Articles about ecology, history and planning issues in the Corte Madera Creek watershed appear regularly in Friends' twice-yearly newsletter, Creek Chronicles. The authors are Friends members and guest contributors.
Current issue of Creek Chronicles: newsletter1.12.pdf (2900k)

Archived Articles from earlier Creek Chronicles

Friends' Position Papers on Watershed Issues




Updates: Project News
January 2012

Flood Management and the Ross Valley Watershed Program
The Department of Water Resources has awarded $7.66 million to the Marin County Flood Control District’s Ross Valley Watershed Flood Protection Program for the Phoenix Lake Retrofit Project. The total project cost is $15.6 million. The heart of the project is retrofitting and seismically up-grading the dam at Phoenix Lake, allowing the lake to be operated for flood management, drinking water supply, water quality improvements in Phoenix Lake and Ross Creek, ecosystem restoration, and public recreation improvements. The project will be developed in partnership with Marin Municipal Water District.

FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) FEMA plans to release revised FIRMs sometime in 2012.

Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project Congress continues to seriously underfund work by the US Army Corps of Engineers on completing work on the Unit 3 and Unit 4 components of this project.


Active Contracts
1. Invasive Spartina Project, funded by the California Coastal Conservancy $123,929 provided by the Coastal Conservancy for the 2011-13 treatment season. Scope: Friends is the local sponsor of the Coastal Conservancy’s Invasive Spartina Project, an effort to eradicate invasive cordgrasses through the Bay. Our participation began in 2002; we expect several more years of work before the project can be declared a success. Even then, we will continue monitoring to find and remove plants that persist in some locations.
2. Construction of Lansdale Barrier Removal at San Anselmo Creek, funded by the California Department of Fish and Game; money provided to Town of San Anselmo
$632,291 Total Budget, $567,592 provided by DFG
Scope: Implement the designs to construct:
• center-aligned angled baffles along the right bay of the box culvert and continuing through the right side of the arch culvert,
• a sill inside the left bay to concentrate lower flows into the baffled bay. The sill would split the streamflow between the baffled and unbaffled culverts to maximize the range of flows over which fish passage can be provided, while maintaining sufficient attraction flow,
• a sidewall in the center of the arch culvert to contain water within the baffled section at fish passage flows,
• a concrete pool-and-chute fish ladder consisting of 6 pools with a 0.75-foot water-surface drop over each weir would be built at the outlet of the arch culvert, and
• native riparian vegetation planted on all disturbed areas.



Sandra Guldman President, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed





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Position Paper on Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed Program, January 18, 2007 FCMCWRossValleyWatershed.pdf (163k)

Position Paper on Alternative Water Supplies for the Corte Madera Creek Watershed, September 17, 2009 WaterSupplyPolicy2009.09.11.pdf (105k)

Position Paper on Playing Fields, August, 2008 Playingfieldpolicy.pdf (128k)

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An Archive of Selected Earlier Articles (.pdf format)

Caring for the watershed

Adventures in Garbage (2003) (44k)
Another Scoop on Pollution (2004) (48k)
The Art of Erosion Control (2005) (60k)
Buying Native Plants (2008) (277k)
Cape Ivy (2006) (91k)
California Coastal Cleanup (2005) (56k)
Closed for Restoration (2010) (138k)
Creek Bank Restoration and Repair (2006) (291k)
Creek Consciousness (2002) (24k)
Creek Revitalization: Back to Bacich (2006) (305k)
What is That Floating Down the Creek (2007) (65k)
Drinking Water Releases into the Creek (2008) (148k)
Fire Road and Trail Maintenance (2004) (96k)
Geese on the Loose (2007) (117k)
Good Neighbor on Olema Road (2007) (96k)
A Growing Concern (2011) (281k)
The Hiddden Reservoir (2009) (172k)
Invasive Bullfrog Population Explosion (2010) (136k)
The Latest on Water Quality Testing (2006) (135k)
Rainwater and Greywater (2009) (163k)
Restoring the College of Marin's Ecology Study Area (2003) (56k)
Reward of the Creek Restorer (2007) (12k)
A Sampler of Bad News Barriers (2006) (339k)
Sewer Spills in Corte Madera Creek (2004) (16k)
Sweeping the Watershed (2005) (68k)
Water's Journey from Sky to Creek (2003) (72k)
This Summer's Scoop on Water Quality Testing (2007) (44k)
Watershed Education is Alive and Thriving (2001) (57k)
Water Quality Testing 2004 (2005) (20k)
What in the World is the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (1995) (17k)


