Putah Creek Guide Now Available! Putah Creek Council Members Include Some Amazing Experts on the Creek

Volume 19, No. 2, Fall 2008

We envision Putah Creek as a thriving corridor of native riparian and aquatic ecosystems connecting the Coast Ranges to the Sacramento River and the Delta. We envision a Putah Creek watershed community of people who value their creek and are committed to its stewardship. Putah Creek Guide Now Available! Putah Creek Council members include some amazing experts on the creek. With help from others, not least a grant from CalFED, they’ve put together a fascinating guide to our creek: Putah Creek—Running through Our Communities and Our Lives. As the back cover says, it includes: • In-depth, well-researched information on the creek’s natural and cultural history. • Beautiful photos and illustrations. • An extensive “References and Re- sources” section, with information on how you can become involved in Lower Putah Creek restoration and stewardship. • A map of public access sites. Got a green thumb? Help with future plantings at the new greenhouse! What’s Happening On Putah Creek

Dawn Calciano in West Sacramento, the City of Davis Wet- he hot days of summer have drawn lands, and the Clarksburg Boat Ramp. They to a close and we enter the fall, a cleaned up about 11,000 pounds of trash season of new life and new begin- and 900 pounds of recyclables. T The third Saturday of every fall is the an- nings. The fall is when Putah Creek comes to life, water flows more rapidly, the grass nual Coast and Creek Cleanup. Volunteers is greener, and acorns fall to the ground. along Putah Creek, throughout the United The fall is the time for restoration along States, and in many other countries all come the creek, bringing the creek back to how it together to clean up their waterways and to might have been centuries ago. With all the help make their creeks and coastlines more changes to Putah Creek, the support and enjoyable for all. To be part of an effort of help of the local communities is needed this scale reminds us that if we each do our to recreate a more natural state along the part, we can make a difference. The guidebook costs $16 (including tax) creek. There are many ways to become in- Many thanks to Waste Management, Va- with a $2 charge for shipping. The book volved in creek restoration. For more infor- caville Sanitary, and the Yolo County Land- will be available at Putah Creek Council mation, please read below. fill for providing the trash bins and waiving events and will soon be available at lo- disposal fees. We’d especially like to thank cal retailers, including the Avid Reader. Coast and Creek Cleanup the cleanup site captains for all their hard To order through the Putah Creek Coun- On Saturday, September 20, a record num- work planning and overseeing the cleanup cil, please call (530) 795-3006 or e-mail ber of volunteers throughout Yolo County sites, the Cities of Winters, Davis, and West [email protected]. helped to clean up sites along Putah Creek, Sacramento for support of the cleanup, and Checks made out to Putah Creek Council Cache Creek, the Deep Water Ship Channel CALFED for funding. and cash are accepted forms of payment. See What’s Happening, p.2 2 Fall 2008 Putah Creek News What’s Happening from p.1 CreekSpeak Wraps up for Mark your calendars for the Restoration Events the Fall Green Summit There will be many opportunities this fall CreekSpeak will wrap up on October 16 Date: Saturday, November 15th to become involved in restoration projects with a talk by Michael Barbour, UC Davis Time: 9 am–5 pm along Putah Creek, particularly in the Win- Plant Ecologist, on the “The Changing Fall Place: Woodland Community and Senior ters area. We will be planting a variety of with Native Plants.” The talk will begin at Center, 2001 East Street, Woodland, CA shrubs, trees, and grasses to help stabilize 7:00 pm in the Winters Community Center, Field trips are offered on Sunday, Novem- slopes and restore native vegetation. Please 201 Railroad Avenue. CreekSpeak will re- ber 16. watch our e-mail updates and website for turn next spring for 6 months of talks from Local environmental organizations are dates of upcoming events. For more infor- May to October 2009. During the meantime, gathering on November 15 to discuss the mation on the Winters area projects, please please explore Yolo Basin Foundation’s state of our environment and how we can see the Winters area projects story in this “Flyway Nights Speaker Series” which are attain a healthy environment and sustain- newsletter. held from November to April at 7:00 pm, able lifestyle for the future. The event is Putah Creek Stream Bio- the first Wednesday of each month. also sponsored by the City of Woodland. “Creek Speak” began in June 2007 and Morning workshops and speakers will ad- monitoring featured topics from farming in the water- dress the issues we face and the ways differ- The Putah Creek Stream Biomonitoring shed to hydrology to the building of Mon- ent groups are engaging with them. In the group is being restructured and will begin ticello Dam. The talks have been well at- afternoon, participants will learn the tools again this fall with training and sampling tended with 45 to 70 community members that they can use to make a difference. sessions. In order to participate you must at- coming to each event. For more informa- Martha Guzman-Aceves will be the key- tend the training session to learn collection tion on upcoming talks, please see the PCC note luncheon speaker. She is the Legisla- and identification methods. If you are inter- website at www.putahcreekcouncil.org. tive Advocate for the California Rural Le- ested in joining the biomonitoring group, Creek Speak is hosted by the City of Win- gal Assistance Foundation. please contact Dawn Calciano at (530) 795- ters, Putah Creek Council, Putah Creek To register, go to www.tuleyome.org. 3006 or [email protected]. Discovery Corridor, and UC Davis’s John Muir Institute of the Environment. Putah Creek Partners

