CLEANING UP WITH OUR FRIENDS Learning to Speak on Behalf of Marsh Creek
	MAY 2005

by Sarah Beamish Puckett
Photos by Russell Byrne

I grew up in the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles County with a large undeveloped hill behind our house. That hill was my own enormous backyard play area. One year I returned from summer camp and made the shocking discovery that my entire backyard hill had vanished. Enormous machines had hauled it all away to make room for a subdivision of tract homes.

I suffered a terrible feeling of loss and took the passing of that hill personally. Nothing about that experience seemed natural to me. The disappearance forced me inside to watch TV and play with toys.

Getting out of the House
Parks and wilderness areas provide essential access to the great outdoors. As I grew older I began to do a lot of hiking and later backpacking. I am still always trying to get outside. I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Economics and Policy, and a minor in Geography. Following graduation I became a Park Ranger with the National Park Service at Muir Woods National Monument. I loved my life as a ranger. I worked outdoors every day, monitoring baby salmon, counting and measuring the little fish, and organizing volunteer groups. One day, things got a little too lively when one of the 300-foot redwood trees fell, shaking the area with a minor earthquake for hundreds of feet around.

Following my ranger career I took a job working with the Trust for Public Land in San Francisco, which is charged with creating parks and wilderness areas for people. They helped set aside land to establish the Cowell Ranch State Park in Brentwood.

I received my Master of Environmental Management at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and currently work with the Natural Heritage Institute (NHI), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that helps protect water resources around the world. NHI does a lot of work in East County due to its proximity to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is the source of drinking water for 20 million Californians and home to millions of fish and birds.

I became interested in Brentwood after reading an article about the city’s growth and culture in San Francisco Magazine a few years ago. The article discussed such topics as disappearing farmland, which was steadily being displaced by housing projects. I learned about Marsh Creek from a student who was working toward her Master of Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley. Her class was designing plans for the City of Brentwood, including the incorporation of Marsh Creek as a more beautiful and usable public resource.

Brentwood reminded me of my home growing up and the development pressures it faced. According to the 2000 US Census, the population of the City of Brentwood grew 208% from 1990 to 2000, making it the fastest growing City in all of California.

The first time I drove into Brentwood I was prepared for a fast growing place, with subdivisions, homes, and businesses springing up everywhere. But when I got into town the experience was like being in the country. I was driving down Lone Tree Way on a misty morning and saw a red-tailed hawk sitting on a light post. I absolutely fell in love with the farm stands, especially with the heirloom tomatoes, strawberries and cherries. I learned how to cook just so I could figure out something to do with all the fresh produce from the area.

Brentwood feels safe. I live in San Francisco, where we have to make sure to stow the car stereo out of sight every night and put everything in the trunk. And Brentwood is populated by a lot of really nice people. Drivers at a crosswalk will often stop and motion me to cross. This just doesn’t happen in San Francisco.

I gained an introduction to the agrarian viewpoint while working for the City of Brentwood helping to set up the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust. The Brentwood community is engaged in a tough struggle trying to balance the positive and negative aspects of growth. I hope the City can grow in a way that improves the quality of life for all residents, including the protection of working farms, water quality and wildlife.

Working to Preserve Natural Areas
Marsh Creek flows 30 miles from Mount Diablo to the Delta. At the end of her long journey Marsh Creek flows past the former Emerson Dairy. The Emerson family, and the adjacent Gilbert and Burroughs families, owned three parcels of land, comprising 1,200 acres. They decided to set aside their land to the public and return their property back into wetlands instead of developing over 4,000 homes. Now the area is known as the Dutch Slough Wetland Restoration Project and is owned by the California Department of Water Resources.

The Natural Heritage Institute worked with the Oakley community and the City of Oakley to help get the Dutch Slough restoration initiative underway. A number of citizens were really excited about the project — especially Carol Bomarito-Dickinson who gathered over 200 signatures from friends, neighbors, and other supporters to help secure public ownership of the property.