Ecology and wildlife

The MAGC Bridge Between Gardening and Environmentalism (2004) (73k)
A Quasi-Nature Walk through the Corte Madera Creek Marshes (2003) (62k)
Basking on a Log (2005) (71k)
Big Fish (2005) (48k)
Birds in Our Watershed (2001) (27k)
Call of the Wild - The Creeks of San Anselmo (1996) (44k)
Corte Madera Creek's Most Threatened Bird (1996) (59k)
The Corte Madera Marshes (2008) (1195k)
Creekside Park Walk (2001) (17k)
Discordgrass (2001) (52k)
Excitable Neighbors: Squirrels of the Watershed (2010) (169k)
Fish Report 2008 (2009) (188k)
Gary Leo's Backyard Photos (2010) (210k)
Getting Rid of a Green Invader (2006) (179k)
A Fish's Life (2008) (191k)
The Grey Willow in Marin (2007) (328k)
If Conditions are Right, They will Come (1997) (17k)
It's an eel! It's a whale! No! - it's a river otter! (2000) (16k)
Oaks - A Smorgasbord for Wildlife (2002) (17k)
Observing Fish in Corte Madera Creek (1998) (45k)
Parker Pringle, Fishwatcher (2009) (125k)
Parker's Creek Diary (2010) (175k)
A Parliament of Owls (2006) (112k)
Saving Steelhead in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (2000) (27k)
Stalking the Slough at the Ecology Study Area (2004) (37k)
Stopped in Her Tracks by a Dam (2003) (25k)
Valley Oak - Our Heritage Tree (2002) (65k)
Wild Families of the Watershed (2009) (183k)
Wonderful Wooducks (2009) (155k)
Woodpeckers of the Watershed (2011) (301k)


Historical perspectives

A Creek Runs Through it - Larkspur (2001) (39k)
A Trip on Corte Madera Creek (1997) (174k)
An Inside View of Corte Madera Creek Watershed (1996) (18k)
Eleanor Jean's Life along the Creek (2004) (144k)
Fairfax Creek - Conversation with Lou Vaccaro (1998) (16k)
Growing up in Greenbrae (2005) (95k)
Lavaroni Recalls Summers on San Anselmo Creek (2004) (47k)
Looking Back on the Ross Valley (2003) (13k)
Meanderings in History (2007) (736k)
Miwok Sites in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (1998) (71k)
Of Fish and Men - Willis Evans' Life of Dedication to Fisheries (2000) (38k)
Plant Uses of the Coast Miwok (1999) (317k)
Raising Phoenix (2002) (45k)
RIP Ross Bridge (2010) (191k)
The Twists and Turns of History (2002) (45k)

Watershed planning

680 Trail (2011) (360k)
Big Plans for the City of Larkspur (2001) (39k)
Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project Outlives Energizer Bunny (1999) (69k)
County Planners Working on Stream Protection Ordinance (2003) (35k)
Flood Control - An Environmental Perspective (2000) (17k)
Flood Control Project Sandbagged (2003) (16k)
Flood Mitigation Hits Obstructions (2008) (288k)
Flooding: The Current Situation (2006) (13k)
Flooding and the Ross Valley Watershed Program (2007) (18k)
Helping Fish Move up San Anselmo Creek (2010) (180k)
Incarcerated Creeks (2008) (391k)
Just Say No to Corps Plan - Watershed-wide Solution Needed (2000) (13k)
Local Creek Setbacks Generally Ineffective (2003) (16k)
No Easy Way for the Kentfield Forcemain (2009) (188k)
Protection for the Creek and Bay (2001) (43k)
Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed Program (2010) (124k)
Studies Point the Way Ahead (2000) (13k)
San Anselmo Creek Fish Passage Projects (2009) (148k)
Up the Concrete Channel, One Pool at a Time (2008) (359k)
Wading into Wetland Mitigation (2002) (17k)

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Photo in logo: View of Ross Valley from Red Hill, c.1900. Photo courtesy San Anselmo Historical Society.

All use of text and photographs for other than personal purposes is prohibited without permission from Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.

All photographs © Charles Kennard unless otherwise credited.

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