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, …
Archive for category: Community
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Earth Day 2013 at the Creek!
Thanks to all who joined us for a successful Earth Day/Global Youth Service Day event on Sat. April 27! It was another wonderfully successful event, where we cleared more space near the creek of blackberries and ivy, and also planted over 200 of our native plants that we nurture up on Willow Creek campus in the Hoop House Nursery (thanks again to Alisa Shor and the Marin Headlands Nursery for all these riparian, meadow and upland plants!). We hauled another …
Jiji Foundation Grant Obtained!!!!!!
The Friends of Willow Creek are honored and excited to announce our receiving an $8,000 grant to create a creek daylighting plan for the Willow Creek Watershed. Daylighting is when you remove a creek from an underground pipe and re-create its open, vegetated channel above ground. Since 2011, we have submitted numerous grant applications, including to the U.S. EPA Urban Waters Program, but we were finally successful in winning a grant from the fabulous Jiji Foundation www.jiji.org that supports community …