by Ann Thomas

2025

A 100-acre undeveloped property dubbed by residents the “Crown Jewel of Fairfax” has finally become public open space. The acquisition of the so-called Wall property in late September followed a decade in which development was an ongoing possibility.

The property, which is shaped like a lopsided horseshoe, rises dramatically over northeastern Fairfax, embracing the Marinda Drive/San Gabriel Drive residential neighborhoods. It was designated as open space in the town’s general plan for 20 years but attempts to secure the site for the public were consistently impeded by developers’ efforts.

The Wall purchase caps two dramatic years of open space protection in the upper Ross Valley. This has included three major open space acquisitions: the 60-acre Bald Hill summit in Ross in 2023; the 9.4-acre Upper Hawthorne Canyon parcel, which completed San Anselmo’s Hawthorne Canyon Preserve; and

the Wall property, which abuts the San Anselmo Preserve, in late 2024. The latest acquisition, along with the San Anselmo Hawthorne Canyon Open Space Preserve, creates 145 acres of contiguous wild lands.

The name derives from that of long-time owner Dr Alan Wall, a San Francisco heart surgeon who purchased the property in the 1960s. During his tenure the site was re-zoned several times, but all development proposals failed to meet Fairfax planning standards. It was sold in 2013 to a limited liability company owned by a spec builder, under the name of Timberstone LLC, who vigorously pursued development, settling on a proposal for a community named Marinda Heights: up to 10 estate homes with pools and private driveways. All versions of this effort failed to meet the town’s approval for reasons that included zoning inconsistency, maintenance costs, and fire risk. In mid-2023 Timberstone defaulted on a loan and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Subsequently the property was acquired by a mortgage company and offered for sale.

With acquisition of this long-sought undeveloped property finally within reach, Marin Open Space Trust (MOST) negotiated a purchase of $2.3 million—less than the appraised value—with a deadline of October 2024 to complete the transaction. Fairfax and the Fairfax Open Space Committee rallied the community and leapt to meet the challenge, joining MOST in a donor campaign. A kick-off dinner and auction at Deer Park Villa in January 2024 raised an initial $22,000 and MOST soon received more than $1 million in pledges from the public to raise funds for purchase and for critical repair and restoration of the hilly canyon property. Other contributors to the acquisition were the Town of Fairfax, the Town of San Anselmo, San Anselmo Open Space Commit-tee, the County of Marin, and the Coastal Conservancy.

Marin County and Fairfax officials agreed that, if the purchase were successful, the property would be owned by Fairfax with the County responsible for maintaining major trails. The property has two major trails that, along with a connection to San Anselmo Hawthorne Canyon Preserve, encircle the property. There is also a connection at the north edge of the property with the Wilder Road Trail Easement maintained by Marin County Parks (MCP). This easement connects the Wall property to Loma Alta Open Space at the north end of our water-shed.

Under their agreement with Fair-fax, MCP will provide routine trail maintenance on the main trails, install signage provided by Fairfax, and service two dog waste stations. Maintenance includes repairing road/trail erosion, removing vegetation that can impede access, but does not include decommissioning of existing unauthorized, trails. MCP does not have a planning or enforcement role. The Town of Fairfax will establish user guidelines and provide any needed interventions to regulate the use of the property.

by Gerhard Epke

2025

After the first winter rains salmon come from the ocean up into this watershed. They sneak upstream like ninjas often in the dark of night or while it rains, methodically working their way upstream from resting pool to resting pool. You would not even notice their presence unless the light shines through the water just right or a splash in a shallow spot catches your attention. Who are these fish and what do they want? Food, like espresso and buttery croissants? Safe homes and good school districts? Access to open space? Well, in a sense, yes, possibly all of the above.

The two species of salmonids—the term for the greater family of fish—known to still inhabit Corte Madera Creek watershed are steelhead trout and Chinook salmon. What they are doing is coming upstream to spawn, or reproduce. While superficially similar, and both engaging in this ‘anadromous’ migrational lifecycle, steelhead and Chinook have some significant differences.

