MARSH CREEK CLEAN-UP Three-hundred and Fifty Children and Adults Working Together for Community Restoration
	NOVEMBER 2004

by Donald Huntington
Photos by Brad Shifflett & Russell Byrne

September 18 was an unseasonably cool and cloudy morning at Creekside Park but enthusiastic people, nevertheless, began showing up for the “Marsh Creek Clean–Up” a full half-hour before registration was scheduled to begin. These early-arrivers had obviously crawled out of bed with a powerful desire to get started doing their part in helping beautify our community.

Our publisher, Richard Koscher, pushed hard for this day and committed the resources of 110° Magazine to making it successful because of his distress at the trash that he saw littering the bed of Marsh Creek. He occasionally walks his Belgium Malinois, Casey, past the Dainty neighborhood part of the creek and was bothered by the debris and refuse that he saw marring the beauty of the lovely little stream that wends its way through our Brentwood neighborhoods.

Joining Together to Get the Job Done
By the advertised nine a.m. opening time, people were lined up to get registered and to receive their assignments. Parents came with their children, Boy Scout leaders with members from their troop, and teachers with their students. Members of clubs and civic organizations also came flocking to the sign-up table in response to our appeals for help in cleaning up our creek.

We were all especially inspired by the sight of Brentwood Mayor, Brian Swisher, sitting at the registration table and helping to sign up the volunteers as they arrived. Mayor Swisher brought his two sons to help with the project. The mayor said he volunteered especially for the hardest part — working with registration and sign-up. He said he was inspired by the contact this gave him with the participants whom he signed up.

“The volunteers I’ve been registering are fabulous,” Mayor Swisher said. “There is a great community spirit among these wonderful people who have come to help clean up the creek! Everybody’s excited and anxious to get to work!”

“The volunteers I’ve been registering are fabulous,” Mayor Swisher said. “There is a great community spirit among these wonderful people who have come to help clean up the creek! Everybody’s excited and anxious to get to work!”

As he spoke to me, Mayor Swisher, himself, got excited. “Clubs, civic organizations, Boy Scout Troops, Brownies — they’re all joining forces to get the job done. After the cleanup they’re going to participate in the learning and fun activities that are prepared. They’re going to be enjoying themselves as they do something really great for the community.”

Then the mayor pointed out the larger perspective for our activities, “Today is the California Coastal Cleanup Day. The volunteers just here in our Marsh Creek project are fabulous! I can’t imagine what the total effect of today’s activities must be like across the whole State. It’s wonderful to think about!”

Bringing Others to Help
Some parents brought their children in order to take advantage of the informal learning opportunity that was provided to increase knowledge and awareness of our local environment, as well as a chance to do something good for the community.

Renée & Bill Alahuzos, for example, brought their four children and two neighbor kids. Renée’s comment probably echoed the feelings of most of the people who came when she said, “We think it is important to help the community.” She said that she often biked with her family along Marsh Creek and saw all the trash. “We’re glad to be here helping clean that mess up,”

“Seeing so many people out all working together to clean up our creek was inspiring,” Renée said. She added that they had all been amazed by the amount of the trash they had picked up.

“People couldn’t imagine just looking at the stream how much junk there really was down there,” she said. “In just one area there were seven shopping carts.”

All six children that had come with Renée and Bill told me that they had a great time doing the clean up. I asked them what the best part was and they all agreed it was when they found a bike.

As she walked away Renée said something that I think a lot of people who were there that morning would have echoed, “We’ll be back next year,” she said with a big smile.

It was great seeing parents bringing their kids, but in a number of cases it turned out that just the opposite happened. “I’m here because the kids made me come,” said some of the parents with a laugh.

Some of those children who brought their parents did so because of the efforts of adults who had communicated to them about the event.

For example, I spoke with Mary Jane Dukellis, President of Brentwood Lions Club. She attended the event accompanied by 17 “Leos” from Bristol Middle School, together with, Kiko Seja, the teacher of their leadership class.

