More than 5,000 years ago, nobody lived here.
Plants and animals lived at the creek. They used it for food and water.
5,000 years ago, the Miwaks had a seasonal village down by the creek. They used it for food, water,
and shelter. They lived in harmony with the plants and animals and protected them.
In 1775, their lives changed forever. Between 1775 and 1820, explorers discovered Sausalito.
They took over the land the Miwaks had and claimed it for their homeland.
During the Rancho period in the 1800s, William Richardson owned Rancho del Sausalito
and made it his home. He let his cows graze by the creek.
A distillery and railroad were built in the late 1800s.
The Chinese railroad workers lived nearby. The distillery produced medicine and alcohol.
In World War II, workers built liberty ships at Morin Ship.
Later, the shipyards filled with boat builders who constructed houseboats and sailboats.
The distillery along the creek burnt down. Condos are being built by the creek
and people are polluting the creek with oil, trash, and pesticides.
No one knows or seems to care about the native plants and animals at the creek.
The creek is so overgrown with invasive plants like broom, blackberries,
ivy, poison oak, thistle, and fennel. It is very hard to even see the creek
beneath all the overgrowth and trash. This is the creek now.
The invasive plants are cleared. New native plants are being planted.
There's still work to do, but now we begin to see the results of five years of hard work.
Willow Creek got involved with the creek project about five or six years ago.
We were working with naturalists from Point Bonita on outdoor education programs,
and they came up with the idea of trying to restore this little piece of creek that they
knew was very close to the school. So the people at Point Bonita, the YMCA, requested a grant from
an organization called State Farm, and they gave us twenty-five thousand dollars to start taking
care of the creek. So we came up with ideas of what to do, most of which involved getting rid
of non-native plants and then planting proper plants that are native and that belong there.
And then as you all know, there's been, you know, water testing and you're learning all about where
the water originally comes from, and perhaps someday we can make the creek larger and bigger
and maybe even come through the school campus. This invasive plant is taking all the nutrients out
of our soil, and then the soil is really bad for our native plants, and they're gonna die.
This is the fourth year of this project, and when we began, this entire area was
overgrown with non-native fennel and blackberry, Himalayan blackberry. So now all of the plants
that you see, excluding the larger willows and other trees, have been planted by students
and volunteers to help restore the habitat here for native animals, including insects like this one,
and it's all done because of students and their hard work and grants that we've received.
There's going to be this big party down at the creek on Nevada Street, and we're going to be
planting and taking out plants, and there's going to be food and drinks and anybody who wants to come
can come. It's out in nature and I like nature and it's cool. I work as a naturalist for the Point
Benita YMCA Outdoor Education Center, and here I'm working for Willow Creek to teach the children
about whatever they ask questions about regarding the native plants or animals. What we can do to
help protect the plants, when they're young we can water them in the dry season, and always we
can be respectful. So we should always look where we're walking and have a soft step. The creek had
a lot of plants and some of them we've planted today. Seep Spring, Twinberry, California blackberry
to name a few. There's Red Elderberry and we've planted Coyote Brush and Bull Rushes. That way the
roots can spread more quickly. So there are lots and lots and lots of plants that grow along freshwater
and creek here in the Bay Area and we're planting those down today. It's really hard but it's worth
it because we need a lot more animals over here and there's not that really much native plants around
here so we're trying to grow more and planting grass. California native grass. It can restore the
creek and make a habitat for animals so that they could live here again. The fish gonna come back.
They're gonna be. In the future the creek is crystal clear and invasive plants are nowhere
to be seen. Willow Creek Grove is thick with native plants and many native species have a
term to make the creek their home.
What a wonderful creek.
This is the landscape where the deer like to play and salmon and bears before they were chased away.
The me walks use poison oak to make tattoos and they lead to hunt even on their shoes.
I see salamanders, I have raccoons, noobs may fly there, woodpeckers do and I think to myself
what a wonderful creek.
Let's meet up the trash, make sure we do our part, there's so much history here,
there's so much heart. We want the fish to come back, the birds to sing, the humans to love
without hurting anything. I was in water run, I watched it flow, I learned much more than I
thought I know and I think to myself what a wonderful creek.