also enhance the continuity of the wildlife Putah Creek Road. The UC Davis Museum Planting a Hedgerow migration corridor, deter unauthorized ve- of Wildlife and Fish Biology will monitor in Winters hicle access, reduce sediment loads, and birds and insects at the project sites. Grass- Dawn Calciano beautify the most visible reach of Putah es and plants for the project will be raised here is a lot happening along Putah Creek. Many of these benefits are objec- by the LPCCC at the CDF greenhouse off Creek in the Winters area. One of tives of the Putah Creek Watershed Man- of Chiles Road through a Memorandum of the most exciting projects is a col- agement Action Plan (2005). Understanding with CDF. T The Department of Water Resources/ We’ll need plenty of help! If you’d like to laboration among local non-profits, univer- sity staff, and agencies to stabilize banks CALFED Watershed Program awarded be involved in this project, there’s plenty and prevent illegal dumping. In 2006, the a $536,000 grant to the LPCCC and its of opportunity through volunteer events Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Commit- partners to carry out this work. This joint with the Putah Creek Council and Winters tee held a series of meetings to gather input project involves the LPCCC, Putah Creek Putah Creek Action Team including raising from landowners and community members Council, Audubon California Landowner and planting native plants, establishing and to prioritize Putah Creek projects. As an Stewardship Program, Yolo Resource Con- maintaining riparian vegetation, and help- outcome of this meeting, the Winters Putah servation District, Solano Resource Con- ing with cleanup projects. Creek Nature Park, the Dry Creek/Putah servation District, City of Winters, Center To become involved in these projects, Creek confluence, and Dry Creek were se- for Land-Based Learning, UC Davis Mu- watch for planting and cleanup dates on lected as the top-priority sites for restora- seum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Winters the Putah Creek Council website and in our tion. With this in mind, the LPCCC worked Putah Creek Committee, and the Winters e-mail updates. Learn about the entire pro- with local partners to submit a grant to Putah Creek Action Team. cess from seed to planting by volunteering CALFED for bank stabilization along Dry Each partner has its own role on the at the greenhouse to help with propagation, Creek and infill vegetation to prevent ille- team. The Center for Land-Based Learn- transplanting, and raising grasses, shrubs, gal dumping along Putah Creek Road. ing SLEWS program will engage high and trees. By installing a 15-foot wide native veg- school students in the bank stabilization project along Dry Creek. Audubon Cali- Oops! etation hedgerow along three miles of the A Spring ’08 article mistakenly called the fornia Landowner Stewardship Program, south bank of Lower Putah Creek, on the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area the Yolo Basin Yolo RCD, and Solano RCD will create southern boundary of the City of Winters, Wildlife Area. The YBF is indeed the Yolo and implement a planting and site plan for this project will not only minimize bank Basin Foundation, but the YBWA is the Dry Creek and the infill vegetation along erosion and block illegal dumpers, it will Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. Our apologies! Putah Creek News Fall 2008 3 Putah Creek Natural History: Beavers Van Vuren, this pattern doesn’t seem to hold for Putah Creek. However, beavers’ choice of plants have a major influence on forest structure—and on restoration efforts. Local beavers have a strong preference for cottonwoods. “They love them. It’s like a buffet,” says Andrew Fulks, UC Davis Pu- tah Creek Riparian Reserve Manager. They also like willow, and the easiest way to see beaver evidence is to walk along near the creek’s summer channel looking for willow branches that have been neatly sheared off near the ground. According to Fulks, “Other riparian trees, A beaver keeping busy (in Montana). like ash, box elder, valley oak, and shrubs Robert Potts © California Academy of like elderberry may get some incidental Sciences browsing, but generally are left alone.” The answer for restorationists is to cage fa- The Other Dam- vored plant species. Beavers also eat a wide range of non-woody plants. For instance, Builders A beaver dam on Putah Creek. Made of beavers in Martinez have been seen eating Amy J. Boyer mud and sticks, it’s sprouting. tule roots and passing up willow in favor of ome of the earliest European explor- care of the kits, raising one to six kits per blackberries. ers of the Central Valley were Hud- year. The youngsters stay with the parents Fulks notes that beaver pruning may ac- son Bay Company trappers looking for two years, with the yearlings helping tually be beneficial: “The willows in areas S further from the creek have less access to for beaver pelts. Putah Creek would have with dam maintenance and kit-care. Hope been one of their sources. The trappers Ryden’s delightful book Lily Pond: Four water in the ground, and I’ve found that were very successful, and by the Gold Years with a Family of Beavers describes those that have been browsed and re-sprout Rush, beavers were rare enough that Cali- beavers nuzzling each other, grooming have better survival.... I suspect the reason fornia trappers turned to other animals. But each other, giving kits rides on their backs, they survive better after cutting down is that beavers are back! Today there are “many, and seemingly talking to each other in the by removing the top growth you reduce the many beaver” along Putah Creek, says Dirk beaver lodge during long dark iced-in win- amount of water use, which works to their Van Vuren, professor at UC Davis. ter days. When mature, the beavers take off favor in a drier environment.” He stresses In fact, beavers are one of the first mam- along their stream or even cross-country, that he hasn’t rigorously researched willow mals in the United States to have been searching for a suitable site with plentiful survival rates. restored to healthy populations after near- forage—and for a mate. Beavers and humans often have differ- extinction throughout the country. People Beavers raised in captivity competently ent ideas about what should be dammed found the few remaining beavers and trans- build dams, lodges, and even canals (to and where. A beaver damming an irrigation ported them to protected habitat. Now they ease transporting sticks) without paren- canal or denning in a levee bank can be a are again common through the U. S. tal training, but wild ones likely learn fi- nuisance or even a danger. But beavers in Historically, California beavers tended nesse during their two-year apprenticeship. streams and rivers increase wetland areas not to build as extensively as others. Ac- Ryden says they are leisurely workers, but and can improve groundwater recharge, cording to Van Vuren, beavers will dam little by little they can build big. I have seen according to an article in Science News. streams in order to raise water levels high a structure in North Carolina transforming Fulks agrees: “Beaver are a natural part of enough to protect their dens, which may be an easily jumped stream into a pond many the ecosystem, and I’m happy they are out lodges or bank-side burrows, but always yards across, with the dam being about five on our creek!” have underwater entrances. The dams serve feet high at its highest and narrowing to a other animals as stream crossings, and you long berm of sticks and mud only a few can sometimes see their scat on the dams. inches high, arcing through the trees as far Putah Creek in summer is a dam-worthy as I could see. creek, but river beaver will simply hole up Ecologically, beavers are major players. A A well- in banks, piling up sticks over the air hole typical pattern is that beavers dam a stream, pruned of the den. In all cases, beavers are highly creating a pond where sediments settle; willow territorial and mark their areas by piling up water-loving animals and invertebrates fol- stub. mud and depositing their scent on it. low; beavers use up forage and move on; Within their dens are close-knit families. dam breaks, pond dries up, leaving richer Two adults mate for life. Both male and bottom land for plants to colonize; forage female build dams and lodges and take grows back, beavers return. According to Putah Creek Council NONPROFIT ORG. P.O. Box 743 U.S.POSTAGE Davis, CA 95617 PAID DAVIS, CA PERMIT NO. 196 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Putah Creek News Fall 2008