Plans are in the works to develop a 55-acre City of Oakley community park and create walking trails around the site. The City is working to create a community park and public access master plan. The remaining 1,166 acres will be restored to wetlands. The project is still in the planning stages. The site won’t be completely open to the public until funding is secured, levees are breached, wetlands are restored, and the City of Oakley develops the community park. However, the East Bay Regional Park District has agreed to open an interim trail before construction begins so the public can continue walking along the Marsh Creek Trail until they reach the Delta.

There will be a special opportunity to visit the Dutch Slough site before it is open to the public on Sunday, May 1st. To find out more information about this event and learn more about the Dutch Slough Wetland Restoration Project visit www.dutchslough.org or call me at 415-693-3000 x113.

A Fishy Story, but True
The most exciting phenomenon that occurs in the Marsh Creek watershed is the annual return of three-foot long Chinook salmon to spawn (i.e., lay their eggs). Chinook salmon born in the fresh water of Sacramento-San Joaquin tributaries adapt to salt water and swim as far away as Japan before they quite literally smell their way back to the same creeks and rivers where they were born.

Local fishermen have known for a long time about this incredible salmon run in Marsh Creek and watched the fish come up the creek in the hundreds for their seasonal runs. But the rest of us, including most of the local residents, had no idea this was happening. The presence of the salmon run came to wider attention because of the alertness of a schoolteacher and his students. Tom Lindemuth, a chemistry teacher at Freedom High School, samples water quality in Marsh Creek several times a year with his students. While testing water quality in 2001 they encountered several large salmon swimming up Marsh Creek.

Tom passed the information on to NHI and local fishermen confirmed that salmon really were swimming up Marsh Creek and spawning. A Fish and Game biologist found several baby salmon the following spring, proving the salmon were spawning successfully and that Marsh Creek is healthy enough to support future generations of spawning salmon.

Any place that supports runs of spawning Chinook salmon attracts the interest of a lot of people. Each fall the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed invites community members to get out on the creek and see this phenomenon for themselves. The group leads walks along the creek to count salmon and monitor spawning activity in Marsh Creek. We saw as many as 80 salmon at one time in the fall of 2004!

Identifying Problems
And Implementing Solutions
Nobody looking at the lower reaches of Marsh Creek could ever believe it is a salmon spawning site. In fact, for most of its length, many residents don’t even realize that Marsh Creek is a creek.

The downstream course of Marsh Creek is a mere ghost of the waterway it was when John Marsh, himself, showed up in the area. A series of major floods in the 1950’s compelled the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) and the Contra Costa Flood Control District to implement a major flood control program that involved straightening Marsh Creek. When the creek was straightened, the slope (or gradient) of the creek became steeper. A 6-foot tall concrete structure was built to compensate for this increased stream gradient. The structure is called a “grade control structure.”

This concrete structure is a physical barrier to migrating salmon. Just four and a half miles from the Delta, the barrier prevents salmon from reaching several miles of better spawning habitat further upstream. Each year salmon congregate just below the structure, some even have banged-up noses from trying to get over the blockade.

I’m happy to announce that a team of interested organizations and agencies has partnered up to figure out a way to get salmon past the barrier and allow them to swim through downtown Brentwood and spawn further upstream. Preliminary project plans involve modifying the structure and installing a fish ladder to allow fish to ascend the 6-foot elevation drop. This approach will provide unhindered passage for adult and juvenile salmon while still maintaining the stability and flood capacity of the channel. This proven approach has been employed in numerous barrier removal projects in California and across the nation.

The Flood Control District, Natural Heritage Institute, Delta Science Center, City of Brentwood, California Department of Water Resources, American Rivers, Contra Costa County, East Bay Regional Park District, NRCS, US Geological Society and California Coastal Conservancy are working together to conduct a study, develop engineering plans, compile environmental documentation, provide funding, and obtain permits to determine the feasibility of modifying the grade control structure to allow fish to get beyond the barrier.

