by Sandy Guldman

Clockwise from top left: a Glissman Excavating crew installs forms for the fishway walls, as engineers check the work; giant reed was removed from a relatively steep slope, subsequently covered with erosion-control matting, into which a CCNB crew installs native plants; Sandy Guldman demonstrates that darning skills still have a place; the completed fishway, visible from Center Boulevard. Photos by Sandy Guldman and Charles Kennard

From late June until mid-October 2012, the first major project in our watershed to remove a barrier to fish passage, the Lansdale Fish Passage Improvement Project, was implemented, after ten years of planning. The project was funded by the California Department of Fish and Game’s Fishery Restoration Grant Program. The Town of San Anselmo was the lead agency, with construction management by Stetson Engineers and project management by Friends of Corte Madera Creek.

The project includes a number of features to help fish at all life-stages move up and down the stream, winter and summer. The first job was to install fish screens to keep fish out of the work area. The contractor, Glissman Excavating, filled sandbags and built two temporary dams between the fish screens to limit the amount of water in the work area. Between the two dams, water flowed through a diversion pipe around the work area. In July, Glissman installed baffles to form pools in one side of the culverts. August was occupied by drilling pilings and tie-backs to support structures. The pool-and-drop fishway, immediately downstream of Center Boulevard, was constructed in September. The sandbag dams were removed October 9 and water began filling the finished project.

Post-construction work includes planting in areas disturbed during construction and monitoring creek flow. Friends planned and will maintain the planting, which was installed by a Conservation Corps North Bay crew. More than 400 plants will receive drip irrigation during dry seasons for three years.

One part of monitoring is to take photos using two time-lapse cameras. One camera is fastened to a tree downstream of the fishway; a second is on the bank above the fishway. These photos will be used by the design team to evaluate flows in the fishway. On the cameras we hope to capture spawning steelhead this winter, jumping up the new fishway on their way to now more accessible upper reaches of San Anselmo Creek.

by Ann Thomas

Marin Municipal Water District and the California Academy of Sciences are jointly mapping Mount Tamalpais’s botanical riches, in an effort to learn how plants adapt to the evolving climate, and to engage the public in the science that generates this information. The program, dubbed a “bioblitz,” entails volunteer field work to compile data on district lands over a three-year period which began in 2012.

The varied terrain of MMWD lands sustains around 900 native and non-native plants. From the Pine Mountain Fire Road one has a distant view of White’s Hill, a corner point of our watershed. Photo by Charles Kennard

The MMWD Bioblitz will attempt to document all plant species currently present on Mount Tam as a benchmark against which to assess future distribution shifts. MMWD and Academy volunteers, non-professionals who are trained as citizen scientists, perform the field work during one-day sweeps in which they cover a defined portion of Mount Tam to observe, identify and either photograph or take a sample of every plant species on the site. The process is similar to an archaeological dig, and volunteers are accompanied and guided by botanists and educators from the water district and the Academy.

On a typical bioblitz day the perimeter of the day’s work is first marked out. The site is then surveyed by volunteers who mark plant specimens. These are then color coded by a leader to indicate whether they should be photographed only, or both photographed and collected. Only plants that are flowering or fruiting are collected, since the reproductive parts are important in identification. Other plants are just photographed.

The Mount Tamalpais Bioblitz project began when MMWD approached the Academy when looking for an organization that would house MMWD’s collection of herbarium specimens. It was coincidence that the Academy was at that time embarking upon a year of citizen science projects and MMWD happened to fit the criteria of a terrestrial project for which the Academy was searching.

Academy literature describes the Mount Tamalpais watershed as a “biodiversity paradise.” MMWD manages about 18,000 acres of the mountain and, along with providing drinking water to most of Marin County and overseeing recreational uses on their lands, the district is caretaker for one of the state’s most important botanical preserves.

The Academy, located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, is the oldest museum in the West, and a leading research and educational institution with a collection of more than 26 million specimens dating from the late 1800s. The Mount Tamalpais Bioblitz is part of the Academy’s Citizen Science Initiative, which is funded by S D Bechtel Jr. Foundation.

MMWD is also working with the California Native Plant Society to map rare plants on Mount Tam, and with UC Berkeley’s Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab to detect the spread of Sudden Oak Death on watershed lands.

Four Bioblitz days were held in 2012 during which about 80 volunteers covered a third of the total area to be surveyed, recording about 650 observations of more than 350 of the 900 or so species known to occur on the watershed. The volunteers are evenly divided between MMWD’s cadre of habitat volunteers and those from the Academy.

by Sandy Guldman

 Work has started on designing the replacement of a worn out, undersized culvert connecting the downstream end of Creekside marsh to Corte Madera Creek. The new, larger culvert will help us meet two major goals for Creekside marsh: improving habitat for birds and other wildlife that use the marsh, and increasing the tidal prism (the volume of water flowing between mean high tide and mean low tide). The latter will maintain the capacity of the marsh’s sloughs—and reduce the need for dredging Corte Madera Creek. The project is being funded through a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP), authorized by the Regional Water Quality Control Board as part of a fine assessed on Ross Valley Sanitary District for large sewage spills in December 2010.  The team, including Friends, Stetson Engineers and WRA, is working with Marin County Parks and Marin County Flood Control District to design the project. Major issues are poor soils and their role in plant distribution, impacts of more water on vegetation and marsh morphology, and the potential for increasing the risk of flooding.

