April 25, 2011
It's a sunny Saturday at the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) offices beside Lagunitas Creek in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Chattering birds descend from branches overhead. The green is so vibrant, the breeze fragrant, the blue sky and white puffs of cloud exaggerated in color and closeness. And in the midst of this, the now chocolate-colored Lagunitas Creek has swallowed a good portion of its floodplain and is rushing west toward Tomales Bay.
Sixty days. That's about how long it takes for coho eggs to hatch. Sixty days ago, a smattering of spawning coho salmon graced the waters of this creek. Sixty days ago, torrents of rain dumped from the sky, sopping into the ground and filling the salmon-inhabited creeks. In the rain and drizzle, SPAWN-trained volunteer naturalists toured the Lagunitas Creek Watershed with salmon-seekers from the north and environmental gurus from the south that found their way to the San Geronimo Valley for a glimpse of spawning coho. Despite the slight uptick in number of fish from the past two devastatingly low years, these trained guides and eager onlookers only caught sporadic salmon sightings. Everything else in the watershed was on display--from birds to banana slugs, fungi and ferns, and even salamanders--but so few salmon.
| |||
Native Oregon ash, Valley oak, Coast redwood, ocean spray, and coffeeberry sink into freshly dug holes and stretch their roots in the moistened ground. Partnering with landowners, SPAWN and its volunteers plant along five key tributaries of Lagunitas Creek, including San Geronimo Creek--the only undammed headwaters. Augmenting a project repairing over two miles of non-county-maintained roads, these plants will help reduce sediment sliding into streams during heavy rains. The larger trees will hold soil in place with well-developed root systems and prevent erosion.
A darker cloud comes into view- perhaps rain on the horizon. That's okay. SPAWN is busy storing up this winter's rain in anticipation of a hot, dry summer. Within weeks of connecting the rainwater cisterns to the roof of the office, an 1100 gallon tank is nearly half-full. The rainwater tanks, which were purchased by community members through SPAWN's special bulk order and installed in December, are likely already at capacity. Rapid inches of precipitation test the ability of SPAWN's five public demonstration gardens to slow, spread, and sink the rain water run-off instead off causing it to pollute and wash out spawning habitat in the creeks. A number of Marin residents helped to build these gardens as part of six rainwater-harvesting workshops conducted through SPAWN's 10,000 Rain Gardens project.
| |
For more information: www.spawnusa.org
More Information About
Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN)
More Articles...
TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2011