Mary Jane and the Lions Club, with Lisa Mitchener, were also responsible for getting Cub Scouts from Pack 90 to the event. There were 25 scouts, lead by their Scout Master and his wife, Chris & Cindy Friedmans, and counting their parents and siblings, they totaled 66 in all. Chris told me that some of the Scouts planned to use their efforts that day towards earning a patch for doing environmental services in the community.

The Lions also brought six Brownies from Troop 1912 to the event. The Brownies came with parents and siblings so the total was 19 in all, with their leader, Patty Schneider.

Besides being the Lions Club President and a local realtor, Mary Jane is also a special education teacher at Independence High School. She was delighted that three of her Special Ed students came to do their part in the cleanup.

Mary Jane told me that she, herself, gets excited any time she sees kids get excited about doing good for the community. She quoted for me a slogan that she keeps telling others: “The community is as good as the people in the community.”

Leading and Inspiring the Effort
I was inspired by the volunteers that showed up to help with the cleanup, but was even more impressed by the great effort put forth by the leaders who donated such time and effort to make this day a reality. A team of people conducted meetings, sometimes weekly, over a number of months to make the day succeed.

I was also greatly inspired by the impact that event leaders had on the cleanup itself as they coordinated activities and communicated to the volunteers about the significance of the event.

Ken DeSilva, the head of the Brentwood Parks division, helped Richard Koscher plan the event from the beginning. He brought a lot of experience to the cleanup, having worked on similar community projects over the past eighteen years. He helped direct cleanup efforts for ten years for the City of Antioch, four years for Pleasanton, and is currently on his fourth year doing this for Brentwood.

Ken recalled that the first Marsh Creek cleanup, four years ago, had an attendance of 20 participants. This year the effort grew to more than 300. “110° Magazine really helped put this year’s cleanup over the top,” he said. “Richard Koscher’s efforts in coordination and especially publicity were extraordinary.”

Ken said he was gratified that eighty percent of the participants were under 20 — many of them were actually less than half that age. “I love to reach people of that age,” Ken said. “Helping young children learn to become stewards of the environment is one of the best investments in the future we can make.”

This year, each group of volunteers was sent out to one of six assigned sites, covering much of the length of Marsh Creek within the boundaries of the City of Brentwood. Ken told us that over half of the six areas had never had a cleanup crew assigned to it in the past.

Steve Barbata was surely the most colorful person at Creekside Park for the cleanup — with his big smile and even bigger bristling red whiskers. Plus, during most of the day’s events, he walked around with a huge plastic salmon on his head, reminding people that Marsh Creek is a salmon spawning area that needs to be conserved. Seve was also responsible for the idea of the Tower of Trash.

Mary Grim, from the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, helped with event publicity, and also helped plan the children’s “Family Fun Activities” in the park along with Kryssie Mingst of the Brentwood Recreation Dept. The children's activities focused on animals that can be found in Marsh Creek.  “Many people don’t realize that a rare species of turtle and a threatened species of frog live in the creek” Mary commented, “and they aren’t aware that salmon spawn in Marsh Creek.  We wanted to give families a fun way to learn about these animals and learn what we can do to help protect their habitat.”

Lanny Brown, the chairperson of the Brentwood Parks Commission, was helping at the clean-up, as well. Lanny was really pleased with the effort. “We’ve got more people than we anticipated,” he said. “This is by far the best year ever.”

“I helped with this event two years ago,” Lanny said. “We had 50 or 60 people show up. This year we’ve had more than 300.”

He was especially amazed by the number of kids — and surprised at the number of children who brought their parents out.

“Sometimes a bunch of people would show up to register and they looked like some group or organization,” Lanny said.

“No we’re just a family,” they would say. Then they would sometimes add, “The kids brought us out.”

Chris Pochlmann came from the Gualala River Watershed area in Northwest Sonoma County to set up and help erect the incredible Tower of Trash from the refuse and garbage that the volunteers collected during the cleanup. He announced that he was a Trash Master.

We were fortunate to be able to get the services of this man. He refers to himself as “an Exhibit Fabricator,” which means he designs and fabricates interactive exhibits, especially having to do with ecology.

I never heard of an Exhibit Fabricator before. It turns out that the shop Chris runs his business out of is even more unusual than the business itself. He works out of a “straw bale shop” that he made out of 500 bales of rice straw. The resulting insulation is 2-3 times more effective than the standard walls of modern homes.