Chinook salmon are also called king salmon, and this species is prized for its large size and good flavor as well as for its cultural and ecological importance from here to Alaska. Chinook historically proliferated in the rivers flowing into the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, and in their tributaries. Dams and diversions have blocked fish from reaching most of this habitat and today they continue using the Bay bolstered by hatchery programs. But, true to classic salmon lifecycles, both wild and hatchery Chinook born in inland waters migrate out to the ocean, where they live for three years before returning home to complete their lifecycle. They come upstream for the final months of their life, find a partner, build a nest in the gravels, spawn, and die. This lifecycle, wherein all your energy goes to a single reproductive event, is called semelparity.

If the king salmon is the wolf—large and charismatic—fought and legislated over, steelhead are like coyotes—adaptable, ubiquitous but invisible, defying whatever conventions we place on them. Steelhead, for instance, are the same species as rainbow trout. While the young salmon migrate down to the estuary and ocean as soon as possible, young steelhead live in the creek habitat for at least a year, moving upstream and downstream seeking deep, cool pools before somehow “deciding” to migrate out to the saltwater. Another characteristic distinguishing steelhead from true salmon is iteroparity, meaning their spawning can occur several years in a row, i.e., iterative.

Healthy salmon runs are often seen as a goal for habitat restoration, and the presence of these two species with their different reproductive strategies may provide clues about what the future may hold. Since climate change is expected to bring more variability and extremes to our weather, the way these lifecycles hedge against environmental variability matters.

Chinook, with their three-year lifecycle, are known to stray into new watersheds and drainages to spawn. After the October 2022 storm many were seen spawning here in the following weeks. Our 11” storm this November again saw spawners entering the watershed. These two large

early storms seem somewhat anomalous, but maybe a few more similar years and we may establish a Chi-nook run. The problem with semelparity is that three years of drought can interrupt all the year classes. Fortunately, our droughts have tended to last two years, but it points to vulnerability of Chinook in Corte Madera Creek.

Iteroparity, in theory, offers steelhead several chances to get up-stream and reproduce, which seems like a major advantage here. Also, the ability of a population to persist as trout for years in the deeper pools offers another reason why steelhead are seen as the more reliable restoration target.

Please let us know of any sightings of large fish in the creeks of our watershed! They are fruit of the efforts of many individuals and public agencies.

By Sandy Guldman

2025

For the past 20 years Friends has been active in removing non-native cordgrasses (Spartina species) from our marshes, with great success. The reasons for eliminating invasive cordgrasses are many. Invasive Spartina outcompetes native tidal marsh species to create a monoculture. It spreads rapidly across open mudflats, creating meadows of cordgrass that reduce foraging opportunities for shorebirds, waterfowl, and other aquatic species. It reduces flood control capacity, as dense stands accrete sediment rapidly in unnatural locations, fill in storm water drainages, and cause flooding in adjacent fields, homes, and businesses. These dense Spartina meadows cause ponding that promotes increased breeding of mosquitoes.

The San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project (ISP) is a regional effort, led by the California State Coastal Conservancy, California Invasive Plant Council, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Project partners work together to protect the Bay’s coastal biological resources by removing invasive species of cordgrass. Through partnerships in all nine Bay Area counties, the project team works across 70,000

acres to restore tidal marsh habitat by monitoring and treating invasive Spartina, enhancing habitat with native plants and high-tide refuge islands, and monitoring California Ridgway’s rail populations.

One native and four non-native species of cordgrass are found in the San Francisco Estuary. The native species is Pacific cordgrass (Spartina foliosa), which is the only low marsh native plant in the Estuary. The non-native species are Atlantic smooth cordgrass (S. alterniflora), English cordgrass (S. anglica), Chilean cordgrass (S. densiflora, referred to as densi by those working in the trenches), and salt-meadow cordgrass (S. patens). Two, S. anglica and densi, were planted by mistake at Creekside Marsh in the early 1970s during restoration. S. anglica did not spread beyond the immediate area of Creekside Marsh, but densi spread aggressively up and down the creek in areas disturbed by construction of the US Army Corps of Engineers flood control project. Although S. alterniflora is the major problem else-where in the Estuary, there were only minor infestations along Corte Madera Creek. S. patens was never found along Corte Madera Creek.