A primary cause of the dramatic drop in salmon and steelhead populations in California is that they can no longer reach more than 90 percent of their historic habitat spawning and rearing habitat. The modification of the fish barrier will provide access to approximately seven miles of lower Marsh Creek, Deer Creek, and Sand Creek, tripling the number of accessible stream miles for these fish in the watershed. This includes approximately three miles of suitable spawning gravels and cool, shaded water downstream and into the Cowell Ranch property. The fact that suitable, yet currently inaccessible, spawning habitat exists in a newly created public park makes this project all the more desirable.

The fish barrier removal project will also create opportunities for citizen involvement. The Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed has made fish passage at this site one of their top priorities. The increase in number and diversity of fish populations is only the beginning of a marvelous transformation. As more fish are attracted to the creek we’ll begin to see an increase in blue herons, snowy and great egrets, ospreys, and river otters, as well as a number of raptors, including Northern Harrier and White-tailed hawks.

Who Speaks for the Trees?
Trees along Marsh Creek are a complicated issue. As many people know who walk along lower Marsh Creek, there aren’t any trees shading the creek or most of the trail from Creekside Park to the Delta. The Contra Costa Flood Control District must maintain this straight, treeless stretch of creek as a flood control channel and keep it clear of obstructions in preparation for a 100-year flood. The 100-year flood is the elevation of floodwaters that has a 1- percent chance of occuring each year. “Obstructions,” include all forms of vegetation, including trees that prevent the creek from holding enough water during a large flood.

The lower stretches of Marsh Creek, as they are currently structured, would not be able to handle a 100-year flood with trees and vegetation growing in the channel. The solution to this problem is to widen the creek sufficiently to accommodate a 100-year flood even with trees growing in the channel. This is no longer an option in areas where houses are built right up to the edge of the creek; the creek in those stretches will have to remain in its current denuded state. However, it’s not too late for many areas in Brentwood and Oakley where undeveloped land still exists next to the creek.

The Friends of Marsh Creek has been working together with the City of Brentwood and with the Pinn Brothers developer, who is building over 500 homes next to Marsh Creek just north of Central Avenue. This progressive development sets aside enough land adjacent to the creek to widen the channel and plant trees. The developer is required by the City to set aside enough land for parks, but this developer chose to build a park along Marsh Creek. Pinn Brothers also designed the houses to face Marsh Creek to showcase the creek as something to be valued and appreciated, not something to turn your back on.

Brentwood’s Creekside Park is a current perfect example of an area with a channel wide enough to allow for play, recreation, and trees — while still affording ample run-off for a 100-year flood. Pulte Homes developers were able to develop homes while protecting Marsh Creek and enhancing the community.

Developers can benefit financially, while building their homes in such a ways as to incorporate the creek as a resource. Future housing and commercial developments should buffer the creek from development, widen the creek channel, plant trees, and build trails. These areas could become inviting places of entertainment, relaxation, and exercise for local residents. It’s not too late. Brentwood and Oakley still have undeveloped areas adjacent to Marsh Creek to incorporate a larger creek channel, plant trees and create shady trails.

What Can Be Done?
One thing I’ve learned working in East County is that the Planning Commissioners and City Council members care deeply about the needs of the community and residents. It’s necessary to let local leaders and developers know that the community considers the creek to be important and worth protecting. They are prepared to listen.

A number of residents had a great time last fall working together on the Marsh Creek Cleanup that 110° Magazine and other local organizations and businesses sponsored. We plan to do that again this fall, and Oakley is planning to host a spring clean-up event in May.

The new “Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed” has been up and running for several months now. This is a community run group to protect and improve the Marsh Creek Watershed. Meetings are the second Thursday of each month at the Business and Technology Incubator in Brentwood. Besides participating in cleanup efforts, we’re planning practical projects together, such as tree plantings, removing invasive, non-native vegetation, and creating a walking guide to the creek. Everyone is welcome to attend the meetings and join in upcoming activities. Visit www.ccrcd.org/marsh.html for more information.

Members of the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed are learning more about the realities we’re facing and discovering ways of getting involved together to protect and revitalize the Marsh Creek watershed. We’re becoming a voice in the community speaking on behalf of this precious natural resource.