Friends of Willow Creek, in Sausalito, is celebrating 13 years of stewardship and advocacy for “creek daylighting”, which is the conversion of buried pipes that convey former streams to above-ground, vegetated channels. Daylighting creeks is a complex, expensive and uncommon undertaking, as the Friends have learned, and requires patient planning, outreach, and partnership-building over a sustained period of time. One of the reasons creeks were buried in Sausalito and mostly forgotten was to make room for buildings, streets and yards, …
Unburying the Creek Beneath It, A School Becomes a Steward
Before the shoreline was lined with shipyards during World War II, creeks flowed through Sausalito in the North Bay—rare permanent streams in a dry state full of ephemeral ones. The trees that grew up around these creeks lent the city their name: “little willow grove,” or, in Spanish, Sausalito. But the name has long been ironic, as the creeks were forced into underground culverts in the name of progress. “The …
Week of the Creek
In the span of nine days in 2023, a buried perennial creek in Sausalito went from being twice forgotten to having a fighting chance to be reborn into the community.
Of the six creeks in the City that have been buried, Willow Creek is the one creek that could be restored from its headwaters to the Bay. Voters passed Measure P in 2020, authorizing a general obligation bond of $41 Million for school reconstruction by the Sausalito Marin City School …
Landmark Accomplishment – Willow Creek Signage!
Friends of Willow Creek worked with Sausalito Beautiful and the City Public Works to replace the fence creek crossing along Bridgeway with a new decorative fence and beautiful sign denoting Willow Creek. The new sign plays a critical role in raising public awareness of this natural resource in the City. This is a landmark accomplishment of our group, a permanent reminder to our community of the living creek we still have to protect and restore. And a positive remembrance of …
Willow Creek Helps Drought Challenged School District
Friends of Willow Creek worked with Sausalito-Marin City School District this Summer to restart the Well and Water Tank (connected to the Willow Creek basin). The tank and pumping system will enable irrigation of the playfields and mitigate the challenges of maintaining the fields during the ever more frequent periods of drought. City and School District managers are proving to be important allies and partners in creek restoration, sharing their knowledge and experience in other communities integrating water resources with …
Friends of Willow Creek Celebrates a Decade of Stewardship and Advocacy
This year Friends of Willow Creek celebrated our 10-year anniversary as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental education and creek resources of Sausalito.
For those of you that toiled for hours pulling out weeds and planting native plants at the creek and on the campus, we have good news to share. Through partnerships with the City and the School District, we are gaining support and making progress in having Willow Creek restored above ground on the campus at 636 …
Measure P Passes with Potential Funding for Creek Restoration
FoWC donated time and money in 2020 to the “Yes on Measure P” campaign to issue bonds for Sausalito and Marin City school campus renovations, including creek restoration. Leading up to the vote, FoWC board members joined Measure P organizers and community members placing calls to residents and urging a “Yes” vote. Measure P passed with the highest percentage of “Yes” votes of any school bond measure in California in 2020 at 73% of the vote. These bonds funds are …
Lennox Foundation Grant for Creek Daylighting on Willow Creek Academy Campus
This winter the Friends worked extra hard to apply for large private and public grants to make creek restoration on the Willow Creek Academy (WCA) campus a reality. Board member Emily Schmidt was a sponsor for our application to the Lennox Foundation to design a daylighted creek in the upper campus, and remove the non-native eucalyptus trees to accommodate the restoration. Also included is design of an outdoor classroom to accompany what would be a new, ¼-acre size outdoor laboratory …
Friends of Willow Creek Celebrates 6th Anniversary
March 31st, 2017 Marks the Sixth Anniversary of Friends of the Creek
Today marks our 6th anniversary as a 501c3 nonprofit, as we were established on March 31, 2011, in anticipation of Earth Day that year when we cleared the Nevada and Bridgeway Willow Grove site for the first time. Since then, we’ve not looked back, taking advantage of the great opportunity we have to create stewardship of this Creek by the Willow Creek Academy public school and the …
Campus Native Plant Gardens 2017
Friends Board member Anne Siskin has been working with head of School Tara Seekins and Maintenance Chief Alan Rothkop, as well as some WCA 3rd graders and mentor students from Marin Country Day, to design a drainage system to go with our new 2000 square foot 
hillside native plant garden. On MLK Day this year, over 80 volunteers from local business Heath Ceramics helped the Friends clear weeds from this hillside in the center of campus and plant dozens …