News About Big Fish

Since January huge steelhead in the local creeks have been thrilling creek watchers. Several of these steelhead are holding in the pool at Bridge Street in San Anselmo, and some of these fish have been there since February. Steelhead migrate into the creek throughout the rainy season, but the bulk of the spawning run arrives in January and February. Ordinarily, the fish will return to the ocean after spawning. However, when the rainy season is truncated by drought, some spawned-out steelhead may attempt to spend the summer and fall in the creek rather than risk migrating downstream in low flows. This year only 0.52 inches of rain fell at Kentfield after February 24. Consequently, many steelhead are holed-up in the Corte Madera Creek watershed and they will likely stay until the autumn rains. Experts at the National Marine Fisheries Service, SPAWN, the EPA, and UC Davis say that the Bridge Street fish have likely spawned successfully and are pausing in the course of their downstream migration to the estuary and ocean. The question that time will answer is whether these steelhead can survive a summer and fall in the creek. The challenge for the steelhead is that they tend to feed little or not at all in freshwater, living off stored energy. Furthermore, as water temperatures rise, the steelhead will burn more and more energy. At some point, they can just run out of fuel even though water temperatures are below lethal levels. Other threats include poaching, predation by otters, raccoons or birds, general cumulative stress, and water main spills. In light of these problems, it is natural look at the giant steelhead at Bridge Street in the shrinking creek and think that they are in terrible peril and in need of help. Yet it is their offspring, the just-hatched, inch-long fry, that are in true jeopardy and worthy of our aid. The adult steelhead have probably spawned successfully; they have made another generation of fish. Even if they die, they will provide sustenance to other members of their species and the creek ecosystem. It is the fry and other young steelhead/rainbow trout that are just beginning to struggle with water scarcity and impaired water quality, among many other problems. These little fellows are not as easy to see as a two foot long steelhead. So when we look at the big steelhead at Bridge Street and elsewhere, we should remember that they have entrusted their progeny to the care of the Ross Valley. If we help these fish by practicing good creek stewardship such as not pumping water from the creek, we may be rewarded with more big fish on a regular basis and an increasingly vibrant creek ecosystem.

Flood Migitation and the Ross Valley Watershed Program

Suits filed by Ford Greene and Marin United Taxpayers Association against the storm drainage fee are working their way through the courts. However, to avoid long delays in beginning work on the Ross Valley Watershed Program, on April 15, 2008 the Board of Supervisors voted to authorize spending up to $1.3 million to launch the program. The proposes work program consists of studies of the largest items requiring attention in flood zone 9 (e.g., detention basins, dredging, increasing creek capacity) and items with immediate benefits, such as creek maintenance, help for private homeowners, and public outreach. Requests for proposals will probably be issued sometime in summer 2008.

Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project

If Congress allocates funding to the US Army Corps of Engineers, work will continue on the Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project, increasing the capacity of the concrete channel and the natural channel upstream of it in Ross and improving fish passage in Kentfield and Ross. We expect the scoping meeting for the NEPA and CEQA review to be held in 2008, although it has been delayed several times.

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. We are severely constrained because nearly all programs require significant matching funds, and the Ross Valley Watershed Program would provide most of those. The list below includes proposals currently under review by the grantors.

1. Ross Creek Habitat Enhancement Planning, submitted to Fisheries Restoration Grant Program, California Department of Fish and Game Fish Stamp Program
$60,000 Requested; $120,000 Total Budget
This project would identify and develop conceptual designs for specific projects to improve riparian vegetation, canopy cover, structure, and water temperature in Ross Creek; develop a control plan for invasive non-native fish; conduct public outreach and identify willing landowners; install two stream gages, measure flow, develop preliminary rating curves, and evaluate potential releases from Phoenix Lake; characterize temperature and water quality in Phoenix Lake and Ross Creek as the first step in evaluating the long-term feasibility of water releases from Ross Creek to benefit steelhead in Ross Creek. Seed money for this project was provided by two Ross residents.