Jeff Cowling, the Manager with Brentwood NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) set up a table with posters and brochures displaying the work of his department — which focuses upon storm water pollution prevention.

Fascinating Learning Tool
Jeff brought the Creek Model, which belongs to Contra Costa County, which is a marvelous interactive educational tool that shows how water flowing into the Delta is affected by any pollution that washes into our storm drains. The model is actually a diorama of a watershed. It became a real child-magnet during the hours of the cleanup.

The children could make it “rain” on the model with a spray bottle.

The model demonstrates how pollution comes from such things as farm runoff and construction. The children put muddy water (paint, actually), representing pollution, into the various areas on the model — over the cars, farms, buildings — and then watched how the pollution flowed from the storm drains to the creek, and then to the Delta. They could see dead fish in the creek and could watch as the polluted water turned the Delta waters all cloudy.

The model shows a wastewater treatment plant and illustrates that the water does not flow into the Delta until it has been cleansed. The storm drains, on the other hand, flow directly into the creek and from there directly into the Delta.

Also, the children could pour water out of a bottle onto the top of the model — the simulated Sierra Range — which showed the cleansing and replenishing effect of runoff from the melting mountain snow.

Rae Huntington, a former Kindergarten teacher, managed the exhibit during most of the period, and carefully explained the lessons that the activities were teaching.

I don’t know who had more fun — the children with their open-mouthed delight at watching how the various systems in the model worked or Rae’s delight in seeing how much fun the children had with this happy activity.

Businesses Pitching in to Help
We were impressed by the support that local businesses provided for the cleanup effort. Fourteen local companies, for example, supported the cleanup.

• Home Depot — $1000 in gift card value for supplies purchase
• Safeway — 200 Box Lunches provided
• 110 Degree Magazine — Graphic design & Printing of 1000 flyers;  two full page magazine ads
• Office Tech Staffing — $300 for water or additional food
• Target — 14 cases of bottled water for volunteers
• Delta Pure Water — 40 Gallons of water for the Picnic
• 1-800-Got Junk? — Donated debris removal service
• Brentwood Press  — 2 quarter page ads donated ($450 each)

DRAWING PRIZES DONATED

• Blockbuster — 10 free movie rental cards
• Brentwood Parks & Rec — Free swim pass
• Brentwood Olive Oil Co. — Gift Basket            
• Cherry Pop Ice Cream Parlor — 3 gift certificates
• Delta Theater —_# free movie passes
• Target — two $20 gift cards       

Target, for example, donated 14 cases of water, plus gift cards for the raffle. Even more impressive was the fact that Target people themselves showed up for the cleanup.

I spoke with Ed Hitchcock, Store Team Leader from Target, who headed up the volunteer Target team. Ed told me, “Target wants to give something back to the community.” He said that the cleanup was only a part of their community service activities, which also include a Breast Cancer Walk and a “Katy’s Kids” program teaching medication safety for Kindergartners and First Graders.

“We help them learn that medicine is not candy,” Ed says. Most recently Target volunteers have joined the Adopt-A-Roadway program, becoming responsible for the highway 4 bypass clean-up.

Ed reported that the Target team had picked up five bags full of garbage from the creek banks. They worked on the section by Sunset Drive, behind Homecoming Park. “Now that area of the creek is going to be a lot safer for kids venturing in there from the park,” Ed said with evident satisfaction.

Home Depot was another commercial sponsor of the cleanup day. Charles Claudius, head of Community Relations from Home Depot said, “Mary Grim came to us requesting trash bags and gloves, but we wanted to do more than that, so we ended up giving the committee gift cards to purchase supplies they needed.” The value of the gift cards from Home Depot was $1,000.

“Home Depot likes to give back into the community,” Charles said. “Besides our concern for the environment, we support Youth at Risk and low income housing.”

Home Depot is obviously one of the participants in the development going on in East County, but Charles said that the company really wants to help manage growth responsibly.

“There’s an orchard growing right behind our store,” he said. East County is growing rapidly, but we want to encourage responsibility along with growth.”

