By Leopold Brajkovich:
The trip started at a popular salmon viewing location that overlooks the historical stream of the native Coho salmon. The viewing location is named after someone who shares my own first name, Leo T. Cronin.
From there we were transported in vans on a road that followed lagunitas creek very closely. even while we were driving I was still getting a better sense of the extent of the watershed and what plant and animals species use the creek as a habitat. Below is a picture taken near the Leo T. Cronin salmon viewing area.
When we arrived at the first stop on our creek restoration tour I was caught off guard about the location of the site. We parked on the right side of the road and had to cross the street to get to the creek side. When I feasted my eyes on the first restoration site I was a little underwhelmed with the immediate visual.
At first glance it was just what a appeared to be a bunch of sticks carelessly spread out along a burlap tarp. Teddy Hanford is an estimator for the company, Hanford who supplied the materials, tools and labor to install the erosion control tarps which he added were made not of burlap material but of coconut fibers. “Coconut fiber tarps are very expensive.” Teddy explained. the erosion control fabric made of coconut fibers was only used in the upper section of the restoration site farthest from the stream and the rest of the restoration site near the actual stream they used a cheaper erosion control tarp material.
The field trip ended with a look at one of the older creek restoration project that focused mainly on making pools for the salmon to lay their eggs. Teddy explained how it was very difficult getting his machines and equipment down near the stream to move a long into place. There was some controversy talked about using the metal poles and bolts to secure the logs in place to create the pool for salmon to lay their eggs. Rusting of the metal could prove to be problematic in the future but back when the restoration was done the metal poles were the only option for them. I did not manage to get a clear picture of the poles in action but this picture below is a perfect example of the pools that salmon need to reproduce.
The trail that we were taken down was one of the most beautiful scences of nature I have ever experienced. It was perfect timing during late fall to see the yellow leaves of the maple trees shed and fly across the canopy of the creek environment.
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