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Topics discussed on this page include: Adopt-a-Creek, Creek Cleanup, CreekWatchers, Fairfax Creek Survey, Habitat Restoration Projects, Water Quality Testing
Habitat Restoration Projects
Projects on private property, where Friends may serve in an advisory role, generally call for professional labor and more significant funding. Friends is in the planning stages of two such projects that also require engineering expertise and various permits and approvals.
Friends of Corte Madera Creek is managing five volunteer-run revegetation projects on school and college property adjacent to creeks.
Funding has been provided by the Marin County Wildlife and Fisheries Advisory Committee.
Sleepy Hollow Creek
Funding has been provided by the Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program.
For more information:
Funding of the early planning phases was provided by the San Francisco Estuary Project. Funding for implementation has been provided by the Willis Evans Watershed Habitat Improvement Grant Program of the Marin Municipal Water District. Water for the temporary drip system is donated by the Ross Valley Sanitary District.
For more information:
Funding has been provided by the LEF Foundation, and water for initial irrigation by the Ross Valley School District.
The ISP has researched eradication methods and has followed standard Integrated Pest Management protocols to develop the current treatment techniques. In many locations, spraying individual plants with an herbicide containing the active ingredient imazapyr is the most effective method, causing the least disturbance to the marsh. Where it is feasible, we have dug up clumps of invasive Spartina. The ISP has carefully documented the project, including the staff's thorough analysis of the various treatment methods; the documentation is available on ISP's website at www.spartina.org
We carried out a pilot project at Piper Park in Larkspur starting in 2002. In 2005 and 2006 we treated most of the infestations in the Corte Madera Creek estuary, except for a few isolated spots where individual property owners were reluctant to participate. Follow-up treatments (preferably digging) will be done over the next few years to complete the project. Crews from the Marin Conservation Corps did the digging and we hired licensed contractors for the spraying. For almost all of our watershed, the treatment season is September through January, as we cannot enter known California clapper rail breeding habitat during the bird's breeding season.. Another limitation is that we cannot spray after the plants have started dying back for the winter, so that this treatment is limited to September and the first half of October.
We wish to thank all those property owners who have participated in this project, the aim of which is to maintain the richness of plant and animal life in our marshes.
One award to Friends will be used to assess barriers to steelhead passage in our watershed. A team of engineers and fish biologists will address three different problems that steelhead encounter when they are migrating and when they seek out deep, cool pools necessary for their survival during the summer and early fall. These are: inadequate resting pools in the concrete channel in Kentfield and Ross; a poorly designed fish ladder and unstable streambanks immediately upstream of the concrete channel; and other barriers caused by culverts and low dams that keep fish from moving easily between spawning and summer rearing habitat.
Conceptual designs for improving the resting pools in the concrete channel and replacing the fish ladder and improving bank stability immediately upstream of the concrete channel will also be developed.
The second award will fund the design and permitting necessary to replace two old fish ladders on San Anselmo Creek; one is at Saunders Avenue in San Anselmo and the second in Fairfax at Pastori Avenue. Although some steelhead can get through these two fish ladders, neither meets the current standards for fish passage used by NOAA Fisheries and California Department of Fish and Game.
For both projects, Friends has assembled a team of well-qualified experts, including Stetson Engineers Inc., Michael Love Associates, and Ross Taylor and Associates. They will be joined for the permitting work on the second project by Garcia and Associates, Inc., and A.A. Rich and Associates. Friends and the teams assembled to do this work will coordinate closely with the Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and the towns of Ross, San Anselmo, and Fairfax where the studies will take place.
For more information:
By watching a section of stream weekly from land or water, community volunteers identify and report observations and unusual incidents such as polluting spills or illicit discharges. Problems are then addressed by Friends or the appropriate government agency. As CreekWatchers learn to spot threats to creek health, they also become familiar with natural seasonal occurrences that take place in their section of the creek and throughout the watershed.
