Creek to Bay Day 2005

Karen Sharkey finds a Guatemalan Bus Pass

Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who worked on the District 4 projects at
Butters Canyon, Courtland Creek, Sausal Creek, the Joaquin Miller Native Plant Nursery
and Sulphur Springs/Marge Saunders Park. Karen Sharkey (above) won our most unusual
object removed from a creek or watershed. Some of our other winners are below. Years of
work and restoration have led to increasing sightings of small Steelhead Trout.
Let's keep up the work year round!

Steelhead Trout

Special thanks to the Dimond Domino's Pizza, Farmer Joes, Montclair Noah's Bagels,
and Douglas Parking for helping us provide refreshments this year.

Learn more about Oakland's Creeks:

Oakland's Creek Ordinance

Creeks 101: An Educational Slide Show

Creek Maps

Past Creek Day Photos

MANY PROJECTS NEED YEAR ROUND VOLUNTEERS:

Adopt A Creek

Adopt A Block or Median Strip in Your
Neighborhood

Butters Canyon Trust
Joaquin Miller Cascades Project: Sue Piper 238-7004
Maintain A Drain: 434-5131

Storm Drain Stenciling 238-6600
Friends of Sausal Creek/ Dimond Park/ Joaquin Miller Park Nursery

v Butters Canyon

v Courtland Creek & Brookdale Park

v Dimond Park - Friends of Sausal Creek

v Joaquin Miller Native Plant Nursery - Friends of Sausal Creek

v Shepherd Canyon

Sulphur Springs - Marj Saunders Park

A meandering history of Bay Area creek restoration
by Susan Schwartz, Excerpts from The Yodeler, a publication of the Sierra Club, July 2000.

Everyday things to do for your local creek

These also help San Francisco Bay:

Eliminate or reduce your use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Use compost to provide natural, slow-acting fertilizer.

Control pests with non-toxic alternatives such as hand-picking, traps, closing up holes, and encouraging predatory insects. Ask your local nursery or hardware store for information on less-toxic chemicals or call (510)670-5543 or (888)BAYWISE. Especially avoid products containing diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which poison aquatic life.

Help water to filter into soil and thus reduce runoff. On your property, keep impervious surfaces to a
minimum. Use porous paving or decking, and (unless you live in a slide area) landscape to let water soak
in. This provides a more natural, steady flow to creeks. It lessens pollution and the sudden, erosive storm flows that can damage stream channels and destroy aquatic habitats.

Native plants can provide good habitat and erosion control with a minimum of care. Keep native
vegetation where it exists along creeks. Replace invasive non-native plants with suitable native ones.
Plant to keep creeks shady so that the water stays cool.

Don't pour or wash anything down gutters or storm drains. They drain directly to creeks or the Bay. Use
your local car wash, wash vehicles and equipment with water only, or if you must use soap, wash on dirt
or grass where soapy water won't run to the street or storm drains. Ask your local government about
proper disposal of motor oil, antifreeze, concrete, paint, solvents, and other chemicals. Report illegal discharges.

Drive less! Auto exhaust particles, leaking fluids, and tire and brakepad debris are major sources of Bay
Area water pollution. Walk, bicycle, carpool, use transit; plan errands to reduce driving.

Support creek-friendly local ordinances. Does your local government ban culverting of creeks? Does it
require that buildings be set back from creeks? Does it require that sewer lines and septic tanks on private property be inspected at intervals and when property is sold, and that they be repaired if necessary? Does
it have an effective street-sweeping program to reduce pollution that washes into storm drains? Do the
building and zoning codes encourage landscaping that lets rainwater soak into soil, rather than running to
storm drains and creeks?

What is creek restoration?

Creek-freeing.

The greatest publicity-and opposition-swirls around efforts to bring creeks out of culverts, to allow them to create their own channels without concrete and rip-rap, and to provide a streamside buffer zone with room for vegetation and wildlife. Battles spring from this aspect of restoration because it requires returning land from human economic uses to nature. Citizen groups are key in both taking stands and negotiating settlements. Some write grants and carry out the projects themselves. Protecting and improving water quality. Industrial pollution is relatively rare today in Bay Area creeks, but sewage pollution is common, from broken pipes in older areas and from septic tanks in newer ones.

Still more widespread are problems stemming from urban runoff.

As land is covered by streets, sidewalks, and buildings, rainwater can no longer soak into soil. Streams seesaw between flash-flood-like storm runoff and drought-like low flows. The too-fast storm flows steepen and destabilize creek banks, and load creeks with lethal slugs of urban pollution, including grease, oil, heavy metals, pesticides, and soap. Volunteers monitor water quality and report pollution, often working with or supported by watchdog agencies.

Restoring plant and animal life.

One of the easiest avenues for volunteer restoration is hands-on re-vegetation. Native plants provide shade to keep creek water cool, and curb invasive exotic plants that produce a sterile monoculture inhospitable to insect and other animal life. The deep roots of the natives resist erosion; require minimal irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides (thus improving water quality); and offer food and cover to insects, fish, frogs, salamanders, birds, and other wildlife. Animal species can be re-introduced, or will come back on their own, when the first three conditions are satisfactory.

A fourth element is public access, often in the form of pedestrian or bicycle trails. Though usually sought after, access can be a complication. The 10-foot-wide strip needed for a bicycle trail can eat up most of the land available for habitat, for example. And people and their pets are a potent barrier to wildlife restoration.

The Bay Area pioneered and remains a leader nationwide in daylighting creeks and restoring channels. Some other communities have gone farther in other aspects of restoration-reducing the problems of urban runoff, using volunteers to watchdog water quality, and protecting and re-introducing native species.