Pending Contracts

1. Ecology Study Area Enhancement and Culvert Repair, submitted to California Coastal Conservancy
$124,000 Requested; $221,000 Total Budget
This project includes three components: culvert repair, continued habitat enhancement, and water quality monitoring. The Flood Control District will repair culverts leading to the Berens Slough and the Cut-off Slough around the Ecology Study Area. Culvert repair would entail three steps: cleaning out the existing impaired culverts, installing inserts to restore the design flow of the original culverts, and planting native wetland and upland vegetation in the areas disturbed by construction.
Volunteers and Marin Conservation Corps (MCC) crews would continue removing Vinca, blackberry, broom, and smaller eucalyptus and black acacia trees. We will also install more native plants and extend the irrigation system, order materials, and continue maintenance of the site. Friends will prepare a monitoring plan and monitor water and air temperature, conductivity, and pH in each slough and in the main channel. This will establish baseline water quality parameters. Other parameters may also be measured. Monitoring would continue after the culverts are repaired to quantify changes that result from improved circulation.

Active Contracts

1. Invasive Spartina Project, funded by the California Coastal Conservancy $84,000 provided by the Coastal Conservancy for the 2008 treatment season. Scope: Friends are 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. Design and Permitting of Barrier Treatment for Saunders, Lansdale, and Pastori 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; permitting will be pursued for construction at Lansdale Station. Treatment of the Saunders Avenue barrier is not feasible until the Ross Valley Sanitary District agrees to lower or relocate the sewer that controls the upstream elevation of the fishway at that location. We are discussing with National Fish and Wildlife Foundation how to proceed with the permit process for Saunders Avenue.

3. Larkspur Creekside Revegetation and Restoration, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.
$15,000 from USFWS; $30,600 Total Budget
The goal is to improve habitat for the California clapper rail, a federally listed species, by removing non-native invasive species and installing both upland and wetland plants. This effort builds on the Invasive Spartina Project’s work on removing the abundant non-native cordgrass on this site. Success in the upland areas has been good. However, our efforts in the tidal areas have been compromised by grazing domestic geese that a Mill Valley resident feeds near the upstream end of the project. These geese ate nearly all the newly planted saltgrass and gumplant on the same day they were planted.

4. Final Design for Lansdale Barrier Removal at San Anselmo Creek, submitted to National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund $100,000 Total Budget
Center-aligned angled baffles would be placed along the right bay of the box culvert and continue through the right side of the arch culvert. A sill would be placed inside the left bay to concentrate lower flows into the baffled bay. The top of 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 side wall would be built 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. Native riparian vegetation would be planted on all disturbed areas. We also are proposing to extend the revegetation of San Anselmo property upstream of the culvert.



Sandra Guldman President, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed


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

Articles about ecology, history and planning issues in the Corte Madera Creek watershed appear regularly in Friends' twice-yearly newsletter, Creek Chronicles, and in monthly columns in the Twin Cities Times and Ross Valley Reporter, weekly newspapers published by Marin Scope Inc. The authors are Friends members and guest contributors. The date given for each article is the date the material appeared under the name of Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.

Current issue of Creek Chronicles: newsletter7.08.pdf (701k)



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)
Cape Ivy (2006) (91k)
California Coastal Cleanup (2005) (56k)
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)
Fire Road and Trail Maintenance (2004) (96k)
Geese on the Loose (2007) (117k)
Good Neighbor on Olema Road (2007) (96k)
The Latest on Water Quality Testing (2006) (135k)
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)
Creekside Park Walk (2001) (17k)
Discordgrass (2001) (52k)
Getting Rid of a Green Invader (2006) (179k)
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)
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)

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)
Flooding: The Current Situation (2006) (13k)
Flooding and the Ross Valley Watershed Program (2007) (18k)
Just Say No to Corps Plan - Watershed-wide Solution Needed (2000) (13k)
Local Creek Setbacks Generally Ineffective (2003) (16k)
Protection for the Creek and Bay (2001) (43k)
Studies Point the Way Ahead (2000) (13k)
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.

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