Creekwatchers learn about the sources of creek pollution by participating in on-site training and surveys. They seek out the origins of runoff from landscaping, leaky cars, and swimming pools. They locate areas of erosion and sedimention, identify water diversions, observe alterations to creek banks and pinpoint areas where litter is repeatedly dumped or collects. Specific observations have included extensive algae along the margins of lower Corte Madera Creek, piles of dirt that had been excavated from the creek bank and dumped at the top of the bank without a permit in San Anselmo, a car battery left alarmingly close to the edge of the creek, heaps of compost dumped on the creek bank through the negligence of a gardener, paint brush slurry washed into the creek, and radiator coolant being hosed off the asphalt into a storm drain in San Anselmo. When appropriate, Friends will meet with the person who appears to be responsible, providing information and alternatives; in other cases, public agencies are the best avenues for addressing problems.
Sightings of plants and animals in and along the creek are recorded. CreekWatchers have noted steelhead resting in quiet pools, fish migrations, fledgling birds, a visiting river otter, sticklebacks at their algal nests, wildflowers in bloom on the creek bank, and carp and California skate in the tidal section of the creek.
Individuals may either adopt a section of creek immediately adjacent to Corte Madera Creek or one of its tributaries, or take on a site further away from the creek. Upland areas are adoptable for planting native vegetation to increase biodiversity, to control erosion and creek sedimentation and to reduce the fire hazard.
Friends and neighbors may join together to help with a project, or individuals may do the work themselves, hire a contractor, or finance the purchase of plants and other supplies. Friends will provide support. We will meet with you and your group to discuss possible locations and projects, and how to carry out a project. We will provide educational materials and resources, including a list of appropriate native plants for creek banks and upland areas, and advise you when additional expertise is needed from an engineer or hydrologist. Initially we will provide help to individuals and groups interested in working along Fairfax Creek. Participation will be acknowledged in local newspapers and in our newsletter Creek Chronicles.
This project has been funded by the Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (MCSTOPPP) Cleanwater Stewardship Grant Program.
Fairfax Creek Survey
Fairfax Creek parallels Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and collects water from the slopes of White's Hill, Loma Alta, and the hills east of Camp Tamarancho. It passes through downtown Fairfax in a long culvert before reaching its confluence with San Anselmo Creek behind Dominga Avenue. Wet season flows create lateral scour pools and shallow riffles throughout Fairfax Creek, and deposit gravel, sand, and silt. At the end of the dry season there is little flow, but still a number of connected pools. The banks have abundant vegetative cover.
During the summers of 2000-2003, Friends' CreekWatchers surveyed and mapped 69 sites along its populated length. Participants developed these maps to provide themselves, agency staff, property owners, environmental organizations, and political bodies with a picture of the creek, and locations along the creek that have restoration potential. The maps also provide baseline conditions so when a restoration project is undertaken, the results of these efforts can be measured.
Survey teams began the mapping project near Dominga Avenue, at the confluence of San Anselmo and Fairfax creeks and proceeded upstream along Fairfax Creek towards its headwaters. Taking measurements of sequential 100 ft. sections, volunteers noted: direction of creek flow; creek width; the depth and location of pools and riffles; substrate; the condition of creek banks and the location and type of creek bank stabilization structures; sightings of wildlife; the land-use of adjacent banks; the estimated width of the riparian area, its vegetation and the location of trees; the approximate distance of buildings and fences from the top of the creek bank; and the location of diversion pipes and outfalls. A photographic survey supplemented written records.
This project was funded by MCSTOPPP.
