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: newsletter7.10.pdf (750k)

Archived Articles from earlier Creek Chronicles

Friends' Position Papers on Watershed Issues




Updates: July 2010

New Trails in the Watershed
Two trails proposed for the Ross Valley are generating controversy. One is high in the watershed, in the headwaters of Sleepy Hollow Creek, where the Marin County Open Space District is proposing a wide multi-use trail, called the 680 Trail, to reconnect the Loma Alta Open Space Reserve to the Terra Linda-Sleepy Hollow Reserve. The terrain is very steep, geologically unstable, and has significant scenic and biological value. Many of us feel that the current proposal is excessively intrusive. The environmental analysis was released on July 16, 2010. Check the MCOSD link below.
See Friends' letter of comment to Supervisor Kinsey at Friends Letter 680 Trail pdf (110K).
The County’s information can be seen at http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/pk/main/MCOSD/OS_680_Trail_Planning.asp.

Friends' letter of response to the Initial Study can be seen at 680TrailFriendsComments20100806 pdf (150K).


Another new trail, the Central Marin Ferry Connection Multi-use Pathway Phase I, has been proposed by the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM). It includes a multi-use pathway from the future Cal Park Hill Tunnel Pathway and Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) Larkspur Station located east of U.S. Highway 101 and north of East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the existing multi-use pathway located south of East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. This trail is near the mouth of Corte Madera Creek. The current proposal has two long segments crossing a tidal wetland. Friends and other environmental groups contend that such extensive damage to wetlands is not necessary to make the connection and that TAM has not adequately investigated alternatives.

In each case, the project proponent is also the lead agency for environmental review and appears to be rushing the process by ignoring alternatives that would reduce impacts.


Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed Program
In a unanimous vote published June 7, the California Supreme Court ruled against Ford Greene and affirmed the flood fee election that was narrowly passed by property owners in the Ross Valley in 2007. The decision clears the way to using fee funds to move ahead more aggressively on the Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed Program, a watershed-wide, integrated approach to flood management. On a hitherto very restricted budget, county staff has been working with a team of local engineering consultants to create a plan with proposals to store runoff in detention basins during large storms, improve creek capacity in critical locations, and manage stream sediment that settles out and reduces flow capacity in the lower reaches of Corte Madera Creek. The full report will be ready in October 2010, with interim reports in July (Detention Basins) and September (Creek Capacity and Geomorphology). The Sediment Management plan and a cost/benefit analysis will be submitted along with the full report in October. Each of these will be presented at public meetings of the Flood Zone 9 Advisory Board.

Marin United Taxpayers Association and Marin County reached a negotiated settlement that involved cash payments by the County and some stipulations about how future Proposition 218 elections will be conducted.


Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project
US Army Corps of Engineers expects to complete the Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report on a project for the section of creek in Ross and Kentfield by Fall 2011. If adequate funding is provided by Congress, substantial progress could be made on the design in the fiscal year starting October 1, 2010.



Pending Proposals

We seek out funding opportunities and submit proposals several times a year, usually in cooperation with the Flood Control District or one of the towns in the watershed.


Lansdale Fish Passage Improvement Project
Submitted to the California Department of Fish and Game’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program
$568,000 Requested; $621,000 Total Budget
Scope: The project proposes to modify an existing crossing on San Anselmo Creek to improve passage for all age classes of resident coastal rainbow trout and steelhead. The project is described under item 3 in the Active Contracts section below.


Active Contracts

1. Invasive Spartina Project, funded by the California Coastal Conservancy $65,000 provided by the Coastal Conservancy for the 2009 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 2003; we expect several more years of work before the project can be declared a success. Even after that, we will continue monitoring to find and remove any persisting plants.

2. Design and Permitting of Barrier Treatments for Saunders, Pastori, and Lansdale at San Anselmo Creek, funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund
$150,000 provided by NFWF; $250,000 Total Budget
Originally, this project covered design and permitting for treatment of the barriers to salmonid passage at Saunders and Pastori avenues. However, the owner of the Pastori barrier declined to cooperate when funding for construction became available, so NFWF gave us permission to continue the permit process, substituting Lansdale Station, using a design prepared for the Center for Ecological Management and Restoration with funding from the California Coastal Conservancy. Therefore, designs are available for all three barriers; permits are in place for the Lansdale project and if local property owners agree, permits will be pursued for Saunders. Construction is contingent upon obtaining funding.

3. Final Design for Lansdale Barrier Removal at San Anselmo Creek, funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund
$100,000 Total Budget
Scope: The proposed project addresses a barrier to fish passage where San Anselmo Creek crosses the intersection of Center Boulevard, San Anselmo Avenue, and other streets. The stream is in a culvert with two distinct sections. The total length of the culvert crossing is nearly 320 ft with a 45° turn inside the culverts. The upstream portion of the culvert is a concrete double-bay box culvert that has an overall width of 30.5 ft. The boxes are confluent with a 136-ft long single-radius concrete arch with a span of 32 ft.

The proposed project will retrofit the culvert with a series of 14 center-aligned angle baffles along the entire length of the right bay of the box culvert and the right side of the arch culvert. The baffles are intended to increase water depth and reduce velocity through the crossing. An inlet sill will be constructed to concentrate flow into the baffled right bay of the box culvert during fish passage flows. Within the arch culvert, flow will be concentrated in the baffled portion of the culvert using a sidewall. A pool-and-chute fishway will be constructed at the downstream end of the crossing to provide a way for fish to negotiate the 3-foot drop at the culvert apron. A retaining wall will be constructed adjacent to the fishway to provide hillslope stability on the right bank adjacent to the existing parking structure. At the inlet of the box culverts, a cut-off wall will be constructed to reduce flow under the culvert. All baffles, sidewall, inlet cut-off wall, inlet sill, fishway and retaining wall will be constructed out of concrete. All of these structures will be located within the existing concrete culvert with the exception of the fishway and retaining wall, which will be located at the downstream end the existing concrete apron and will extend slightly downstream of the apron.

Additional work in the channel will include construction of a rock weir downstream of the fishway to maintain the tailwater control elevation of the outlet pool and fishway entrance. To protect the channel bottom and sides, rock slope protection will be placed between the proposed fishway and the existing culvert apron and proposed rock weir. A large infestation of Arundo donax will be mechanically removed from the left bank upstream of the box culverts.

Approvals for construction of the Lansdale project have been issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish and Game.

4. Multi-media Piece by Gina Farr describing a young steelhead’s search for a place to spend the summer, partially funded by North Bay Watershed Association ($5,000) and Marin County Wildlife and Fisheries Commission ($600)
$16,000 Total Budget
Scope: The project is to produce a 3-minute multi-media piece. The main story line is about a juvenile fish (perhaps named Parr) searching for a safe place he can live until ready to migrate to the ocean. A live action "on-the-street news story" will frame the animated portion, featuring interviews with kids that create anticipation and help teach principles of creek ecology and personal responsibility.



Sandra Guldman President, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed





Return to top

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 Palyingfieldpolicy.pdf (128k)

Return to top



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)
The Hiddden Reservoir (2009) (172k)
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)
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)
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)


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)
The Twists and Turns of History (2002) (45k)

Watershed planning

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)
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)

Return to top

Links indicated on this Web site may require Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 to be operative. Download the program free from Adobe.

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.

Web site design by Karen Peterson, San Anselmo.