sausal Creek Preserve
2700 Barry Pl.
1 to 4 p.m.
Trash pickup, mulching, removal of invasive species.
Organizer: Friends of Sausal Creek
Registration link

79th Avenue
1189 79th Ave.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Trash pickup, drain cleaning.
Organizer: Oakland Don’t Play
Registration link

Central Oakland

Dimond Park
3860 Hanly Rd., Dimond Park Scout Hut
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash cleanup, weeding, pruning.
Organizer: Friends of Dimond Park
Registration link

Dimond Park and Canyon
3860 Hanly Rd., Dimond Park Scout Hut
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Weeding, mulching, habitat restoration, removing invasive species, watering.
Organizer: Friends of Sausal Creek
Registration link

FM Smith Recreation Center and Park
1969 Park Blvd.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Trash cleanup, weeding, mulching.
Organizer: City of Oakland
Registration link

Hope Avenue
1933 23rd Ave.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tree planting, storm drain outreach.
Registration link

North Oakland

Garber Park
136 Evergreen Lane
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Invasive plant removal, debris cleanup, habitat and trail restoration.
Organizer: Garber Park Stewards
Registration link

Mosswood Recreation Center
3612 Webster St.
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Painting, gardening, weeding, trash pickup, graffiti removal.
Organizer: Mosswood Recreation Center/City of Oakland
Registration link

Oak Glen Park
3600 Richmond Blvd.
9:30 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash cleanup, weeding, pruning, habitat restoration.
Organizer: Richmond Blvd Neighborhood Association
Registration link

Rockridge Temescal Greenbelt/Frog Park
485 Hardy St.
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash cleanup, weeding, pruning, graffiti removal, raking playground sand.
Organizer: Rockridge Temescal Greenbelt/Frog Park Committee
Registration link

Sacred Heart Church
4025 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
10 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash cleanup.
Organizer: Sacred Heart Oakland
Registration link

Oakland hills

Bridgeview Trailhead and Pollinator Garden
4420 Bridgeview Dr.
9 to 11 a.m.
Weeding, pruning, habitat restoration, wildfire mitigation.
Organizer: Friends of Sausal Creek
Registration link

Butters Canyon
3514 Butters Dr.
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash removal, weeding, pruning, fire abatement, erosion control.
Organizer: Butters Canyon Conservancy
Registration link

Fern Ravine
10060 Skyline Blvd.
1 to 4 p.m.
Invasive species removal, mulching, watering.
Organizer: Friends of Sausal Creek
Registration link

Knowland Park
Golf Links Road and Elysian Fields Drive
12:30 to 2 p.m.
Trash cleanup.
Organizer: Friends of Arroyo Viejo Creek
Registration link

Marjorie Saunders Park
Ascot Drive and Chelton Drive
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Trash removal, weeding, pruning, hardscape cleaning, storm drain cleaning, graffiti removal, fire fuel reduction.
Organizer: Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association
Registration link

Monterey Redwoods
2485 Monterey Blvd.
9 to 11 a.m.
Trash removal, weeding, mulching.
Organizer: Friends of Sausal Creek
Registration link

Oakland City Stables
13560 Skyline Blvd.
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Weeding, pruning, raking, sweeping, clean up.
Organizer: Diamond Equine Services
Registration link

Woodminster Cascade
Joaquin Miller Road across from Butters Drive
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Gardening, cleaning pools
Organizer: Friends of Joaquin Miller Park
Registration link

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