Creek Chronicles

Creek Chronicles Archive

Browse past Creek Chronicles articles by topic.

Creek Care & Erosion Control

• Creek Consciousness (2002)
• Adventures in Garbage (2003)
• Unseen Benefits of Good Road and Trail Maintenance (2004)
• California Coastal Cleanup Enthusiasm, Laughs and Lots of Trash (2005)
• The Art of Erosion Control (2005)
• Creek Revitalization Back to Bacich (2006)
• Creekbank Restoration and Repair (2006)
• Good Neighbor Policy Helps Habitat and Reduces Flooding (2007)
• Concrete Debris in the Creek (2016)
• Dealing with Creek Bank Erosion (2017)
• Talking Trash (2017)
• Concrete Action to Clean the Creek (2018)
• New Technologies Being Used to Study Erosion of Corte Madera Marshes (2019)

Nature & Gardening

• Oaks, a Smorgasbord for Wildlife (2002)
• A Quasi-Nature Walk through the Corte Madera Creek Marshes (2003)
• Restoring the College of Marin’s Ecology Study Area (2003)
• The MAGC Bridge Between Gardening and Environmentalism (2004)
• Reward of the Creek Restorer (2007)
• Buying Native Plants (2008) 
• The Corte Madera Marshes (2008)
• Wild Families of the Watershed (2009)
• Gary Leo’s Backyard Photos (2010)
• A Growing Concern (2011)
• Creek Viewing in the Upper Ross Valley (2012)
• Creek Viewing in Mid-Ross Valley (2013)
• Creek Viewing in the Lower Watershed (2013)
• Insect Waterworld (2013)
• Mount Tamalpais Biodiversity Paradise (2013)
• Habitat Mosaics of Corte Madera Creek Watershed (2015)
• Fire-wise Landscaping with California Natives (2020)
• Surfing Daydream (2022)
• Biodiversity Needs You (2023)
• Joys of Observing the Natural World (2023)
• Native Plants in Your Fire-Smart Landscaping (2023)
• What’s the Buzz (2023)
• Biodiversity Gets a Boost in Larkspur (2024)

Plants & Animals

• Corte Madera Creek’s Most Threatened Bird (1996)
• It’s an eel! It’s a whale! No—it’s a river otter! (2000)
• Birds in Our Watershed (2001)
• The Valley Oak Our Heritage Tree (2002)
• Stalking the Slough at the Ecology Study Area (2004)
• Basking on a Log (2005)
• A Parliament of Owls (2006)
• Growing Willy-nilly the Grey Willow in Marin (2007)
• Wonderful Wood Ducks (2009)
• Excitable Neighbors Squirrels in the Neighborhood (2010)
• Woodpeckers of the Watershed (2011)
• The Otters Return (2013)
• River Otters in the Spotlight (2015)
• Sea Otters in Marin (2017)
• Bald Eagles Thrill Birdwatchers (2019)
• American White Pelicans Splash Down in Corte Madera (2021)
• Pipevine Swallowtails in the Garden (2021)
• Docks and Ducks (2024)
• The Scoop on Mosquitoes (2024)

Invasive Plants & Animals

• Discordgrass (2001)
• Sweeping the Watershed (2005)
• Cape Ivy: A Plant to Look Out For (2006)
• Getting Rid of a Green Invader (2006)
• Geese on the Loose (2007)
• What Is That Floating Down the Creek? (2007)
• Invasive Bullfrog Population Explosion (2010)
• Nine Years Fighting Invasive Cor…grasses Still Hard at Work (2012)
• Corte Madera Creek’s (Almost) Invisible Threats (2016)
• Pesticide Update (2016)
• The Dirt on Hal Brown Park (2016)
• What Not to Plant (2018)

Fish & Fish Passage

• Observing Fish in Corte Madera Creek (1999)
• Saving Steelhead in Corte Madera Creek Watershed (2000)
• Stopped in Her Tracks by a Dam (2003)
• Big Fish (2005)
• A Sampler of Bad News Barriers (2006)
• It’s a Fish’s Life (2008)
• Up the Concrete Channel, One Pool at a Time (2008)
• Fish Report 2008 (2009)
• San Anselmo’s Celebrity Steelhead (2009)
• Update San Anselmo Creek Fish Passage Project (2009)
• Helping Fish Move up San Anselmo Creek (2010)
• Where Have All the Fishes Gone (2012)
• One Small Step for Man One Giant Leap for Steelhead (2013)
•  Hominid Meets Salmonid (2014)
• Stymied Steelhead (2020)
• Pass the (California) Roach (2022)
• Big Fish on the Move (2022)
•  Life and Tines of the Threespine Stickleback (2023)