Safeway contributed 200 lunches, plus chips and sodas for the volunteers. Office Tech made a $300 cash donation for food and prizes. A company named “1-800-Got-Junk” showed up with a truck and a team of men to help construct the Tower of Trash.

The Astonishing Tower of Trash
The crowning moment of the day’s festivities occurred when we all gathered in front of the immense Tower of Trash that had been erected from the refuse collected from the Creek by the volunteers.

As we looked at the pile of debris, I asked some of the volunteers what they had found and they reported finding everything from a water heater to a Barbie doll. Other “discoveries” included pieces of glass, ice cream wrappers, beer bottles, water bottles, soda bottles, soda cans, soccer balls, baseballs, whiffle balls, golf balls, chairs, a bedrail, a dead rat, a metal stand, pieces of iron, a baby stroller, and a bicycle.

They also reported finding a small tadpole and a large snake, but they returned them both to the place they came from.

As we gathered before the Tower of Trash I stood next to Bill Weber, the “Artist Laureate” for 110° Magazine. Bill expressed frank admiration for the artistic manner in which Chris had assembled and arranged the pieces of refuse and the bags of trash around and on the tower. I guess it was the first time Bill had seen anybody create such an impressive work of art working in the medium of garbage.

All of us were impressed by the sheer amount of junk and refuse that we assembled.

On one hand, of course, the trash structure we had created served as a monument of shame to the thoughtless people who move among us like some race of mutant aliens who imagine that the lovely Marsh Creek area exists to serve as a dump for the rubbish that they are either too lazy or too stupid to discard in an appropriate manner.

But the most important theme for us all as we stood before the Tower of Trash that day was the realization that we had joined together to cleanse our Marsh Creek of this immense pile of garbage that had been littering and polluting our lovely stream only a few hours before.

And that felt really good!

NOTE: Sarah Beamish, one of the team who put the event together, wants to channel the energy and enthusiasm of the community for protecting Marsh Creek into future creek-related activities. She has announced that people can join the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed group. For more information, contact Sarah at 510-644-2900 X113, or send email to sarahb@n-h-i.org.

People Who Make a Difference
Besides cleaning up the environment, the Marsh Creek Cleanup project also had as a goal teaching children and adults about matters having to do with the environment. The ultimate goal, of course, was raising our consciousness about conservation and habitat protection.

I was tremendously impressed with the people who came to the cleanup with the goal of making that learning happen.

A Man on a Mission
Steve Barbata is a big, friendly bear of a man who is deadly serious about issues having to do with the environment and especially with habitat conservation. He has a passionate vision for raising the awareness of people concerning the interlocking world of nature that includes our lives.

You probably never heard of Steve, but if you have any interest in environmental issues, you’ve probably seen his work. He has spent 35 years developing interactive environmental programs and displays in museums. His resume includes projects at the Lindsey Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Coyote Point Museum, Oakland Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, and Point Reyes.

Steve currently is a consultant to the Delta Science Center project at Big Break in Oakley where he says he is striving to create a program with enough impact to make a difference in the way people think about their environment. He wants the center to help people learn enough about riparian habitats, creek corridors, and watersheds that they can then come to understand their own place in space, so to speak.

Steve acknowledges that such learning takes time, but saw the Marsh Creek cleanup effort as part of that kind of learning as the volunteers — through the leaning experiences that were provided, as well as through the simple act of picking up trash from the creek bed — began to develop a greater appreciation for nature as they saw it exemplified at Marsh Creek.

Steve wanted all of us to begin to grasp the complexity of the Marsh Creek environment. As we begin to care for it, we start learning what it gives back to us in terms of such things as wildlife, shade, water, and picnic areas.

Stave also wanted us to grasp some of the larger issues, such as the impact that projects like flood control, urbanization, and agriculture can have on Marsh Creek, moving down to the Delta, and through the Bay clear out to Golden Gate Bridge.

“It is a system that involves us all,” Steve said. “People are moving into Brentwood from the four corners of the earth. It takes time to help them understand the complexities of the ecosystem that includes all of us.”

Steve hopes that people might begin to catch a vision of how the Marsh Creek connects the Diablo Range with the Delta. “This is a complex system covering 128 square miles of watershed and many other tributaries, including Sand Creek, Deer Creek.

