Happy New Year!

Happy new year!   The Friends Of The Creek are keeping busy advancing the prospect of daylighting the creek through Sausalito, but also building partnerships around stewardship in the watershed, and supporting the teachers of the local public school in environmental, experiential education.  Recent success in the City to protect the Lincoln-Butte open space next to Willow Creek’s neighboring creek to the north, spearheaded by the local group Open Space Sausalito, bodes well for our goals of restoring creeks, beyond just …

School District Bond Resolution Passed:  $500,000 for drainage improvements and creek restoration!

On August 2 the Sausalito Marin City School Board passed a resolution to include $500,000 in funding for drainage improvements and creek restoration in the upcoming  bond measure. The Willow Creek Daylighting Project is now officially part of the proposed measure that goes before voters on Tuesday, November 8. The Friends of Willow Creek, Sausalito will raise an additional $2 Million in matching grants and donations to complete the project from “boundary to boundary” through the entire school campus. This …

Willow Creek has Exceptional Water Quality for an Urban Creek – Aquatic Insects

During the holiday break, Professor Matthew Cover of Cal State Stanislaus joined Friends of the Creek, Chair, Steve Moore to sampled benthic macroinvertebrates (i.e., aquatic insects & other critters) from the stream bed on the Willow Grove site.  The population of insects that live in streams indicate the level of water quality.  If there is a lot of pollution or concrete channelization, the creatures that live in the stream are less pollution sensitive, like earthworms and midges.   Conversely, if the …

Friends of the Creek – September 2014 Newsletter

Friends of Willow Creek (of Sausalito),

Happy new (school) year!  For the friends, that means fall work parties to take care of the creek at Willow Grove!

Fall Community Cleanup Events at Willow Grove, Corner of Nevada St. and Bridgeway

Saturday September 27, 9:00 – 11:00 A.M., end of summer weeding and watering of recently cleared/planted areas, tour of site for new parents at Willow Creek Academy before Parent Council Barbecue & Book Fair up on campus.  At Earth Day …

Summer News & Updates

We hope you are having a great summer!

Board Meeting, Sunday August 17, 4pm

The board of the nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, Friends of Willow Creek, will be meeting Creekside at Nevada and Bridgeway (Willow Grove) at 4:00 pm on Sunday August 17, in case you would like to come by and talk about the creek activities and the ambitious plan to daylight the creek all the way through town to the Bay, and of course meet your friendly board members …

Fourth Annual Earth Day Willow Creek Community Clean-up

Fourth Annual Earth Day Willow Creek Community Clean-up

Friends of Willow Creek will be hosting the fourth annual Earth Day Willow Creek Community Cleanup and Native Plant Restoration on Saturday, April 26th, from 9:00 am to 12:30pm. Each year, Friends of the Creek volunteers invite community members and families to join this annual event dedicated to clearing invasives and planting natives.
Willow Creek is part of a growing network of restoration efforts in Marin County led by volunteers dedicated to restoring and enhancing our natural resources and  raising …

FUN CREEK FACTS

Did you know that throughout this historic drought in California, the lowest rainfall in recorded history (about 150 years), our neighborhood Willow Creek has continued to flow year round?
Q: How can this little creek flow year-round, when there was almost no rain between January 2013 and February 2014?  Where does this water come from?
A: The water in Willow Creek comes from condensation of the marine fog layer on the crest of the ridge above Sausalito.  The dew collects …

Celebrate our 4th Annual Earth Day cleanup and planting!

Please save the date to celebrate our 4th Annual Earth Day cleanup and planting!

When:  Saturday April 26, 9am to 12:30pm
Where:  Willow Grove at Nevada and Bridgeway, Sausalito
How:  Work with neighbors and naturalists to identify and remove nonnative blackberry, fennel, ivy, hemlock, and broom plants that crowd out natives and open space by the creek.  Also plant some native plants from our school’s hoop house that were donated by Marin Headlands Native Plant Nursery.
Why:  To create outdoor …

Happy New Year!

Thanks to all of you who joined us in Sept and Oct to clean up the creek area and plant some gorgeous native plants.  The place looks great (and ready for some more rain!).  On Nov. 20 we had a decent storm and I attached 2 pictures of the creek at the “Willow Grove” for your enjoyment.

We wanted to remind you about community native planting and cleanup work scheduled for the coming year.  Mark your calendars and join us …

Creek Daylighting Plan Update

The plan and profile of the existing Willow Creek drainage through Sausalito is now mapped on an aerial photograph and available for review.  Email me if you would like a PDF for reference.  It is 5 MB and 7 pages of 11 X 17 dimension, in case you want to print it.

Creek board of directors have met with and selected Prunuske Chatham, Inc. of Sebastopol to assist in creek restoration design work between Lincoln Drive and the Bay.  The …