Habitat Restoration Projects
Through habitat restoration projects, Friends of Corte Madera Creek has an opportunity to make tangible and dramatic improvements to the watershed's natural environment at a small scale, and often at the same time to involve the community in exemplary and satisfying projects. Some of these projects depend upon volunteer labor and modest grants to cover the costs of plants, planting supplies and temporary irrigation systems; limited professional help may be hired to, for example, remove non-native trees.

Projects on private property, where Friends may serve in an advisory role, generally call for professional labor and more significant funding. Friends is in the planning stages of two such projects that also require engineering expertise and various permits and approvals.

Friends of Corte Madera Creek is managing five volunteer-run revegetation projects on school and college property adjacent to creeks.

Larkspur Creek
Shown here: Redwood High School students clearing fennel; view up Larkspur Creek from Doherty Drive.

Begun in the fall of 1996, this cooperative endeavor with Mitch Cohen's Redwood High School classes and the City of Larkspur has led to the revegetation of one bank of a largely tidal section of Larkspur Creek between Doherty Drive and Meadowood Drive. The artificial channel is about 1500 feet long, cuts through filled marshland, and bounds the Niven property on two sides. In the first season we removed acacia and pampas grass from the lower section, and we continue the eradication of French broom and fennel; a few acacias remain in the upstream section. The exposed location and poor soil are challenges for revegetation, so plantings have been restricted to 6 species of trees (mainly coast live oak and willow), 7 species of shrubs and vines, and 4 species of grasses, sedges and rushes. As these species grow and provide shade and leaf litter, the environment should become more hospitable to a wider variety of plants.

Funding has been provided by the Marin County Wildlife and Fisheries Advisory Committee.

Sleepy Hollow Creek
Shown here: Sleepy Hollow Creek before work began; Sleepy Hollow Creek, the same view three years later.

Our most varied and successful restoration project is on the Drake High School Campus in San Anselmo. Since the fall of 1997 we have been working with Sue Fox's students in the SEA DISC Academy on an 830-foot section of Sleepy Hollow Creek between Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Saunders Avenue. Each year, the academy's new students survey existing vegetation, remove invasive non-native plants, and recommend and install native plantings. The site was originally dominated by acacia, plum, and blackberry, and had suffered a landslide. In the years since we have planted 13 species of trees, 25 species of shrubs and vines, and 24 species of grasses, sedges, ferns and forbs. Approximately 180 native and non-native plant species have been observed, including the showy native broomrape Orobanche vallicola, last reported in the Ross Valley in 1924. Alders planted in 1997 are now over 45 feet tall, and luxuriant willows too have transformed the creek environment into a habitat nurturing a much more diverse wildlife.

Funding has been provided by the Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program.

For more information:
DrakeHighPlants.pdf (67 KB)


College of Marin Ecology Study Area
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Click for map of Ecology Study Area
Shown here: The Ecology Study Area lies across the channel; French broom filled open areas; a newly planted area.

This woodland site covers 2 acres adjacent to the multi-use path that links the college and Marin General Hospital, and is bounded by Corte Madera Creek and a tidal slough. We initiated the project in 1998 by pulling broom and installing a small number of coyote brush plants and oaks. It has developed into a cooperative effort with the College of Marin, and has as a goal the eventual replacement of eucalyptuses and acacias with oaks, buckeyes, willows, and other native trees and shrubs, to create a diverse woodland of native species. A large area was cleared and replanted with nearly 400 plants in early 2005. A survey has been conducted to ensure that roosting herons and egrets will be disturbed as little as is possible.

Funding of the early planning phases was provided by the San Francisco Estuary Project. Funding for implementation has been provided by the Willis Evans Watershed Habitat Improvement Grant Program of the Marin Municipal Water District. Water for the temporary drip system is donated by the Ross Valley Sanitary District.

For more information:
PlantIDInvasivePlants.pdf (332 KB)
PlantIDNativeShrubs&Vines.pdf (318 KB)
PlantIDNativeTrees.pdf (344 KB)
Recommended Native Riparian Plants (Word document/332 KB)

Fairfax Creek
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Shown here: White Hill students plant sedge by Fairfax Creek.

Friends’ newest habitat restoration project is at White Hill Middle School, where five classes and their teacher, Celia Cuomo, are working with us on upper Fairfax Creek. The creek—inaccessible to salmonids above downtown Fairfax—lies between the school and its games field, and has one steep bank lined with bays and non-native plum trees, and an opposite more gently sloping bank dominated by oaks and willows. In November 2004, after clearing blackberries and broom from a section of the gentler slope, we installed 18 species of native plants, including buckeye, oak, elderberry, toyon, rose, and fern. We plan to extend the project in successive years.