Watershed Planning

• Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project Outlives Energizer Bunny (1999)
• Flood Control – An Environmental Perspective (2000)
• Just Say No to Corps Plan – Watershed-wide Solution Needed (2000)
• Studies Point the Way Ahead (2000)
• Protection for the Creek and Bay (2001)
• Wading into Wetland Mitigation (2002)
• Corte Madera Creek Flood Control Project Sandbagged (2003)
• County Planners Working on Stream Protection Ordinance (2003)
• Local Creek Setbacks Generally Ineffective (2003)
• Flooding: The Current Situation (2006)
• Flooding and the Ross Valley Watershed Program (2007)
• Flood Mitigation Hits Obstructions (2008)
• Incarcerated Creeks (2008)
• Up the Concrete Channel, One Pool at a Time (2008)
• No Easy Way for the Kentfield Forcemain (2009)
• San Anselmo Creek Fish Passage Projects (2009)
• Helping Fish Move up San Anselmo Creek (2010)
• Ross Valley Flood Protection and Watershed Program (2010)
• 680 Trail (2011)
• New Culvert at Hal Brown Park at Creekside (2013)
• Ross Valley Watershed Program Update (2014)
• Sea Level is Rising (2014) 
• Stream Conservation Area (2014)
• MMWD Rolls Out Tank Proposal (2015)
• The Ross Valley Floods! (2015)
• Clearing the Bottleneck to Flood Protection (2016)
• Contention Basin (2016) 
• High Tides, Flooding and Dredging (2016)
• The Future of County Trails (2016)
• What is the Future of Our Wild Lands? (2016)
• A Better Way to Accommodate Floodwater in Kentfield (2017)
• A Sea Change:Consequences of Sea Level Rise (2017)
• Some Progress on the Ross Valley Watershed Program (2017)
• Vegetation Management Plan Delays(2017)
• Flooding in Ross Valley:Time is Running Out (2018)
• Ross Valley Watershed Program (2018)
• Bridge Projects of Marin (2019
• Vegetation Management on Mount Tamalpais (2019)
• Where Will All That Water Go? (2019)
• New Technologies Being Used to Study Erosion of Corte Madera Marshes (2019)
• Corte Madera Creek Flood Risk Management Project (2020)
• San Anselmo Flood Risk Reduction Project (2020)
• Land Sculpture (2021)
• Protecting Rare Frogs (2021)
• Did Phoenix Lake Avert Flooding (2022)
• Bald Hill Saved from Development (2023)
• Down in the Dumps (2024)
• Passage of San Anselmo’s Measure F: Gain or Loss? (2024)
• Phoenix Lake – Bon Tempe Connection Project (2024)The End of the Tunnel (2024)
• Two Major Wildfire Risk Reduction Projects Underway in Ross Valley (2024)

Water Management & Water Supply

• What in the World is the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (1995)
• Water’s Journey from Sky to Creek (2003)
• Rainwater and Greywater (2009)
• The Hidden Reservoir (2009)
• A Gray Area: Reusing Household Water in Your Garden (2014)
• Rain Gardens (2014)
• Anatomy of a Creek (2015)
• Looking Down the Well (2015)
• What’s Green About Green Infrastructure? (2017)
• Water Supply in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (2019)
• How to Save Water and Money in Your Yard (2021)
• The Problem with Paving the Planet (2021)
• Did Phoenix Lake Avert Flooding During the Big October Storm? (2022)
• Green Infrastructure for Dealing with Stormwater (2022)
• Phoenix Lake – Bon Tempe Connection Project (2024)

Water Quality

• Another Scoop on Pollution (2004) 
• Sewer Spills in Corte Madera Creek (2004)
• Water Quality Testing 2004 (2005)
• The Latest on Water Quality Testing (2006)
• This Summer’s Scoop on Water Quality Testing (2007)
• Drinking Water Releases into the Creek (2008)
• Bacteria in Our Creeks (2012)
• Iron and Manganese in Upper Ross Creek (2012) 
• Water Quality Monitoring Expands (2012)
• What is That Thing in the Creek? (2013) 
• DO or Die, Dissolved Oxygen Testing in Ross Creek (2020)
• Come On In the Water’sOK! (2021)

Historical Perspective

• A Trip on Corte Madera Creek (1997)
• Miwok Sites in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (1998)
• Plant Uses of the Coast Miwok (1999) 
• The Twists and Turns of History (2002) 
• Of Fish and Men – Willis Evans’ Life of Dedication to Fisheries (2000)
• A Creek Runs Through it – Larkspur (2001)
• Raising Phoenix (2002) 
• Looking Back on the Ross Valley (2003) 
• Eleanor Jean’s Life along the Creek (2004)
• Lavaroni Recalls Summers on San Anselmo Creek (2004) 
• Growing up in Greenbrae (2005)
• Meanderings in History (2007)
• Parker Pringle, Fishwatcher (2009) 
• Parker’s Creek Diary (2010) 
• RIP Ross Bridge (2010)
• A Fine Line: Fisherman Keith Fraser (2012) 
• Saving the Heerdt Marsh (2014)
• A Point in Time, The San Quentin Peninsula (2019)
• The Tragedy of Ross Common (2019)
• A Native Basketry Garden in Ross (2020)
• Birding on Campus in 1940 (2019) 
• People’s Park in the Ross Valley (2021)
• Restoration for People and Planet (2023)