Muir Beach Restoration: Return to the Wild

After more than two years of work, the mouth of Redwood Creek is starting to return to its wild and natural state as it flows into the ocean at Muir Beach. I took part in a drop-in volunteer program last week, helping out with the restoration project and learning about the progress that has taken place. The staff and volunteers from the Redwood Creek Nursery joined forces with Park Stewardship workers and AmeriCorps volunteers to restore an area with native plants and to improve habitat for the fish in Redwood Creek.

The Muir Beach/Redwood Creek restoration has been underway since 2009, an ambitious project to rehabilitate the area after the ecological balance was significantly altered by decades of dairy farming, cattle grazing, and the construction of a levee. The channel of the creek has been restored to its natural state after the levee was removed, so now it can flow freely to the ocean. The creek is being enhanced to improve the habitat for coho salmon and steelhead trout, which swim upstream to spawn. Nearby wetlands are also being restored with native plants in an attempt to help the California red-legged frog, a federally listed threatened species.

I started off with the planting, after watching a demonstration done by Tori Bohlen from the Park Stewardship Program. We were planting a variety of native plants, including Coyote bush, Cow parsnip, Coffeeberry, and various wetland sedges and rushes. Redwood Creek Nursery manager Chelsea Dicksion gave us a helpful mnemonic device to differentiate between some of the common wetland native plants, telling us that “sedges have edges and rushes are round.” The soil was thick with clay and tough to dig through, but I managed to get a fair amount of plants in the ground by the time we took a break after an hour and a half.

The break was a welcome relief from bending over and digging, and we stood next to our creekside workplace, feasting on snacks and admiring our work from afar. Small bamboo stakes marked the places where we had put in new plants, and we could see that we had accomplished a lot in a short period of time. It felt good to be part of the transformation of this landscape and to be in this beautiful place. The sound of crashing waves and croaking frogs accompanied our chatter as we munched on crackers and cookies, taking it all in.

After the break, we all went back to work, this time using a bit of creativity to enhance the environment for the fish in Redwood Creek. Now that the creek channel has been restored, it is clear and free of debris, leaving few places for fish, frogs, and other wildlife to hide from their predators. In a completely natural state, the creek would have some fallen logs and branches that float down from Mount Tamalpais. Our aim was to temporarily mimic this state, with bundles of logs and sticks tied together with twine. We built the bundles and hauled them down to the creek, where they were strategically “installed” in the eddies of the creek, creating a safe place for wildlife. This was tough work and I was sore by the end of the program, but it was the good kind of sore.

The Redwood Creek Nursery has a regular drop-in volunteer program every Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. The nursery is one of five native plant nurseries that are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGMRA) and grow plants for various restoration projects around the parks. It is tucked away in a deep canyon on the side of Mount Tamalpais, hidden from the road by several large California buckeye trees. The nursery is right next to , but it feels a world away from the mobs of tourists that visit the Bay Area‘s most famous grove of redwoods every day. New volunteers are always welcome.