California Coast & Ocean

Freeing Redwood Creek
During the 1980s, park staff also began to worry about the health of Redwood Creek and its tributaries, whose once-impressive runs of coho salmon and steelhead trout had dwindled because of upstream flood-control measures and development in the creek’s floodplain. NPS and other government agencies that own land in the creek’s watershed, which extends from the peaks of Mt. Tamalpais to the Pacific Ocean and encompasses just under nine square miles, are now working to restore the creeks to a more natural condition.

One major site that is being restored is a former flower farm, now owned by NPS, in what was once Redwood Creek’s floodplain. The long-time owners, the Banducci family, had planted crops on much of the floodplain, moving and straightening the creek in some places, clearing out woody debris, and building levees to control its flow. One stretch of the creek through the Banducci land was so flat and straight it had been dubbed the Bowling Alley. Straightening the creek eliminated the pools that the salmon needed and caused severe flooding downstream during heavy rains, when the water rushed through unimpeded.

NPS began restoring the site in 2003, and since then most of the levees have been removed and log structures have been installed to encourage the creek to meander. What was the Bowling Alley is now “a series of pools and gravel bars that are great for salmon,” said Redwood Creek Nursery manager Chris Friedel, who coordinates the restoration work in the watershed, including the efforts of volunteers who do all the planting and weeding. The nursery is now run by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a nonprofit association created to assist park staff in the GGNRA.

Another, even more ambitious restoration project is scheduled to begin next year at the mouth of Redwood Creek. Its goal is to bring back part of Big Lagoon, the estuary that connects the creek to the ocean at Muir Beach. Before most of the lagoon was filled in for agriculture and by the construction of roads, levees, and a parking lot, its brackish waters were important habitat for juvenile salmon that had not yet adapted to the ocean environment. Because restoring Big Lagoon has to be balanced with the needs of neighbors and public access to Muir Beach, park officials have “spent years talking about how much lagoon is feasible there,” Monroe said. Now the conflicts have been minimized and the plans are almost ready, though the funds must still be raised.

Moonlight Walks and Celebrations
Being in the middle of a dense urban area has benefits as well as drawbacks. “We have huge challenges, but we also have this great resource” in the number of volunteers available to help restore and maintain the park, said nursery manager Friedel. “It works both ways; we can offer so many opportunities for urban kids to get out into nature and see how it works. The most exciting thing to me is to show them how to take care of this landscape.” Such close involvement, Friedel said, can help young people overcome the paralysis they feel when faced by big issues like global warming. “You tell them, ‘Here’s this creek, this watershed, get to work.’”

The nursery had more than 400 volunteers last year to help with planting and weeding. A lot of people like to pitch in during big events such as Earth Day, but a small band of regulars shows up each week. Schools send groups of students, and companies sponsor employee work days--some of whom come out year after year and “start to get a sense of ownership of the place,” Friedel said.

Beyond volunteer opportunities, Muir Woods offers a slate of programs tailored to different types of audiences: guided walks where visitors can learn about the park’s history and its redwoods, birds, salmon, and other natural resources; workshops and classroom curricula for teachers as well as field trips for schoolchildren; popular moonlight walks during summer months; and
celebrations of both the summer and winter solstices. “They sang and danced, and luminaria lighted the way through the woods,” Maribeth Halloran said of the winter solstice celebration she attended in 2007. “It was very simple, but very beautiful.” (See www.nps.gov/muwo for information about upcoming events.)