Cross-Vanes and Willow-Stakes

Last Spring, my field crew and I were assigned to work in a creek just south of Hercules, California, on the East Bay. The Muir Heritage Land Trust had acquired Fernandez Ranch, a 702-acre plot of rolling hills and fields, and was preparing to open its foot trails to the public. The Trust hired us to work with the Urban Creeks Council (UCC), a Berkeley-based non-profit that designs and supervises creek restoration projects – they are the ones who, years ago, originated the “No Dumping, Drains to Bay” signs that populate street drain curbs in the Bay Area.

The organization I was with, Civicorps, is a non-profit conservation corps that hires some of Oakland’s toughest inner-city youth. Our crews had worked at the ranch in past and had pulled tons of trash, the result of years of dumping, out of the creek. My crew and I were there to work on two somewhat more artistic – and, as it turned out, physically demanding – tasks: cross-vane construction and willow-staking.

Rodeo Creek cuts through the northern section of Fernandez Ranch. It heads almost directly West towards the San Francisco Bay, dividing the fields in the north from the hills in the south. The creek is fed by a tributary from the south that meanders down from the hills. As I recall, the creek banks host mainly coast live oak, willow, coyote brush, and unforgiving patches of poison oak. Some areas of the creeks are densely vegetated, providing refuge for wildlife. We noticed a great amount of bird actively and spotted bluebirds almost daily. We also noticed the very edible miner’s lettuce and the not-edible-at-all poison hemlock – the poison Socrates was condemned to drink.

The Fernandez family used the land for cattle grazing, and the property, though no longer theirs is still leased to raise free-range cattle. Although these activities have allowed for beautiful fields, often sprinkled with wild flowers like California poppy and wild mustard, they have had some negative effects on the land.

Tree and shrub roots have the important duty of keeping the soil where it is, and with the absence of these structures comes soil erosion. At Fernandez Ranch, repeated grazing has prevented shrubs and trees from returning. When a disturbance occurs once, whether by cow, fire, plough, or something else, shrubs and trees can return after a given number of years; however, grazing constantly disturbs the land, maintaining it as a grass field.

Both Rodeo and its tributary have cut right through the land, literally dropping the creek beds a steep thirty feet. And the heavy amounts of rain that hit the area during the winters haven’t helped. Each rainy season adds massive amounts of energy to the creeks’ cutting abilities. The result is further drops in the creek bed and, at some points along the banks, mudslides. In short, creeks need stability. At Fernandez Ranch, my crew and I learned how to bring back stability to Rodeo creek and its tributary…