Funding has been provided by the LEF Foundation, and water for initial irrigation by the Ross Valley School District.

Invasive Spartina Eradication
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Shown here: The Marin Conservation Corps has been working throughout the estuary.

Friends are participating in a project that is underway throughout the tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay to eradicate invasive non-native cordgrasses (Spartina spp.). We have received funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy's Invasive Spartina Project (ISP) to work toward eliminating three species of introduced cordgrass in our estuary. These very destructive plants alter both the structure and function of tidal creeks and wetlands, hurting bird, mammal and fish species of special concern. Invasive cordgrasses also clog open channels and reduce navigability of waterways.

The ISP has researched eradication methods and has followed standard Integrated Pest Management protocols to develop the current treatment techniques. In many locations, spraying individual plants with an herbicide containing the active ingredient imazapyr is the most effective method, causing the least disturbance to the marsh. Where it is feasible, we have dug up clumps of invasive Spartina. The ISP has carefully documented the project, including the staff's thorough analysis of the various treatment methods; the documentation is available on ISP's website at www.spartina.org

We carried out a pilot project at Piper Park in Larkspur starting in 2002. In 2005 and 2006 we treated most of the infestations in the Corte Madera Creek estuary, except for a few isolated spots where individual property owners were reluctant to participate. Follow-up treatments (preferably digging) will be done over the next few years to complete the project. Crews from the Marin Conservation Corps did the digging and we hired licensed contractors for the spraying. For almost all of our watershed, the treatment season is September through January, as we cannot enter known California clapper rail breeding habitat during the bird's breeding season.. Another limitation is that we cannot spray after the plants have started dying back for the winter, so that this treatment is limited to September and the first half of October.

We wish to thank all those property owners who have participated in this project, the aim of which is to maintain the richness of plant and animal life in our marshes.

Fish Habitat Improvement
Shown here: The concrete channel in Ross; photo by Lou Vaccaro. Fish ladder under Saunders Avenue, San Anselmo; photo by Charles Kennard.

Friends received two awards in 2005 from the San Francisco Bay Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund to improve fish habitat in Corte Madera Creek and its tributaries in the Ross Valley. The awards were made by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), the California Department of Fish and Game, and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The funds were provided by Caltrans as required mitigation for possible impacts on steelhead and salmon from pile driving and other activities undertaken as part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project. The funds are being used to benefit salmonids in central and south San Francisco Bay watersheds.

One award to Friends will be used to assess barriers to steelhead passage in our watershed. A team of engineers and fish biologists will address three different problems that steelhead encounter when they are migrating and when they seek out deep, cool pools necessary for their survival during the summer and early fall. These are: inadequate resting pools in the concrete channel in Kentfield and Ross; a poorly designed fish ladder and unstable streambanks immediately upstream of the concrete channel; and other barriers caused by culverts and low dams that keep fish from moving easily between spawning and summer rearing habitat.

Conceptual designs for improving the resting pools in the concrete channel and replacing the fish ladder and improving bank stability immediately upstream of the concrete channel will also be developed.

The second award will fund the design and permitting necessary to replace two old fish ladders on San Anselmo Creek; one is at Saunders Avenue in San Anselmo and the second in Fairfax at Pastori Avenue. Although some steelhead can get through these two fish ladders, neither meets the current standards for fish passage used by NOAA Fisheries and California Department of Fish and Game.

For both projects, Friends has assembled a team of well-qualified experts, including Stetson Engineers Inc., Michael Love Associates, and Ross Taylor and Associates. They will be joined for the permitting work on the second project by Garcia and Associates, Inc., and A.A. Rich and Associates. Friends and the teams assembled to do this work will coordinate closely with the Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and the towns of Ross, San Anselmo, and Fairfax where the studies will take place.

For more information:
BarrierAssessment.pdf (1273 KB)
FishLadderReplacement.pdf (99 KB)

Fairfax Creek Survey
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Shown here: CreekWatchers on Fairfax Creek. Photo by Gary Leo.

In 1999 A. A. Rich and Associates conducted a study of fish in most of the tributaries to the Corte Madera Creek system, but Fairfax Creek received only cursory study due to the constraints of time and funding. Also, there is a long culvert at the downstream end of Fairfax Creek that is a complete barrier to migration for steelhead. On the premise that Fairfax Creek could support rainbow trout if the creek's condition were improved, Friends began a general survey of the creek in 2000.

