Creek Clean up

The Ross Valley Watershed group, a joint effort of the County of Marin, Larkspur, Ross, San Anselmo and Fairfax, is working to reduce the risk of flooding in the entire Ross Valley. Part of the group’s task is to identify the choke points along the creeks in Ross Valley and decide on alternatives that would help mitigate these areas to reduce the flooding risk, while working with a creek naturalist to preserve the habitat along the creek. In order to identify any trouble spots that need to be addressed before the 2006-07 rainy season, a group from the County and the Town walked the Fairfax Creek last Friday. Here is a picture of one of the areas we saw where a fallen tree could contribute to a creek back-up and also catch other debris and branches and further dam up the creek. For the short term, the Ross Valley Watershed group has enlisted the help of the Marin Conservation Corps to do a large vegetation cleanup throughout the entire creek this September. This will include Fairfax and will be a comprehensive clearing of the creeks of debris and trimming back vegetation such as overgrown blackberry bushes that would cause back-ups this winter.