Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed “ C r e e k s C o n n e c t C o m m u n i t i e s ”

Who We Are & What We Do The Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed (FOMCW) is a community organization whose mission is to protect, conserve, and restore Marsh Creek and its tributaries, and to inspire appreciation and conservation of the Marsh Creek Watershed. Restoration Water Quality Monitoring Advocacy & Stewardship OutreachEducation Community Service

Our Philosophy “In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” Baba Dioum Involvement DoingLearningActionTeaching

Why Are We Talking About It Tonight ▪ The success of Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed is based on getting input from lots of people- our vision becomes more enriched and the experience becomes more rewarding when we get unique perspectives and expertise involved. ▪ We want each walk and hike to be interesting and unique- we want your input tonight and as we move along. ▪ It is easier to incorporate other people’s ideas ahead of time than trying to do it at the last minute (but still share at the last minute and we will do what we can!)

The Big Idea Let’s give everyone the opportunity to see Marsh Creek WATERSHED from top to bottom. ▪ Many people interact with the creek in only a few ways (walking the trail, coming out to plant, coming out to clean up trash, etc.) - SO let’s expose them to more! ▪ People don’t know about all the other parts of the creek and how it is all connected. ▪ Let’s bring everyone together so that they can see other parts of the creek AND they can teach each other! ▪ It will be fun!

Seeing the B I G Picture ▪ Let’s start from the top and work our way down ▪ Let’s examine all the parts as we go (history, hydrology, plants, wildlife, potential for restoration, and more!) ▪ Let’s bring in our partners to help enrich the experience ▪ Let’s get input from others to make sure we don’t leave anything out ▪ Let’s document it along the way

Let’s start from the top and work our way down … Top of Mount Diablo (how many watersheds will we see?) Mercury Mine Morgan Territory Round Valley Marsh Creek Reservoir John Marsh House Possible Junior College Site Creek Road & Bypass) Creekside Park Brentwood (a park in a detention basin) Upper Sand Creek Basin (let’s talk tributaries) Dainty Center to Palmilla (Three Creeks Project) Fish Ladder Brentwood Waste Water Treatment Plant Creekside Park Oakley (two stage channel restoration project) Contra Costa County Water District (canal crosses) Ironhouse Sanitary District lands Dutch Slough Big Break The Delta

Let’s examine all the parts as we go (history, hydrology, plants, wildlife, potential for restoration, and more!) Topics We Will Cover Along the Way History Plants Wildlife Water Quality Hydrology Restoration Efforts Open Space Advocacy Health & Trails Habitat Restoration Development & Creeks Park Planning Environmental Stewardship What Agencies Are Doing & Where Pollution Prevention Mercury In Marsh Creek Marsh Creek & the Delta

Ideas? Contacts? Please Share!! Let’s bring in our partners to help enrich the experience Potential Partners Coming Along on Our Hikes/ Walks: Save Mount Diablo * East Bay Regional Park District * Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy * CCC Clean Water Program * CCC Flood Control District * CC Resource Conservation District * California Department of Water Resources * John Marsh Historical Trust * Cities of Brentwood & Oakley * Ironhouse Sanitary District * California Native Plant Society * Area Experts on History, Plants, Water Quality, Habitat Restoration, Wildlife, Hydrology and more…..

Let’s get input from others to make sure we don’t leave anything out This is why we are doing this presentation tonight: What would you like to see? Would you like to help? Share!! Along the way we will ask for input!

Let’s document it along the way As we go we will collect photos, GPS coordinates, videos, interesting Web Links, and other documents to share before & after FOMCW is working with an App company to do a self guided tour of Marsh Creek that will be using all of this information for the tour (this will be a topic of a future FOMCW meeting) We will be possibly creating videos with interns this summer for outreach and education efforts. We will be sharing this with those that can’t make it in newsletters and on social media

Timeline ▪ Originally this was a “let’s do this in one year effort” but there is so much to see- let’s not limit this to one year. It looks like it will be at least 18 months. ▪ If it is popular we will go back up and do it again! ▪ Saturday, January 24 th Morgan Territory ▪ Saturday, February 21 st Site to Be Announced ▪ March will be announced next month ▪ Question: Should we do only one a month?

Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed T h a n k Y o u

Announcements ▪ MLK Day of Service at Upper Sand Creek THIS coming MONDAY 9:30 to 12:30. Trash cleanup (stormwater overflowed!), weeding & mulching. More info on website and reminder will be ed out Friday. ▪ Hike on January 24 th ▪ FOMCW Ex. Dir. Diane Burgis elected and sworn in to EBRPD Board ▪ FOMCW was interviewed on KGO radio regarding pesticides in creeks ▪ FOMCW was featured in December issue of 110 Degree Magazine ▪ Fish Ladder maintenance day coming up in early February (to be announced) ▪ High School Internship is moving forward for this summer!! (Our 4 th Year!) ▪ New City Manager in Brentwood starts in February ▪ Next Scheduled FOMCW meeting : March 19 th ▪ March & April events currently being planned including Creek Day in Oakley (April 18 th ) & Earth Day Community Service Project with Wells Fargo