Salmon Protection And Watershed Network

April 5, 2006


New Property Acquisition

The Marin County-based Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) recently acquired a unique two-acre parcel with more than 200 redwoods and a section of San Geronimo Creek that will be protected in perpetuity. We continue to seek funding and volunteers to restore this unique acreage and create an education center focused on supporting the local community's efforts to live more fish-friendly lifestyles. Contact us if you would like to help!

San Geronimo Creek Restoration

Over the past year SPAWN partnered with CDFG, the Marin Resources and Conservation District (MRCD), National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Regional Water Quality Control Board, and Marin Conservation Corps to restore 600 feet of riparian corridor along San Geronimo Creek on the San Geronimo Golf Course. As part of this restoration effort we coordinated a three-day Bioengineering training workshop in partnership with the MRCD and Prunuske Chatham Inc. to train 20+ volunteers in the art of biotechnical bank stabilization. In 2005, more than 1,600 volunteer hours were dedicated to restoring riparian vegetation and creek banks at this site!

2005-06 Coho Spawning and Naturalist Season

	A coho leaps through the Inkwells on San Geronimo Creek. Photo: by Susan Farrar, SPAWN Naturalist

This winter a total of 190 coho redds were documented in Lagunitas Creek, Devil's Gulch Creek, San Geronimo Creek, and the San Geronimo Creek tributaries--the third-lowest year on record. SPAWN survey crews regularly monitor the San Geronimo Creek tributaries. This year they helped document the fact that 30% of the total coho spawners in the Lagunitas Creek watershed occur in these small tribs running right through the community's backyards. This year also brought several observations of Pacific lamprey as they wriggled through a small series of waterfalls on San Geronimo Creek.

Together with SPAWN biologists, long-time SPAWN naturalists and volunteers Megan Isadore and Susan Farrar trained 36 creek naturalists, including Samuel P. Taylor State Park rangers. Our dedicated corps of naturalists was out in the watershed every day during the spawning run, documenting coho activity and helping to educate hundreds of visitors to the watershed. In addition, we hosted three popular Winter Salmon Seminars featuring community leaders in watershed and salmon ecology.

Volunteers harvested 700+ willow stakes to build a brush mattress and willow wall along San Geronimo Creek as part of the 2005 Bioengineering Workshop. Photo: by Paola Bouley, SPAWN Biologist

Native Plant Propagation

In a partnership with College of Marin's Landscape Design Department, we sponsored a cuttings and native plant collection workshop in Samuel P. Taylor State Park. We continued our efforts to build a watershed nursery and to propagate native plants locally for community restoration projects. This past year we collected and are propagating local redwoods, alders, elk clover, hazelnut, and elderberry.

Lagunitas School Rain-Catchment Project

In 2005 the Lagunitas School Board unanimously approved SPAWN's plan to install a rainwater catchment design on the campus. This year, SPAWN in partnership with the RWQCB and Lagunitas School will build a system that will divert 30,000+ gallons of stormwater from roofs and a storm drain into a cistern that will serve to irrigate the School Garden during the dry summer months.

For more information go to www.spawnusa.org


This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-245

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