Fairfax Creek parallels Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and collects water from the slopes of White's Hill, Loma Alta, and the hills east of Camp Tamarancho. It passes through downtown Fairfax in a long culvert before reaching its confluence with San Anselmo Creek behind Dominga Avenue. Wet season flows create lateral scour pools and shallow riffles throughout Fairfax Creek, and deposit gravel, sand, and silt. At the end of the dry season there is little flow, but still a number of connected pools. The banks have abundant vegetative cover.

During the summers of 2000-2003, Friends' CreekWatchers surveyed and mapped 69 sites along its populated length. Participants developed these maps to provide themselves, agency staff, property owners, environmental organizations, and political bodies with a picture of the creek, and locations along the creek that have restoration potential. The maps also provide baseline conditions so when a restoration project is undertaken, the results of these efforts can be measured.

Survey teams began the mapping project near Dominga Avenue, at the confluence of San Anselmo and Fairfax creeks and proceeded upstream along Fairfax Creek towards its headwaters. Taking measurements of sequential 100 ft. sections, volunteers noted: direction of creek flow; creek width; the depth and location of pools and riffles; substrate; the condition of creek banks and the location and type of creek bank stabilization structures; sightings of wildlife; the land-use of adjacent banks; the estimated width of the riparian area, its vegetation and the location of trees; the approximate distance of buildings and fences from the top of the creek bank; and the location of diversion pipes and outfalls. A photographic survey supplemented written records.

This project was funded by MCSTOPPP.

For more information:
San Anselmo Creeks Survey (pdf)

Water Quality Testing
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Shown here: Students from Ross School participate in water quality testing.


Friends of Corte Madera Creek strives to ensure that we can safely use our creek for recreation, and that fish and wildlife have the high quality habitats they require to thrive. To this end, volunteers assist specialists to sample and test water so that problems can be identified and solutions developed to improve water quality.

Volunteers have participated in the following activities:

Volunteers measured temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and specific conductivity in Ross Creek and Phoenix Lake from May through October 2008. The same parameters were measured in San Anselmo Creek at Bridge Avenue from June through October 2008. For reports on the results of these projects see:
RossCreekPhoenixLake2008.pdf (644 KB)
BridgeT_DO.pdf (632 KB)


Creek Cleanup
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Shown here: Tides deposit much of the litter found near the mouth of the creek.

With approximately 20 miles of creeks running through urban areas, it's no wonder that a considerable amount of litter accumulates in our waterways. Additional litter is brought into our estuary by the tide and deposited in the salt marshes. Litter is not only unsightly, but also covers vegetation and can trap or poison wildlife.

Friends of Corte Madera Creek's first creek cleanup was held in 1996 in the tidal section of Corte Madera Creek, and with the help of Trout Unlimited, Marin Recycling, and Marin Outdoors, we picked up hundreds of tennis balls, mountains of Styrofoam, old tires and other trash, a hypodermic needle, rat poison and a bottle with a message (the content of which history doesn't relate). Friends organizes an annual cleanup of the tidal marshes of the Corte Madera Creek as our contribution to the state-wide Coastal Cleanup Day each September. The City of Larkspur and the Town of Corte Madera help by picking up and disposing of the trash, and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District allows us to use the ferry terminal parking lot for staging our cleanup.

Since the flood of 1982 municipalities upstream have organized annual cleanups that take place before the winter rains, to remove trash, and the woody debris and low-hanging branches that are considered impediments to flood water. The benefits of leaving natural debris and low-hanging branches are often overlooked: low branches reduce water velocity and so limit bank erosion, while fallen trees are an essential part of a good fish habitat.

To participate in Friends' late summer cleanup, watch for information in the calendar section of our website or in Creek Chronicles. For information on fall creek cleanups in Fairfax and San Anselmo call each town's volunteer coordinator; for information regarding Ross, contact the Department of Public Works.

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Articles relating to topics covered on this page may be found in Creek News.

Photo in logo: Drake High School students construct a basket to control erosion.

All use of text and photographs for other than personal purposes is prohibited without permission from Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.

All photographs © Charles Kennard unless otherwise credited.

Web site design by Karen Peterson, San Anselmo.

Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed
PO Box 415 Larkspur, CA 94977
415-456-5052 (voice) / 415-456-4992 (fax)
info@friendsofcortemaderacreek.org