Audio segments from Trees Radio Hour! Interview with Reuven Walder, Watershed Biologist for Salmon Protection and Watershed Network July, 2004 Reuven discusses SPAWN's role in cohosting the 2004 Coho Confab at Samuel P. Taylor State Park

SPAWN works to protect and restore one of California's strongest remaining runs of wild endangered Coho salmon. Lagunitas Creek Watershed Coho, though greatly reduced in numbers, represent 10 percent of all wild central California Coho surviving today. Scientists and agency personnel have stated that restoration of threatened Coho stocks in this Marin County creek is critical to the recovery of the entire central California population. Specific current threats to the Lagunitas Coho include loss of habitat caused by dams and other barriers to migration, sedimentation, riparian habitat destruction caused by development, improperly designed roads, improper landowner practices, inadequate water supplies (caused by water diversion, development, and land-use practices), and pollution of the streams.

SPAWN uses a science-based approach to educate and empower community members. SPAWN has implemented volunteer-based salmon and water quality monitoring programs, produced a report of barriers to migration in the watershed, and instituted the Fish Rescue Program to remove young fish from evaporating pools. SPAWN also created the Creek Naturalist Program through which 75 trained volunteer naturalists have guided over 1,500 individuals on salmon-viewing walks over the last three years.



March, 2003 Update
New Resources for Watershed Groups and Environmental Educators Now Available on the Web (read more)

Motivating Personal Action
September 2, 2008
(read more)


Grassroots Activism and the Stand for Central California's Wild Coho Salmon
December 10, 2007
It can be safely said that without the grassroots action that has characterized Marin County's environmental movement over many decades, salmon would already be long gone from the Lagunitas Creek Watershed. (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network: SPAWN
November 15, 2006
After years of collecting local genetic-stock native plants and then having them grown for us at commercial nurseries and various volunteers' homes, SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) now has its own nursery site! Complete with a small greenhouse and a larger shade-house, SPAWN will now be able to close the cycle from collection to out-planting for its restoration projects. We also hope to be able to distribute some plants to local landowners, encouraging our neighbors to plant more natives in their landscaping. (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network
April 5, 2006
New Property Acquisition (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network
December 1, 2005
In October 2005, SPAWN and Turtle Island Restoration Network, the organization of which SPAWN is a part, realized one of its visions with the purchase of a unique property alongside one of the best remaining runs of coho in California, in the Lagunitas Watershed of Marin County. (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network
September 20, 2005
In a unique collaboration for the fish, SPAWN (Salmon Protection And Watershed Network) and the San Geronimo Valley Golf Course have partnered to restore and protect riparian vegetation along a 650-foot stretch of San Geronimo Creek in Marin County. (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network
April 4, 2005
Court Ruling Protects Salmon Habitat: In an important decision that is likely to have impacts for watershed groups throughout the State, the California Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of SPAWN in determining that the County of Marin erred in granting a categorical exemption for a single-family home construction along a riparian area designated by the County as an environmental resource of critical concern. The decision has been published, increasing its precedent-setting status. Contact tsteiner@SpawnUSA.org for a copy. (read more)


SPAWN
December 8, 2004
The Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) is situated in the Lagunitas Creek Watershed of West Marin. Here, at the southern edge of the Pacific Northwest, we are working to protect, restore and cherish the largest remaining population of wild coho salmon in California. We hope you'll join us in this exciting work! (read more)


The Seeds of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network
The seeds for SPAWN, the Salmon Protection And Watershed Network, sprouted in the winter of 1997. That winter, Coho salmon trying to reach one of their remaining prime spawning habitats on San Geronimo Creek within West Marin's Lagunitas Creek Watershed were blocked by the broken concrete apron of an old degraded dam located on the San Geronimo Golf Course. Director Todd Steiner relates the story of forming SPAWN below. (read more)


Salmon Protection And Watershed Network: Historic Watershed Study and Creekside Development Moratorium
Thanks to the members of the Salmon Protection And Watershed Network (SPAWN), concerned citizens of Marin, many of Marin's environmental groups, and hundreds of scientists who signed an open letter to the Board of Supervisors, a historic decision has been made by the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The Board agreed to fund a critical study on the impact of development on coho salmon and to take a "time-out" on creekside development by implementing a two-year moratorium in the San Geronimo Valley (undammed headwaters of Lagunitas Creek) while the study is completed. (read more)



Contact Information

Email: spawn@igc.org
Web Site: www.spawnusa.org
Phone: (415) 488-1090 - Fax: (415) 488-0372
PO Box 400 Forest Knolls, CA 94933