Foss Creek banks before and after...in 2008, overgrown with invasives. In 2009, planted with native plants!

 

Foss Creek Community Restoration Project

The Foss Creek Community Restoration Project is a multi-year native plant restoration project on Foss Creek that will involve removing large amounts of invasive non-native plants that have taken over parts of Foss Creek. The project started in April 2009 and will continue through fall of 2013 on Foss Creek between the Purity Lot (North St.) and the intersection of Healdsburg Avenue, Mill Street and Vine Street behind the Chamber of Commerce.

Foss Creek Community Restoration Project Update

The Foss Creek Restoration Project has benefited from over 107 volunteers committing over 600 hours to restoring Foss Creek this year! We are making great progress on our efforts to remove non-native invasive plants species that reduce habitat for native wildlife and fish and increase flood risks by reducing channel capacity.Our next scheduled work days are July 3,17,31, August 21, & September 4 & 18th.We meet at 8:30am at the Purity Lot at 3 North St in Healdsburg and work until 11:30 a.m. Riverkeeper provides tools, gloves and equipment and volunteers need to wear sturdy shoes and long pants.

Foss Creek Community Restoration Project Goals

-Improve wildlife habitat along Foss Creek

-Educate community on value of watershed stewardship

-Reduce flooding impacts caused by invasive non-native plants

-Increase visibility and aesthetics of Foss Creek

Volunteer to help restore Foss Creek!! (Community Work days below)

Thanks to the 100+ volunteers who showed up on October 10th for the annual Foss Creek Clean-Up!

Picture #1 Bruce, David, Mike and Albert removing huge 15 ft tall Privet stands that were choking the willows by North St.

Picture #2 One group of volunteers including Maria Curel, Healdsburg City Clerk, Merrit Sher, Owner Hotel Healdsburg, several Healdsburg High students and a Rotary member make quick work of a massive stand of blackberry to restore native plants along Foss Creek!

Picture #3 The two sides of the Foss Creek Cleanup - One truck unloads garbage collected along the Creek and the other unloads non-native invasive plants as part of the long-term restoration of Foss Creek!

Project Background

In 2005, Russian Riverkeeper and Trout Unlimited partnered to seek ways to improve Foss Creek in light of the future Foss Creek Trail that would open up the Creek to the community. Local residents attended several meetings and workshops to learn about the potential for restoring Foss Creek under the banner of the Foss Creek Alliance. Along the way the Redwood Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Russian Riverkeeper and the Hotel Healdsburg founded the Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival, once we found wild Steelhead Trout juveniles in Foss Creek that had survived the heat of summer. Since then a partnership has grown between the City of Healdsburg, Redwood Empire Trout Unlimited, Russian Riverkeeper and many residents, service clubs and others to seek ways to improve Foss Creek.

In early 2009, Healdsburg Council member Mike McGuire and Katie Murphy from Alexander Valley Vineyards discussed various community improvement projects that the winery’s distributor, Glazers, could help support as a way to honor local philanthropists and farmers Harry and Maggie Wetzel. The focus turned to Foss Creek and the City owned “Purity” lot across from the Saturday Farmers Market and bordering Foss Creek. The City had already committed to allowing the Foss Creek Alliance to restore the creek banks and riparian setback area. A few meetings later and two new partners joined the effort to expand beyond the Purity Lot, the h2 Hotel as well as Tony Crabb and Barbara Grassechi, owners of Puma Springs Vineyard. These generous partners are funding the Foss Creek Community Restoration Project for three years in partnership with the City of Healdsburg, Russian Riverkeeper, Redwood Empire Trout Unlimited and local volunteers who are the heart of this project!

Project Benefits to our Community

The Foss Creek Project will benefit our community by helping reduce flooding, improve visibility and aesthetics and help our local wildlife. Non-native plant species often out-compete local natives since they are removed from their natural predators or plants they used to compete with. This can lead to problems for humans in the case of Himalayan Blackberry which can in a few years take over a creek bank and overwhelm local native plants. Himalayan Blackberry is an extremely fast growing plant that “leapfrogs” other plants by growing branches through existing plants and those branches sprout new branches that climb higher until it envelopes native vegetation. In its growth Himalayan Blackberry weaves a web of fibery branches that will knit together from opposite sides of a creek and form debris dams that can withstand the force of flowing water. When this happens it can cause a creek to jump its banks as we saw on Foss Creek in January of 2008. By removing this invasive non-native plant permanently, rather than cutting back, we can re-establish local natives and help them outcompete the blackberry to keep our creek flowing when it rains.

Native Plant Benefits to Local Wildlife

Our local wildlife will benefit from the native plant restoration since local wildlife has evolved over thousands of years to depend on native plants for food and shelter. The bottom line is plants don’t like to be eaten so they develop self defense mechanisms such as poisons, or compounds that taste horrible. Local wildlife has evolved over tens of thousands of years to tolerate bad tasting vegetation or in some cases develop anti-bodies for a plants poison like the Monarch Butterfly, which can tolerate poisonous milkweed. Exotic invasive plants (non-natives) such as Privit, English Ivy, and Himalayan Blackberry generally do not meet the needs of our local wildlife because our wildlife hasn’t evolved to be able to safely eat non-native plants, so they usually offer nothing to our wildlife. Although non-native like Himalayan Blackberry do have berries that local birds can eat, the native plants they displace offer more food throughout the year rather than a few weeks of berries and then nothing. A good illustration is the fact that native Oaks have over 1400 species of leaf eaters but non-native trees such as Tulip trees or Ginkgos can only support less than a dozen insect species.
You might think, “Well, less bugs in the trees could be a good thing – right?” Actually it’s not the case since those bugs form the foundation of the food web in our community – without them birds, fish and other wildlife would have far less to eat! By supplying food to our insects that sustain our birds, fish and other wildlife our native trees sustain our local ecosystem.

 

Volunteer to help restore Foss Creek!!
Volunteering to restore Foss Creek is a great way to help your community, meet new friends and learn about your local creek. We provide the training, tools, gloves, water and refreshments and you just show up with sturdy shoes and long pants (blackberry thorns!) and a hat for sun if you prefer.

We start at 8:30am and work until 11:30am and meet along Foss Creek at North Street.

Future Volunteer Days include:

May 29th & June 19th.

 

Heavy Rain Cancels!

If your group, troop or club would like to hold a special Volunteer Day we can arrange that for you – just call us!

Questions? Call 433-1958 or e-mail info@russianriverkeeper.org

The Foss Creek project is made possible with generous funding from Alexander Valley Vineyards, Glazer’s (AVV wine distributor), Tony Crab & Barbara Grassechi and upcoming h2 Hotel – we can’t thank them enough!

 

We hope to see you down by Foss Creek soon!

---

Text links:  • About Us  • Our Work  • Join Us  • Resources  • Newsroom  • Contact
Copyright 2006 Russian Riverkeeper. All Rights Reserved. Contact Site Manager.