For more information:
Volunteers have participated in the following activities:
For more information:
Friends of Corte Madera Creek's first creek cleanup was held in 1996 in the tidal section of Corte Madera Creek, and with the help of Trout Unlimited, Marin Recycling, and Marin Outdoors, we picked up hundreds of tennis balls, mountains of Styrofoam, old tires and other trash, a hypodermic needle, rat poison and a bottle with a message (the content of which history doesn't relate). Friends organizes an annual cleanup of the tidal marshes of the Corte Madera Creek as our contribution to the state-wide Coastal Cleanup Day each September. The City of Larkspur and the Town of Corte Madera help by picking up and disposing of the trash, and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District allows us to use the ferry terminal parking lot for staging our cleanup.
Since the flood of 1982 municipalities upstream have organized annual cleanups that take place before the winter rains, to remove trash, and the woody debris and low-hanging branches that are considered impediments to flood water. The benefits of leaving natural debris and low-hanging branches are often overlooked: low branches reduce water velocity and so limit bank erosion, while fallen trees are an essential part of a good fish habitat.
To participate in Friends' late summer cleanup, watch for information in the calendar section of our website or in Creek Chronicles. For information on fall creek cleanups in Fairfax and San Anselmo call each town's volunteer coordinator; for information regarding Ross, contact the Department of Public Works.
Links indicated on this Web site may require Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 to be operative. Download the program free from Adobe
Through habitat restoration projects, Friends of Corte Madera Creek has an opportunity to make tangible and dramatic improvements to the watershed's natural environment at a small scale, and often at the same time to involve the community in exemplary and satisfying projects. Some of these projects depend upon volunteer labor and modest grants to cover the costs of plants, planting supplies and temporary irrigation systems; limited professional help may be hired to, for example, remove non-native trees.
Larkspur Creek
Shown here: Redwood High School students clearing fennel; view up Larkspur Creek from Doherty Drive.
Begun in the fall of 1996, this cooperative endeavor with Mitch Cohen's Redwood High School classes and the City of Larkspur has led to the revegetation of one bank of a largely tidal section of Larkspur Creek between Doherty Drive and Meadowood Drive. The artificial channel is about 1500 feet long, cuts through filled marshland, and bounds the Niven property on two sides. In the first season we removed acacia and pampas grass from the lower section, and we continue the eradication of French broom and fennel; a few acacias remain in the upstream section. The exposed location and poor soil are challenges for revegetation, so plantings have been restricted to 6 species of trees (mainly coast live oak and willow), 7 species of shrubs and vines, and 4 species of grasses, sedges and rushes. As these species grow and provide shade and leaf litter, the environment should become more hospitable to a wider variety of plants.
Shown here: Sleepy Hollow Creek before work began;
Sleepy Hollow Creek, the same view three years later.
Our most varied and successful restoration project is on the Drake High School Campus in San Anselmo. Since the fall of 1997 we have been working with Sue Fox's students in the SEA DISC Academy on an 830-foot section of Sleepy Hollow Creek between Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Saunders Avenue. Each year, the academy's new students survey existing vegetation, remove invasive non-native plants, and recommend and install native plantings. The site was originally dominated by acacia, plum, and blackberry, and had suffered a landslide. In the years since we have planted 13 species of trees, 25 species of shrubs and vines, and 24 species of grasses, sedges, ferns and forbs. Approximately 180 native and non-native plant species have been observed, including the showy native broomrape Orobanche vallicola, last reported in the Ross Valley in 1924. Alders planted in 1997 are now over 45 feet tall, and luxuriant willows too have transformed the creek environment into a habitat nurturing a much more diverse wildlife.
DrakeHighPlants.pdf (67 KB)
College of Marin Ecology Study Area
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Click for map of Ecology Study Area
Shown here: The Ecology Study Area lies across the channel;
French broom filled open areas; a newly planted area.
This woodland site covers 2 acres adjacent to the multi-use path that links the college and Marin General Hospital, and is bounded by Corte Madera Creek and a tidal slough. We initiated the project in 1998 by pulling broom and installing a small number of coyote brush plants and oaks. It has developed into a cooperative effort with the College of Marin, and has as a goal the eventual replacement of eucalyptuses and acacias with oaks, buckeyes, willows, and other native trees and shrubs, to create a diverse woodland of native species. A large area was cleared and replanted with nearly 400 plants in early 2005. A survey has been conducted to ensure that roosting herons and egrets will be disturbed as little as is possible.