The genus Spartina hybridizes readily, leading some biologists to describe it as promiscuous. As time has gone by, more and more of the problem plants are hybrids between the invasives and the native. These plants can look like either parent or a combination of the two and DNA analysis is often required to correctly identify cryptic plants.

The infestation along Corte Madera Creek varied from mono-culture strips fringing marshes, extensive monoculture stands in Creekside Marsh at Hal Brown Park, and spotty distributions where the infestation was spreading rapidly.

This work protects the major investments made by agencies around the Bay to restore native tidal wetlands. Since 2003, Friends has served as the coordinator for the ISP effort in Corte Madera Creek, with funding from the California Coastal Conservancy.

Friends was involved in the fieldwork for the first decade, hiring crews to conduct much of the work. We also contacted property owners to obtain permission to treat the invasive cordgrasses on their property and we continue to keep them in-formed about surveys and field work. The ISP staff since the beginning has conducted surveys to document where treatment continues to be needed. Their expertise is crucial.

Initially, it was thought that herbicide would be adequate to control the infestation. However, it quickly became clear that densi, with its slightly waxy, rolled leaves, was not susceptible to herbicide. It is a bunch grass, so digging became the best option and we dug literally tons and tons of it. We sometimes mowed it to reduce the volume to be removed from the marsh. Two areas with major infestations, Creekside Marsh and Piper Park, have resident populations of Ridgway’s rail, so digging could not be done between February 1 and August 31, a serious constraint when we wanted to stop seed set by the invasives. Sometimes, to stop seed set, densi was sprayed with herbicide and then dug later in the year. S. anglica and S. alterniflora both spread by their rhizomes, so digging was not effective for established plants. Fortunately, they can be con-trolled with herbicides.

The results of this effort have been impressive. The report for the surveys conducted in 2024 state, “Just one densi detected” in the immediate Corte Madera Creek watershed. Zero detection doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t find any in the next round, sprouting from residual seeds. The challenge of this work

over a long enough period to prevail. We need to be more persistent than the invasive plant, and that is a high bar!

When the infestation gets down this low, the number of plants detected can vary from year to year, before finally settling on zero. Climatic conditions come into play, as do detection issues (these are often small plants that it takes an expert to find among the other marsh vegetation), and unknowns. What exactly causes a densi seed to sprout in a given year, after 3-5 years of sitting around in the substrate? Fortunately, for densi the goal of extermination appears to be within reach, and for densi hybrids and S. anglica as well.

by Laura Lovett

2025

Marin County has over 3000 miles of natural creeks. If you are lucky enough to have one cross your property, you have a special asset that can support a complex part of nature’s food web. However, you may often find it is more headache than benefit.

Much of this headache comes from the fact that while some creeks remain relatively natural, others have undergone changes resulting from development within the watershed, causing damage such as channel incision, bank failures, and flooding. Many stream banks also have been overtaken with decorative but invasive species that we plant around our homes, such as English ivy. Invasive plants spread quickly and shouldn’t be removed without providing a replacement being planted to prevent soil erosion and to prevent other invasives from getting a foothold in the area.

Many riparian areas can be improved by supplemental plantings that enhance stream bank stability, increase biodiversity, create wildlife habitat, and improve water quality. If you’d like to improve the look and health of your riparian areas but don’t know where to start, one option is to use willow cuttings to grow a willow thicket along the stream bank. Willows provide important wildlife habitat, cover for nesting birds, forage for herbivores, and improve water quality conditions in a myriad of ways. Under the right conditions, they can grow rapidly and provide effective soil stabilization along stream banks or in other highly erodible areas.

Willows have characteristics that make them resilient to high-velocity flood waters, burial by sediment, long periods of water inundation, high winds, and heavy browsing by wildlife. Willows sprout new shoots from roots and root crowns readily, and their stems possess abundant adventitious buds (i.e., buds that develop in an “atypical” place rather than at the branch tip or in leaf axils) that have the flexibility to form roots when in contact with saturated soils. This ability of willows to root quickly and easily, as well as their suitability for our local habitats, makes them a great tool to stabilize and vegetate stream banks.

