Community Service Day – Volunteer Saturday, October 1

Many organizations, including Friends of the Creeks, are participating in the City-sponsored Community Service Day to encourage people to volunteer.  There are 45 projects to choose from.  Friends of the Creeks is sponsoring two:

• Creek Cleanup at Pine Creek (under Animals, Creeks, and Open Space)
• Demonstration Garden at Civic Park (under Gardens & Parks).  This is an extension of the Creek Walk.

To sign up, go to the City of Walnut Creek website

The Creek Walk Is Open!

Construction of the Creek Walk in Civic Park East began in late September 2010.  This section of the project includes interpretive panels, picnic tables, realignment of the trail farther away from the creek, a new pedestrian-only trail, and replanting of the project area with plants native to the Walnut Creek vicinity.

By mid November the main trail was realigned, the habitat logs had been brought in, some planting areas were delineated, and installation of the irrigation system was underway.  Work was completed in late January, and then the three-month plant establishment period began. 

On May 21, Mayor Cindy Silva dedicated it and now it's ready for you to enjoy.

Bioassessment Program

The bioassessment program was smaller this year due to County budget cutbacks.  We sampled in just one creek – San Ramon Creek in Danville – in late May.  The site had not been sampled for several years, so we are looking forward to seeing how the water quality is.  Every year one creek is sampled with side-by-side nets for quality control on the sampling procedure.  This is called replicate sampling.  This year our crew did it.

Fish Sampling

In August 2010 we began a new program – gathering data on the fish in Walnut Creek just below the drop structure near the Willows Shopping Center.  This location is the farthest upstream that steelhead and salmon can come to spawn.  We are attempting to document their success by sampling several times over the course of a year to see what species are present in the creek in each season.

We returned to the area a couple of times in December to look for salmon.  We found a few the first time, none the second.  However, there were lots of signs of otters.

Annual Creek Cleanup

Once again the creek is clean, the butterfly habitat is weeded, and more arundo has been removed from the creek channel.  Thank you to all who helped accomplish this.

Photos of the 2011 creek cleanup are available here.
Photos of the 2010 cleanup are available here. 

The next annual downtown creek cleanup will be on Saturday, May 12, 2012.

The area under these oak trees at the east end of the Creek Walk will be the new IPM demonstration garden.  We will plant it with oak and butterfly-friendly species on October 1.

 
People explore the Creek Walk after the dedication

Removing a shopping cart from the creek in Civic Park, 2011