PlantIDInvasivePlants.pdf (332 KB)
PlantIDNativeShrubs&Vines.pdf (318 KB)
PlantIDNativeTrees.pdf (344 KB)
Recommended Native Riparian Plants (Word document/332 KB)
Fairfax Creek
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Shown here: White Hill students plant sedge by Fairfax Creek.
Friends’ newest habitat restoration project is at White Hill Middle School, where five classes and their teacher, Celia Cuomo, are working with us on upper Fairfax Creek. The creek—inaccessible to salmonids above downtown Fairfax—lies between the school and its games field, and has one steep bank lined with bays and non-native plum trees, and an opposite more gently sloping bank dominated by oaks and willows. In November 2004, after clearing blackberries and broom from a section of the gentler slope, we installed 18 species of native plants, including buckeye, oak, elderberry, toyon, rose, and fern. We plan to extend the project in successive years.
Invasive Spartina Eradication
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Shown here: The Marin Conservation Corps has been working throughout the estuary.
Friends are participating in a project that is underway throughout the tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay to eradicate invasive non-native cordgrasses (Spartina spp.). We have received funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy's Invasive Spartina Project (ISP) to work toward eliminating three species of introduced cordgrass in our estuary. These very destructive plants alter both the structure and function of tidal creeks and wetlands, hurting bird, mammal and fish species of special concern. Invasive cordgrasses also clog open channels and reduce navigability of waterways.
Fish Habitat Improvement
Shown here: The concrete channel in Ross; photo by Lou Vaccaro. Fish ladder under Saunders Avenue, San Anselmo; photo by Charles Kennard.
Friends received two awards in 2005 from the San Francisco Bay Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund to improve fish habitat in Corte Madera Creek and its tributaries in the Ross Valley. The awards were made by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), the California Department of Fish and Game, and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The funds were provided by Caltrans as required mitigation for possible impacts on steelhead and salmon from pile driving and other activities undertaken as part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project. The funds are being used to benefit salmonids in central and south San Francisco Bay watersheds.
BarrierAssessment.pdf (1273 KB)
FishLadderReplacement.pdf (99 KB)
CreekWatchers
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Shown here: CreekWatchers measure a reach in Peri Park, Fairfax.
Monitoring stream health is a challenging task that, in this age of limited government resources, needs a volunteer component to supplement local agency programs. Friends' program CreekWatchers helps to identify creek problems and natural trends so that we may all work to improve the creek's health and vitality.
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Shown here: This confluence of creeks in Fairfax is a potential restoration site.
To preserve and enhance our creeks and riparian areas, Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed encourages individuals, groups and businesses to participate in the Adopt-a-Creek program by choosing from a myriad of activities. These include cleaning up the creek, maintaining fish ladders, planting native creekside vegetation, and removing non-native plants. More complex structural creek improvements could involve increasing the width of creekside buffer zones to accommodate native vegetation and improve water quality, improving fish ladders and other barriers to fish migration, and increasing the width of the creek channel to allow the creek to meander and more efficiently carry storm flows. Landscape design projects could involve increasing rainwater infiltration by replacing non-permeable parking spaces and walkways with permeable materials, and allowing water from downspouts to permeate into the soil.
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Shown here: CreekWatchers on Fairfax Creek. Photo by Gary Leo.
In 1999 A. A. Rich and Associates conducted a study of fish in most of the tributaries to the Corte Madera Creek system, but Fairfax Creek received only cursory study due to the constraints of time and funding. Also, there is a long culvert at the downstream end of Fairfax Creek that is a complete barrier to migration for steelhead. On the premise that Fairfax Creek could support rainbow trout if the creek's condition were improved, Friends began a general survey of the creek in 2000.