Thanks for Your A Slimmer Newsletter Support! e’re stretching your member- Putah Creek Council Board of ship dollars a little farther by Directors e would like to extend a sincere slimming down the Putah Chris Rose (Chair) thank you to all our members W Creek News. How slim? Well, if you’d Deborah North (Vice-Chair) Wwho gave this year! like the ultimate in skinny newsletters, get Ruth Williams (Secretary/Treasurer) The Council relies heavily on the support yours via email! Please contact Dawn at Olga Garzon of our members. Private contributions are [email protected] if you’d like Katherine Holmes extremely valuable, giving us flexibility to to help us save on printing and postage by Barbara Kendrick augment our other restricted funds. We are getting a PDF of the newsletter. John McNerney honored when you include us in your phil- We’re also publishing fewer pages and Wendy Rash anthropic support. While most gifts are by sending the newsletters to members only. Putah Creek Council Staff check, the Council can also receive contri- If you’d like to keep getting highlights of (530) 795-3006 butions of appreciated stock. If you have PCC activities and up-to-date natural his- other ideas for supporting Council work tory articles, please keep up your member- Dawn Calciano, Executive Director financially, just call our Executive Direc- ship! Membership levels are as follows: Se- [email protected] tor, Dawn Calciano, at (530) 795-3006, or nior/Student $15; Friend $25; Family $35; To get involved or to be added to our email her at [email protected]. Supporter $50; Contributor $100; Sponsor email list, please contact Dawn Calciano. Your volunteer support is also essential $250; Patron $500. to keep our programs going: restoration, And if you’re a really enthusiastic sup- cleanup, education, biomonitoring, and porter—at the $100 level or better—you more. How about pledging to be a key vol- get a free copy of our wonderful new guide unteer for one of our events? Be sure to let to the creek. See front page for more! Putah Creek News Dawn know! Thanks again. Volume 19, No. 2 Fall 2008 Putah Creek News is a periodic publication of Putah Creek Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and enhance- the Putah Creek Council. Query Putah Creek ment of Putah Creek and its tributaries through advocacy, education, and community- News Editor Amy J. Boyer at ajboyer@gmail. based stewardship. com.