Calder Creek Restoration Scores High in Ives Park Renovation Planning

Former duck pond on Calder Creek in Ives Park, Sebastopol (photo by Peter Schurch)

The Sebastopol Planning Commission unanimously supported restoration of Calder Creek in Ives Park at their June 28 meeting. Consultants from RHAA Landscape Architects presented three alternatives, based on input from City staff and Ives Park stakeholders, including the Sebastopol Creek Stewards, Chamber of Commerce, Sebastopol Little League, and Ives Pool. RHAA presented the three plans, with scopes ranging from basic maintenance of the existing park to a full-blown renovation of every aspect except the ball field and the pool itself, as “kits of parts” that the Commission could mix and match as they wished. Since the park is small, broken up by the ball field and pool, and needs to accommodate a very wide range of uses from nature (the creek) to festival crowds (Apple Blossom, Cajun, etc.), the challenge is better serve everyone while making the park feel more of a whole.

RHAA’s most radical proposal would expand the park to include the odd triangle at the Willow/Jewell intersection, which has has been one of my personal goals that I’ve brought up at every occasion in both Calder Creek/Ives Park and Safe Routes to School discussions (as has my wife). They also propose undergrounding the creek between the current end of the upper culvert (below Willow) and the northwest corner of the pool. The change would provide the opportunity to create a large, open, grassy area at the upper end.

Ives pond at flood stage, winter 2010 (photo by Peter Schurch)

The consultants pointed out that restoration in this section is far more challenging than lower down due to the depth of the channel and presence of heritage oaks; a sewer main and high groundwater only add to the problems. The redwood trees next to the creek on this section are dying for unknown reasons and will have to be removed, which would add to the available field area. Under this proposal, the playground could be relocated to the edge of the field area and stage moved elsewhere. The Creek Stewards were mixed on the proposal, as were the Commissioners, but overall, the sentiment was toward exploring this option if it allowed restoration of the remainder of the creek.

As in previous Commission and City Council discussions, the topic of fences and access to the creek came up repeatedly. Because the creek is so constrained and experiences very high flows during winter storms, some amount of fencing is inevitable, but RHAA proposed pushing the pathways as far as possible from the creek (even annexing the area directly behind the outfield fence) to gain space for laying back the banks. This would make access in the meadow and current rose garden areas more feasible, with some kind of seating for both nature enjoyment and festival accommodation. Perhaps only the lower and narrower portions would need permanent fences, or perhaps the gentler portions could have many gates rather than fully removable fencing. That discussion will continue once the Commission decides on the scope and shape of any restoration.

Calder weir at flood stage, winter 2010 (photo by Peter Schurch)

RHAA’s plan had been for the Commissioners to vote preferences on individual elements in each section of the park, but the Commission decided they would rather let each member state their goals and preferences; RHAA would then incorporate them into a new proposal to present at one of the August meetings. As they spoke, a few themes stood out:

• Go for the full remodel
• Restore as much creek as possible
• Create access to the creek
• Move the playground to a space near the fire station and move the stage to the current playground station
• Reduce pavement
• Add recognition of Pomo culture

We’re excited to see how many of our ideas made their way into the proposals. We hope the City Council will be receptive to the bold (and costly) ideas that are likely to be in the final proposal when they see it this autumn. With money from the state in ever shorter supply, changes will likely be some time in coming and heavily dependent on grants. Fortunately, creek restoration is a good bet for grants.

Calder Creek at flood stage, winter 2010 (photo by Peter Schurch)

Trash, Broom and Acacia

The forecast looked gloomy, but the rain held off for the 15 volunteers who showed up for the Sebastopol Creek Stewards’ Calder Creek cleanup on March 5th, including a sizable contingent of Analy HS students. We split into two groups — one that tackled trash and the other that targeted exotic invasive vegetation. Joan took worked with the trash crew, while my son and I worked with the vegetation crew. Landpaths was kind enough to loan us several Weed Wrenches that were just the ticket for taking out all the broom we could find — almost all growing next to the Railroad Forest Trail near the Sebastopol Inn. After my crew pulled all the broom, they went to work on the acacia next to the trail. Within an hour, we had a huge pile of acacia to add to the mountain of broom debris. An interesting side note: Circuit Riders, a local environmental services contractor, cleared out all the exotic invasive vegetation about 10 years ago, but one would scarcely guess it now. With no action since then, the exotics have completely taken over again and very clearly demonstrates the need for constant maintenance.

Meanwhile, the trash crew cleared out everything they could find around the Railroad Forest Trail and Calder Creek between the trail and the Postal Annex, including a home-built hand cart and debris from some small encampments. They moved downstream to the creek bridge on the Joe Rodota Trail and pulled many more bags. They filled one trash bag with batteries alone. They could see more deep in the brush, but couldn’t get it all. From the concentration of debris, it was fairly obvious that the bulk of the trash in the lower area originated in the encampment just east of the Railroad Forest Trail, which washed downstream when the area flooded in mid-February, and again late in the month.

Trash Cleanup — The Sequel: The Laguna

After we said thanks and goodbye to the other volunteers, my family and I cleaned ourselves up, had lunch and headed to the Laguna de Santa Rosa  with a borrowed boat. We put in below the Morris Suites business park on the north side of Hwy 12. Though flood waters had mostly receded, the water level was still high. We first headed downstream, to the north, and went as far as we could. We pulled trash out of the water and from the bushes as we went, then hit the garbage bonanza where a side channel collected a big percentage of debris floating downstream. There were scores of bottles, balls, boards and even a pair of big amplifier speakers nearby (we didn’t even try to retrieve those). Much of the trash was inaccessible by boat because it was in a big tangle of brush, but difficult to retrieve from shore, too. We took what we could and headed back to the Laguna Youth Park where we could unload the garbage and recycling.

Though we couldn’t ignore the pile of trash sitting in our boat, our spirits got a boost when we observed the flock of black crowned night herons just upstream from the Laguna Youth Park and two western pond turtles that both dove in as soon as they saw us looking at them.

Our final foray took us upstream about a 1/2 mile through the very brushy channel above the highway bridge. We found fewer bottles, but many lengths of black irrigation tubing. We pulled what we could, then found the source — a large coil of various lengths of tubing caught in a tree in the middle of the channel. We surmised that floodwaters had carried it from a flooded field upstream. Getting it out later in the season when water levels are lower seemed easier than struggling with it at the time (and we would have swamped our boat had we tried).

We came out of the riparian woods and paddled furiously in the faster, shallower current. We made it as far as the confluence of Gravenstein Creek before giving up. Rain was starting to fall as well, so we headed back downstream with our load of trash. By the time we got close to the highway bridge, we felt tired, wet, cold and hungry, so we dragged ourselves out at the Village Park RV Park (the future City of Sebastopol park across the highway from our put-in site) and called it a day.

We want to return when the water level is lower and clean up more of the mess. We felt very sad to see how clogged both the Calder and the Laguna corridors are.

A footnote to our adventure: We didn’t realize it until a couple of days later that a two of us would have a red  and itchy reminder of our time in the Laguna — a lot of the brush in parts of the route were unfortunately poison oak. Next time we’ll break out the Tecnu and be more careful.