San Anselmo Creeks Survey (pdf)
Water Quality Testing
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Shown here: Students from Ross School participate in water quality testing.
Friends of Corte Madera Creek strives to ensure that we can safely use our creek for recreation, and that fish and wildlife have high quality habitats. To this end, volunteers assist specialists to sample and test water so that problems can be identified and solutions developed to improve water quality. Our volunteer teams work with them to determine the presence and concentration of bacteria and to measure basic water quality characteristics. Every year students from local high schools assist in our efforts by doing their own classroom water quality testing.
E. coli and Enterococcus Testing
In the summer of 2003, Friends began semi-annual water testing in Corte Madera Creek and its tributaries to measure concentrations of the bacteria E. coli and Enterococcus. These bacteria are found only in the digestive tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans, and epidemiological studies demonstrate that, while not necessarily pathogenic themselves, they correlate with gastrointestinal illness in swimmers and are indicators of water contamination.
Friends Creekwatchers collected water samples once a week for five weeks, generally in summer and winter, and samples were transported to a lab for testing. To ensure quality assurance and quality control, Friends used EPA Standard Operating Procedure #1106-Standard Operating Procedure for Volunteer Monitoring of Surface Waters for Bacteria. With the exception of summer of 2004, samples were tested for total coliform bacteria, E. coli and Enterococcus. E. coli was used as an indicator in freshwater reaches of creek while Enterococcus, more tolerant of saline conditions, was measured in tidal sections near San Francisco Bay. Test results were evaluated using the following federal contact recreational criteria: saltwater concentrations of Enterococcus must not exceed 35 MPN/100ml, and freshwater concentrations of E. coli must not exceed 126 MPN/100ml. (MPN = Most Probable Number is used in standard testing methods to account for the variability in the distribution of bacteria in a sample. MPN is expressed as a number of bacteria per milliliter. Freshwater test results were also evaluated using the state non-contact recreation standard of less than 2000 fecal coliform/100 ml.)
Sampling results are highly variable because concentrations of bacteria typically change in response to changes in temperature and rainfall, come from unpredictable and variable sources, and have a tendency to be unevenly distributed in water.
The following narrative describes each season's testing sites and a summary of the results.
Summer of 2003: Staff of the Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 Laboratory in Richmond helped Friends' volunteers collect water samples and then tested the samples and analyzed the results. Samples were taken at nine sites throughout the watershed. All the sites are listed in the table of results and shown on the maps.
Tests showed that all creeks in the watershed, with the exception of Deer Park Creek, met the California standard for non-contact recreation. Deer Park Creek, a series of isolated shallow pools in summer, with a concentration of 2600 MPN, may have been contaminated with E. coli from a leaking sewage system or by bacteria containing sediment that was inadvertently stirred up at the bottom of pools during sample collection. Samples taken in Larkspur Creek exceeded the EPA full-body contact criterion for saltwater with a concentration of 77 MPN.
Winter 2003-2004: The EPA laboratory tested samples collected by Friends' volunteers at thirteen sites. Typically more sites are tested in the winter because more creeks are flowing in that season.
All freshwater sites had concentrations that met state standards for non-contact recreation. All tested areas immediately downstream of stables met state and federal criteria for bathing standards and were among six of the eleven areas with the lowest concentrations of bacteria. In the tidal section of creek, results were less favorable than those from the freshwater sections. At Larkspur Creek the mean winter concentration of Enterococcus was 690 MPN, higher than in summer of 2003 and greatly exceeding the EPA standard for contact recreation of 35 MPN. Likewise on Corte Madera Creek at Bon Air Bridge, the concentration was 59 MPN, indicating that there may be impacts from non-point bacterial sources such as geese or dogs adjacent to the site or from a less visible source, such as leaking sewers.
