Cal State East Bay Concord

Cal State East Bay Concord Official page of Cal State East Bay Concord Center.

Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Graduate degrees available as well as teacher credentials and certificate programs

🌿 Meet čišnay 🌿Also known as Blue Elderberry, čišnay is a native California shrub found growing along streams, roadsides...
09/23/2026

🌿 Meet čišnay 🌿
Also known as Blue Elderberry, čišnay is a native California shrub found growing along streams, roadsides, meadows, and forest openings. It produces clusters of light-colored flowers and blue berries. Birds and other animals eat the berries, and the flowers provide nectar to pollinators. 🐦🐝🦋

The Ohlone value čišnay for food, medicine, tools, and more. The berries can cause nausea if eaten raw, and the leaves, bark, stems, and roots are toxic. ⚠️ However, tea made from flowers is used to soothe colds and fevers. 🤧 Cooked berries are used to make syrup, jelly, pie, and w**e. The berries are also used as dyes for basketry. The stems make flutes, whistles, clapper sticks used in ceremonies, arrows, twirling sticks to start fires, and sq**rt guns. 🔥

We have a family of turkeys enjoying čišnay at CSU East Bay, Concord Center! 🦃 Have you spotted any animals hanging out by these shrubs?


Concord EBSNA is partnering with Contra Costa Health to provide an opioid response training at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Septe...
09/17/2026

Concord EBSNA is partnering with Contra Costa Health to provide an opioid response training at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22! Attendees will receive free Narcan kits and fentanyl test strips. All students are welcome!

Wishing every student lots of success this fall semester!
09/14/2026

Wishing every student lots of success this fall semester!

Our campus is closed and there are no classes today in observance of Labor Day.
09/07/2026

Our campus is closed and there are no classes today in observance of Labor Day.

Did you know our campus is establishing a 6,000 square foot ecocultural garden? The garden’s mission will be to educate ...
09/01/2026

Did you know our campus is establishing a 6,000 square foot ecocultural garden? The garden’s mission will be to educate the public about Indigenous communities and their agricultural methods, and encourage visitors to get in touch with nature. It will be an accessible public space that showcases how to sustainably grow native foods, and medicinal and utilitarian plants. Those plants will be made available to local indigenous communities for ceremonies, ancestral crafts and for revitalizing their ancestral foodways. Everything grown in the garden will be carried out sustainably in ways that benefit the garden’s natural habitat! If you’d like to volunteer, contact: [email protected]

Have you checked out our H.O.P.E. pantry? Our Concord Center pantry is open Monday through Thursday and offers free groc...
08/25/2026

Have you checked out our H.O.P.E. pantry? Our Concord Center pantry is open Monday through Thursday and offers free groceries, clothes, and toiletries to all students. For more information visit: https://ow.ly/yir250ZFiB6

Today is the first day of fall semester! We wish everyone a very successful school year!
08/18/2026

Today is the first day of fall semester! We wish everyone a very successful school year!

🌼 Not Every Yellow Flower Belongs Here 🌼At first glance, yellow star-thistle may look like just another wildflower. Howe...
08/04/2026

🌼 Not Every Yellow Flower Belongs Here 🌼

At first glance, yellow star-thistle may look like just another wildflower. However, it’s one of California’s most damaging invasive plants.

Native to the Mediterranean region of Europe, yellow star-thistle was accidentally introduced to the United States in the mid-1800s through contaminated alfalfa seeds. Today, it has spread across more than 10 million acres in California.

Why Does This Matter?

🌿 It isn’t native to California. Our native plants and wildlife did not evolve alongside yellow star-thistle, making it a poor replacement for the diverse plant communities that belong here.

🐝 It reduces habitat for native pollinators. While yellow-star thistle produces nectar that attracts some insects, including European honeybees, it replaces the diverse native wildflowers that California’s native bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators depend on year-round. Healthy pollinator communities need plant diversity, not landscapes dominated by a single invasive species.

🌱 It crowds out native plants. Its deep taproot allows it to compete aggressively for water and nutrients, displacing native species like milkweed, California poppies, and buckwheat.

🔥 It impacts Indigenous stewardship. For the Ohlone, healthy lands are living cultural landscapes. When invasive plants dominate, they displace native species that provide food, medicine, fiber, and habitat, making it more difficult to care for the land using traditional ecological knowledge.

🌎 Restoring Balance

At the Concord Center, we’re removing yellow star-thistle by hand, restoring native habitat, and using cultural burning as one of several tools to help native ecosystems recover. Following this summer’s cultural burn, we found that yellow star-thistle was much easier to remove by hand, an encouraging step toward restoring biodiversity and creating space for California’s native plants to thrive.


🔥 Good hiyyiš (Fire) Returns to the Land 🌱 Ohlone leaders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino recently held the second cult...
07/28/2026

🔥 Good hiyyiš (Fire) Returns to the Land 🌱

Ohlone leaders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino recently held the second cultural burn in over 60 years. 🔥 The first was in October 2024; both burns were conducted at Concord Center! 🔥

Unlike high-intensity wildfires that can sterilize soil, this was a low-intensity cultural burn. The burn was designed to recycle nutrients into the soil, reduce excess vegetation, strengthen native ecosystems, and lower the risk of catastrophic wildfires. ♻️
Throughout the day, Cal Fire and Contra Costa Fire Protection District worked alongside the Ohlone to honor traditional practices while ensuring safety. 🚒 Fire crews intentionally kept fire dragging to a minimum to avoid disturbing the soil and native seeds, and water was only applied in a few areas that did not extinguish naturally. 💧 Their partnership demonstrated how Indigenous stewardship and modern fire management can work together toward a common goal. As the fire settled, a monarch butterfly was seen flying through the smoke. 🦋

People from many communities came together for this special day: members of the Ohlone Indian Tribe and We Wai Kai First Nation, students and faculty from CSU East Bay, CSU San Francisco, and UC Berkeley, staff from Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, staff from East Bay Regional Park District, firefighters, restoration practitioners, researchers, and a journalist from Bay Nature. Many attended to learn how cultural burning can help restore landscapes throughout the East Bay. It was a collaboration in action. This was not just a burn, but the return of Ohlone-led knowledge, relationships, and stewardship of the land. 🤝🔥🌿


Wishing everyone a successful Finals Week! Remember, progress is made one step at a time!
07/27/2026

Wishing everyone a successful Finals Week! Remember, progress is made one step at a time!

Address

4700 Ygnacio Valley Road
Concord, CA
94521

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 6:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 6:30pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+19256026700

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