All native riparian plants have some tolerance for long-term inundation and high velocity flood waters, but it varies by species. Willows should be planted in the mid or upper bank (sometimes called the over-bank) as they will grow into fairly large, multi-trunked shrubs, large enough to clog the flow of water in the stream if planted too close to the active water channel. Willows can tolerate being inundated fairly frequently and are a good choice for a stream’s flood plain because they will bend with the flows.

Timing

Cuttings such as willow are best planted in the fall or early winter when plants benefit from more frequent rains and are using energy to develop roots. If there is a dry spell after stakes are planted, stakes will need to be hand watered to ensure they become established.

Choosing a site

• Ensure your willow receives full sunlight at least 6 hours each day.

• Pick an area with well-drained soil to prevent waterlogging, which can lead to root rot.

• Allow ample space around the tree for its roots to spread comfortably and for it to grow to its full size. A spacing of two to four feet allows for die-offs.

• If the slope is not too steep, willows can be interspersed with large rocks or boulders on the bank. The rock works to prevent immediate erosion. As the willows become established, their roots spread in the underlying soil, binding the rocks and soil together.

Cutting the Stakes

• Ideally, make cuttings from willow shrubs near your planting location, as these species clearly thrive in your watershed. The most commonly used variety in Marin is arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis). Other good choices are narrow-leaf willow (Salix exigua), red willow (Salix laevigata), Pacific willow (Salix lucida var. lasiandra), and Sitka willow (Salix sitchensis). Only red and Pacific willows of this group develop into tall trees.

• Remove no more than 1/3rd of the branches from any single source willow, and don’t take cuttings from any branches that are overhanging a waterway as they are providing critical water quality benefits.

• Make cuttings after leaves fall and before buds burst in spring.

• The best rooting success is from cuttings made of 2- to 3-year-old limbs

• Willow stakes should be about three to five feet tall, and ideally between ¾ and 1 ½ inches in diameter. The top should be cut off cleanly.

• Cuttings should be straight with all side branches removed.

• Cuttings should be long enough to reach 8 to 12 inches into the lowest water table level of the year. A check of how high or low on the bank other riparian shrubs are growing will give you an idea where the water table is.

Planting Live Stakes

• For best success, soak live stakes in water for at least 48 hours before planting, and plant before roots emerge.

• Each stake should be planted two-thirds below the surface with only a small portion above ground to photosynthesize when spring comes. Most of the plant material must be underground to increase root growth potential from the buds. The more buds that are underground, growing roots, the more success one will have with the method.

• Plant cuttings with point side down to access ground moisture and prevent them from being swept away during high flows. Keep the top of the stake above seasonal flows.

• Make a deep pilot hole with a piece of rebar, metal rod, or planting tool. Pilot holes allow for easier installation without damaging cuttings. In soft soils, pilot holes may not be necessary.

• At least 4 to 6 inches of stake should remain above ground, or enough to overtop competing herbaceous vegetation.

• Pound it in with a rubber mallet and stomp down the ground around it to close up the soil.

• If the top gets damaged during planting, prune it off with sharp loppers.

• Backfill and tamp soil around cuttings to ensure good soil to stem contact. Alternatively, pour a syrup-like slurry of soil and water into the hole, allowing sediment to displace any air pockets as water leaches into underlying soil. Poor soil-to-stem contact is a cause of willow stake death.

Browse protection should not be installed in the active channel during the rainy season because it may wash downstream or catch material being washed downstream. Install browse protection in the spring when plantings are beginning to leaf out, and remove before the next rainy season. Plastic tree tubes should not be used with willow, as they encourage pests. Deer like new willow shoots!

Typically, about 60–90% of live stakes survive, depending on many factors. You may need to water live stakes for the first year because they need moist soil, especially during root development in the spring and early summer. Early season drying is a common cause of live stake failure, as is competition from weeds. Watering should be done by hand as drip irrigation cannot be installed in the active channel because it may wash downstream.

Your efforts should yield a lovely riparian habitat that will stabilize the creek bank and provide habitat for many creatures in years to come.