Summer of 2004: We tested eleven sites, four in saltwater and seven in freshwater in an effort to pinpoint sources of E. coli in the tidally influenced section of creek where the highest concentrations of bacteria were observed during previous test periods. Of the three Corte Madera Creek sites, the site below Bon Air Bridge had the highest concentrations of bacteria. The mean concentration of E. coli was 290 MPN, exceeding the state bathing standard of 200 MPN. Along Larkspur Creek, the Doherty site was also high, with a concentration of 140 MPN. We compared concentrations during incoming and outgoing tides at the Corte Madera Creek and Larkspur Creek sites and found that when the tide ebbs, concentrations of E. coli are generally higher.
No freshwater sites exceeded the state's non-contact standard of 2000 MPN; however Sorich Creek was right at the limit, and Sleep Hollow Creek followed behind with concentrations of 650 MPN.
Winter 2004-2005: EPA Region 9 Laboratory tested samples from twelve sites. Overall, we found that the results at all freshwater sites met state standards of fecal coliform for non-contact recreation and were consistent with trends seen in other communities: downstream sites on the main stem and tributaries generally had higher concentrations of E. coli than upstream sites. Corte Madera Creek in Ross at 450 MPN had higher concentrations of E. coli than at other freshwater sites, although samples were still within the state non-contact recreation standards. Concentrations from Larkspur Creek were also relatively high at 440 MPN, but were within acceptable standards. Dry weather-with only one rainy day-had an impact on our results. When we compared results of the wet-day sampling to those of dry days, we found that on the wet day E. coli concentrations at most sites were considerably higher. Two sites had much higher concentrations than all other sites, Sleepy Hollow Creek just downstream of San Domenico stables and Larkspur Creek downstream of Cane Street.
Testing on Corte Madera Creek well downstream of Bon Air bridge revealed low E. coli and Enterococcus concentrations.
Summer of 2005: The Marin County Public Health Lab tested samples during this season. To best characterize pollutant contributions from tributaries and side channels, samples were collected when the tide ranged from 0.9 ft to 2.0 ft, (a fairly low tide at the mouth of Corte Madera Creek).
Of fourteen sites tested, twelve were located between the lower boundary of the concrete flood control channel in Kentfield and the Marin Rowing Association dock in Larkspur; two sites were located upstream in the freshwater section of creek, one in Ross behind the town hall and the other in the County's Cascade Canyon Open Space area.
Of the fourteen sites, concentrations of bacteria from Ross Town Hall and from eight downstream sites (the Concrete Channel, Tamalpais Creek Culvert, College of Marin Field, Hillview Gardens, Lower Creekside Park, Posts and Pipes Bon Air and Bon Air Road Cypress), all on Corte Madera Creek, were not within contact standards. Only results from the four sites nearest the mouth of the creek, where the creek is diluted by bay water, and results from Cascade Canyon were within acceptable safe limits for contact recreation.
Although the site at Hillview Gardens showed the highest concentrations of Enterococcus and the site directly downstream of Bon Air bridge showed the second highest mean concentration, we will not know, until we perform additional tests, if bacteria are coming from wildlife and pets, or from human waste. It is worth noting that on weeks three and five, bacterial concentrations were quite high and may have been the result of sewage spills.
WaterQualityTables.pdf (25 KB)
NorthernHalfAerial.pdf (213 KB)
SouthernHalfAerial.pdf (192 KB)
TidalArea.pdf (243 KB)
Creek Cleanup
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Shown here: Tides deposit much of the litter found near the mouth of the creek.
With approximately 20 miles of creeks running through urban areas, it's no wonder that a considerable amount of litter accumulates in our waterways. Additional litter is brought into our estuary by the tide and deposited in the salt marshes. Litter is not only unsightly, but also covers vegetation and can trap or poison wildlife.
Articles relating to topics covered on this page may be found in Creek News.
Photo in logo: Drake High School students construct a basket to control erosion.
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.