Caring for our Natural Heritage
John Cain came for the event with a display from his office in Berkeley where he runs the nonprofit Natural Heritage Institute. He echoed many of the points Steve Barbata made.

John said that he and his Natural Heritage Institute have been working on Marsh Creek Watershed issues for five years. “We’re trying to raise awareness,” he said, “that Marsh Creek is important because it drains to the waters of the Delta, which is the single most important estuary on the West Coast.”

As he spoke to me, John really warmed up to his topic. “Marsh Creek is important in its own right,” he said. As the area develops, Marsh Creek will be the last thread connecting Mt. Diablo to the Delta — the two most important natural resources in the County.”

John pointed out what an amazing asset for the human community Marsh Creek is, with its set of trails for people to get around the area on, as well as providing habitats for an amazing assortment of creatures — including river otters, Chinook Salmon, Western Pond Turtles, and Great Blue Herons, just to mention a few.

“The challenge is to protect enough of a buffer along the creek as the area continues to be developed,” John said, “so that we can restore habitat along the creek.”

John provided a brief survey of the recent history of Marsh Creek development. He said that in 1962 the lower stretches of the creek were straightened and vegetation was removed as part of a flood control project. Today the Flood Control District will not permit the growth of any vegetation along the lower six miles of the creek before it discharges into the Delta.

John doesn’t want to see people’s homes flooded, but he laments the loss of greenery and habit that resulted from that decision. He pointed out that in Creekside Park, which was the central point of the cleanup, majestic and beautiful oaks are growing with eight-foot diameter trunks.

“These trees are typical of what used be the entire length of the stream,” John said.

John also talked about an ongoing Marsh Creek miracle: In spite of the degrading of the environment, salmon swim up Marsh Creek and continue each year to span.

“They come up to the lower reaches of the river with the first rains, spawn in the gravel, the young emerge and rear in the creek until they get to be about 60 millimeters long in March, then they head back down to the Delta.”

John considers Marsh Creek to be down but not yet out. “There’s still an opportunity to shape development that will enhance Marsh Creek both for nature and for man,” he says.

Creating New Parks and Keeping Storm Sewers Clean
Lanny Brown, the chairperson of the Brentwood Parks Commission, was helping at the clean-up, as well. The commission is an advisory group that oversees the design of new municipal parks. They work with developers and help them plan parks and open areas that are part of the design for many local developers. They give final approval for plans when they are completed.

“My job with the Parks Commission is fun,” Lanny told me. “We can actually see the results of our efforts when we are finished.”

Then Lanny added something that all of us should be able to appreciate. “Though our efforts we can see what the taxpayers are actually doing with their money.”

He was amazed by the number of kids — and surprised at the number of kids who brought their parents out. “Sometimes a bunch of people would show up to register and they looked like some group or organization,” Lanny said.

“No we’re just a family,” they would say. Then they would sometimes add, “The kids brought us out.”

Jeff Cowling, the Manager with Brentwood NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) set up a table with posters and brochures displaying the work of his department — which focuses upon storm water pollution prevention.

“We have a permit that’s maintained by each of the cities in the County, working together, to maintain a single permit under the Contra Costa County Clean Water Program.” Every development project must create and maintain an erosion control plan designed to meet BMPs (Best Management Practices), which are lists of activities that focus on minimizing discharge and preventing it from flowing into the creek.

Jeff says that the NPDES has teeth when it comes to controlling compliance. They inspect sites on a weekly basis. Plus, they monitor discharge before, during, and following rainstorms to ensure that pollution isn’t being discharged from the site in any runoff. “We can cite them for any non-compliance with the BMP standards,” Jeff said.

My awareness of the need for safeguarding our environment was certainly raised by my participation in the Marsh Creek Cleanup project. I imagine all of us who gathered on that cloudy Saturday morning came away from the experience with a new respect in our hearts for the beautiful world we live in. Many of us also renewed our commitment to meet head-on the moral challenge facing us to do what we can to take preserve our world intact for our own wellbeing and as a trust to hold in faith for the generations that will inherit it when we are gone.