Sausalito Marin City trustees OK creek design plan
By Keri Brenner | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal Sausalito Marin City School District trustees have signed off on an ambitious design plan to unearth an underground creek that runs through campus. Trustees voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of the plan for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy. The design includes an 120-seat
Measure P Passes with Potential Funding for Creek Restoration
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the charitable sector has provided vital support and services to Canadians through nearly 86,000 registered charities that, in 2018, received about $10 billion in donations. In 2020, however, Charity Intelligence Canada reported that a substantial proportion of charitable donations are wasted on large
Unburying the Creek Beneath It, A School Becomes a Steward
Friends of Willow Creek, in Sausalito, is celebrating 13 years of stewardship and advocacy for “creek daylighting”, which is the conversion of buried pipes that convey former streams to above-ground, vegetated channels. Daylighting creeks is a complex, expensive and uncommon undertaking, as the Friends have learned, and requires patient planning,
Planners hired for Sausalito school creek project
By Keri Brenner | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal The Sausalito Marin City School District is moving ahead on a much-debated plan to move subterranean Willow Creek above ground. The district’s trustees voted unanimously this month to award a nearly $800,000 architectural design contract for the project to Prunuske Chatham Inc. “The scope of
From the Darkness Into the Light
Friends of Willow Creek, in Sausalito, is celebrating 13 years of stewardship and advocacy for “creek daylighting”, which is the conversion of buried pipes that convey former streams to above-ground, vegetated channels. Daylighting creeks is a complex, expensive and uncommon undertaking, as the Friends have learned, and requires patient planning,
Unburying the Creek Beneath It, A School Becomes a Steward
Before the shoreline was lined with shipyards during World War II, creeks flowed through Sausalito in the North Bay—rare permanent streams in a dry state full of ephemeral ones. The trees that grew up around these creeks lent the city their name: “little willow grove,” or, in Spanish, Sausalito. But
Marin water projects allocated $9.8M from EPA
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal Marin County, the Sausalito Marin City School District and the Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency have been selected for nearly $10 million in water quality and wetlands projects. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the grants Wednesday at an event in Oakland. The Marin projects are
Sausalito school construction contract, creek plan advance
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal On Friday, a day after trustees awarded an $18,000 pre-construction contract for the school to BHM Construction Inc. of Napa, a Sausalito civic leader said he and his team and the district had in recent days created a potential “plan B” for bringing the property’s
Sausalito council, school board plan session on development
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal The Sausalito City Council and the Sausalito Marin City School District will hold a joint session next month to review plans for developing a 13-acre parcel owned by the district. City Council members reacted in favor of the idea after an invitation at their
Week of the Creek
In the span of nine days in 2023, a buried perennial creek in Sausalito went from being twice forgotten to having a fighting chance to be reborn into the community. Of the six creeks in the City that have been buried, Willow Creek is the one creek that could be
Sausalito resolution opposes school district creek project
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal Sausalito officials are preparing a resolution calling for the school district to scrap plans to relocate an underground creek. The City Council is expected to approve the resolution when it meets on Tuesday. The Sausalito Marin City School District wants to move Willow Creek as
Marin environmentalists, district officials debate Sausalito school plans
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal Leaders of two Marin environmental nonprofit groups are urging the Sausalito Marin City School District to take a slower pace and a more considered approach to a design for a new $32 million elementary school in Sausalito. “We’re rooting for the district — we want
Marin environmental groups seek redo of Sausalito school creek plan
By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal Environmental groups and city leaders are questioning Sausalito Marin City School District’s effort to relocate an underground creek as part of a plan to build a new elementary school. The Sierra Club Marin Group, along with Friends of Willow Creek, the Marin Conservation League and
Landmark Accomplishment – Willow Creek Signage!
Friends of Willow Creek worked with Sausalito Beautiful and the City Public Works to replace the fence creek crossing along Bridgeway with a new decorative fence and beautiful sign denoting Willow Creek. The new sign plays a critical role in raising public awareness of this natural resource in the City.
Willow Creek Helps Drought Challenged School District
Friends of Willow Creek worked with Sausalito-Marin City School District this Summer to restart the Well and Water Tank (connected to the Willow Creek basin). The tank and pumping system will enable irrigation of the playfields and mitigate the challenges of maintaining the fields during the ever more frequent periods
Friends of Willow Creek Celebrates a Decade of Stewardship and Advocacy
This year Friends of Willow Creek celebrated our 10-year anniversary as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental education and creek resources of Sausalito. For those of you that toiled for hours pulling out weeds and planting native plants at the creek and on the campus, we have good news
Measure P Passes with Potential Funding for Creek Restoration
FoWC donated time and money in 2020 to the “Yes on Measure P” campaign to issue bonds for Sausalito and Marin City school campus renovations, including creek restoration. Leading up to the vote, FoWC board members joined Measure P organizers and community members placing calls to residents and urging a “Yes”
Lennox Foundation Grant for Creek Daylighting on Willow Creek Academy Campus
This winter the Friends worked extra hard to apply for large private and public grants to make creek restoration on the Willow Creek Academy (WCA) campus a reality. Board member Emily Schmidt was a sponsor for our application to the Lennox Foundation to design a daylighted creek in the upper
Friends of Willow Creek Celebrates 6th Anniversary
March 31st, 2017 Marks the Sixth Anniversary of Friends of the Creek Today marks our 6th anniversary as a 501c3 nonprofit, as we were established on March 31, 2011, in anticipation of Earth Day that year when we cleared the Nevada and Bridgeway Willow Grove site for the first time.
Campus Native Plant Gardens 2017
Friends Board member Anne Siskin has been working with head of School Tara Seekins and Maintenance Chief Alan Rothkop, as well as some WCA 3rd graders and mentor students from Marin Country Day, to design a drainage system to go with our new 2000 square foot hillside native plant garden.
Happy New Year!
Happy new year! The Friends Of The Creek are keeping busy advancing the prospect of daylighting the creek through Sausalito, but also building partnerships around stewardship in the watershed, and supporting the teachers of the local public school in environmental, experiential education. Recent success in the City to protect the
School District Bond Resolution Passed: $500,000 for drainage improvements and creek restoration!
On August 2 the Sausalito Marin City School Board passed a resolution to include $500,000 in funding for drainage improvements and creek restoration in the upcoming bond measure. The Willow Creek Daylighting Project is now officially part of the proposed measure that goes before voters on Tuesday, November 8. The Friends of Willow Creek, Sausalito
Willow Creek has Exceptional Water Quality for an Urban Creek – Aquatic Insects
During the holiday break, Professor Matthew Cover of Cal State Stanislaus joined Friends of the Creek, Chair, Steve Moore to sampled benthic macroinvertebrates (i.e., aquatic insects & other critters) from the stream bed on the Willow Grove site. The population of insects that live in streams indicate the level of
Friends of the Creek – September 2014 Newsletter
Friends of Willow Creek (of Sausalito), Happy new (school) year! For the friends, that means fall work parties to take care of the creek at Willow Grove! Fall Community Cleanup Events at Willow Grove, Corner of Nevada St. and Bridgeway Saturday September 27, 9:00 – 11:00 A.M., end of summer
