Plan launched to restore creek

SONOMA -- The glossy black waters of Nathanson Creek in downtown Sonoma do not look like a precious riparian habitat.

Empty water bottles and coffee cups litter the banks, a mountain bike is partially submerged mid-stream and blackberry brambles grow stubbornly in the mud.

The thumps and whistles of soccer games echo down the creek from nearby Sonoma High School. Grapevines drip fruit into the creek.

This is where endangered Chinook salmon have been spotted each fall since 2003.

Environmentalists of old may have simply fenced off the area, prohibited access and carefully monitored the creek. Today there's a different plan.

"We're going to completely change the nature of the site," said Sonoma Ecology Center Project Manager Mundo Murguia, whose organization is spearheading the Nathanson Creek Preserve Project.

The center launched plans last week to create an ecology preserve along a milelong stretch of the creek, encompassing 2.4 acres of city and school district land filled with invasive blackberry brambles, periwinkle branches and grapevines.

A city-maintained jogging path already hugs the creek, but Murguia envisions more pathways, picnic tables and benches, along with a demonstration garden showing off native California plants, informational kiosks teaching visitors about the local wildlife and a platform to facilitate viewing fish and birds.

It is a public-centered approach to environmental conservation.

That distinction earned the Sonoma Ecology Center a $784,000 grant last summer from the California Resources Agency to do the project, said Bryan Cash, deputy assistant secretary for bonds and grants.

"It helps to have people go out and be in contact with nature; to see what is there," Cash said. "It is really beneficial when there are multiple benefits, like recreation and habitat restoration. That made this project really feasible."

The first step is to clear the creek of the brambles and periwinkle plants. These plants are invasive and can choke the creek, endangering salmon, Murguia said.

A demonstration garden with native plants at the corner of East MacArthur and East Second streets could be built over the winter. Picnic tables could be in place by next fall and the informational kiosks built by 2010.

"It's a critical habitat and it's right here in town," Murguia said. "It's not strictly about habitat restoration, but also increasing human interaction."

Since 2003 middle school and high school environmental education programs have used the creek as an outdoor classroom. With help from their teachers and Sonoma Ecology Center staff, students plant native trees and shrubs, explore the creekside habitat, study the ecological history and develop plans to preserve the waterway.

"There's a lot of just regular trash that you would find in the trash can, but you find it in the creek and it's really sad because there are a lot of native fish species that spawn there," said Sonoma High junior Melissa Carlson, who co-chairs the school's environment club.

Carlson first came to the creek in her freshmen science class. When she conducted health tests on the creek she determined that it "wasn't the healthiest creek it could be."

She is hoping the plans for the creek's development will encourage more people to visit and protect the preserve.

"The more people connect with the creek the more they will go there and realize how valuable it is and maybe then they will want to know how to protect it, especially when they see the state it is in," she said.

Local businesses are supportive of the development plans, too. Stacey Ward, a financial analyst at MacArthur Place, a hotel bordering the creek, said she walks by the preserve every day and looks forward to visual and environmental improvements to the lot.

"I think it's a great idea to improve that triangle of land," she said. "It's just sitting there overrun with weeds. It will be nice to bring a community place where people can admire the creek."

You can reach Staff Writer Laura Norton at 521-5220 or laura.norton@pressdemocrat.com.