Downstream end of the old culvert. Photo by Sandy Guldman

The area most impacted by the culvert is the narrow panhandle in the southeastern part of Hal Brown Park at Creekside, bounded by Bon Air Road and the multi-use path along Corte Madera Creek. The marsh was filled with dredge spoils when the Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project was constructed in the late 1960s; when it was restored about 15 years later, some areas were left with compacted, gravelly soil unsuitable for marsh vegetation. Now, about 35 years later, these areas are still unvegetated. And the undersized culvert, which mutes tidal action in the marsh, has allowed some channels to fill. We will be including measures to replace the unsuitable soil and promote restoration of the original channels. A future project will replace a group of culverts that serves the upstream end of the marsh. Stay tuned for developments in a future issues of Creek Chronicles and on our website.

Former channel, now filled with sediment where Jaumea, saltgrass, and pickleweed grow. Photo by Sandy Guldman

by Gerhard Epke

In the last issue of Creek Chronicles I presented a list of creek viewing sites located in the northern portion of our watershed. In this one I describe a few special locations in the watershed’s middle portion—San Anselmo, Ross, and Kentfield. True to the altered character of this region, the following list showcases a reservoir, areas prone to flooding, historic channels, and a 2000-foot concrete channel that extends into the tidal area.
Sorich Creek
1. Memorial Park Sorich Creek originates in the open space at the end of San Francisco Boulevard, but is hidden on private property or underground for most of its length. It flows right through Memorial Park and Redhill Shopping Center, just one steel grate providing evidence of its presence. The Dugout Bar, with free creekside shuffleboard and billiards, is a good location to see Sorich Creek these days. The Flood Control District and San Anselmo are moving forward with a plan to lower Memorial Park into a flood detention basin, which would daylight the creek from here to Sunny Hills Drive.
San Anselmo Creek

Sais Footbridge, spanning 75 feet, is made of laminated lumber, and lacks abutments that can catch debris during floods. Photo by Charles Kennard

2. Sais Footbridge This high wooden bridge, which connects Sais Avenue with Karl Avenue, is a beautiful spot to stand above the creek, and adjacent steps provide access for exploring the creek bed. See if you can find a willow wall upstream. Downstream of the bridge, where the creek makes a sharp left turn, is the location of a logjam in the 1860s that caused the creek to jump its bank and carve its present course to join Sorich Creek.
3. Bridge Street Downstream of Bridge Street is probably the deepest pool in the watershed. On the flagpole in front of the Fire Station tape marks indicate the heights of the two most devastating recent floods. The fire station also maintains the water level gauge, visible on the building downstream of the bridge. The Fire Department posts the river height to their website every 15 minutes; a link to it can be found on the Town website.
4. Creek Park and Building Bridges The footbridges, pathways, and benches around Creek Park in San Anselmo offer excellent opportunities for exploring the creek. Notice how small the cross-sectional areas below some of the buildings are. Removal of two buildings in particular would alleviate a significant percentage of the flooding in the rest of town.
5. Summer Ditch Historic Channel Across the street from 75 San Rafael Avenue, a remnant of the historic channel is still visible. The story of this channel, mentioned above, was told by geomorphologist Laurel Collins, in a lecture that can be viewed through the Ross Valley Flood Control District website. Could this legacy provide clues about how to relieve the Town’s current flood woes?
Ross Creek

Panorama of Phoenix Lake, by Gary Leo

6. Natalie Coffin Greene Park Nestled in the redwoods along Ross Creek, Natalie Coffin Greene Park is a gem for hikers, bikers, and picnickers alike. Phoenix Lake, which sits a short hike away from the parking lot, will be retrofitted to act as another floodwater detention basin. Phoenix Lake’s two main tributaries are Bill Williams and Phoenix creeks, both of which make good exploring.
7. The Branson School The students at Branson School are fortunate to have a vibrant creek flowing through their campus, although it tends to dry up in May. Access to this reach is also good at the end of Hilgirt Drive and Southwood Avenue.
Corte Madera Creek (The name of the main creek changes at the confluence of San Anselmo and Ross Creeks.)
8. Lagunitas Road Bridge Downtown Ross has an abundance of interesting creek features to see. A short distance downstream of the Ross Post Office is the beginning of the concrete channel built in the late 1960s by the Army Corps of Engineers. If you stand on the Lagunitas Road Bridge and look downstream at the left bank, you can see a great example of a streambank stabilization design which also provides good habitat. The US Geological Survey gauging station, used to collect stream flow data, is located upstream from the bridge, behind the fire station.
Kittle Creek

Kittle Creek, Marin Art and Garden Center. Photo by Charles Kennard

9. Marin Art and Garden Center Kittle Creek cuts through the beautiful gardens here, dodging under buildings and bridges. See if you can follow the creek all the way across the property. Restoration of native vegetation along the creek was initiated a decade ago.