Motivating Personal Action

by Paula Bouley of Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN)
September 2, 2008



While financial incentives secured through grants do move some landowners to take action to protect the environment, the most important and motivating incentive we can identify in our community is the opportunity to take personal action to do the right thing and be part of the solution. This philosophy underlies all our programs at the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) as we work in the Lagunitas Creek Watershed in west Marin County to protect state and federally listed endangered coho salmon.

The Ecological Importance of Small Landowners

The Lagunitas Creek Watershed represents one of California's last remaining strongholds for wild coho salmon with 10-20% of the total surviving today in central California. Just over half of the 103-square-mile watershed is protected as public open space and parks. But with 50% of historical salmon habitat in this watershed already locked behind dams, the remaining undammed spawning and rearing habitat for these fish occur in a small nine square-mile sub-watershed in the headwaters. Called the San Geronimo Valley, it is also one of west Marin's largest semi-rural residential areas. Each year, upwards of 40% of Lagunitas Creek coho spawn here and 30% of young fry rear in the Valley for their first year-and-a-half of life until they begin their seaward migration.

Lagunitas Creek Photo: Susan Farrar, SPAWN Creek Naturalist, *www.susanfarrar.photofolio.com*

The San Geronimo Valley is also home to approximately 3,500 residents living on 1,500 parcels, as well as two equestrian centers, an 18-hole golf course, and a number of commercial sites. Thirty-percent of these privately owned parcels are within 100 feet of a coho-bearing stream, and two-thirds of these streamside parcels are already co-habited by humans. Clearly, landowners throughout the Valley, but especially along the stream corridors, have the potential to be an ecological and hydrological force, and how they choose to manage habitat in their backyards will be of huge consequence to coho salmon.

Our Watershed Restoration "Toolbox"

In recognition of the myriad issues we have to face as land stewards, SPAWN combines multiple strategies in our efforts to protect local coho watersheds. A passion for the work we do and being strong advocates for the fish, coupled with an environmental education program that reaches tens-of-thousands of people and an ability to find the resources we need to get things done lend themselves to a growing sense of credibility within our community. A creative and effective communications program is also important to create "visibility" for coho and their habitat needs. This program includes newsletters and brochures mailed to every watershed resident, community email list-serves, an active website, strategically placed billboards, media articles, T.V. appearances, workshops, strategic partnerships, and door-to-door outreach. Underlying all this is a commitment to engage volunteers at all levels of our community-based organization.

A critical part of our "toolbox" is also our Landowner Consultation Program, which began as a volunteer-run program in response to neighbors who asked for advice about land-use issues and creek emergencies. In 2003, we launched a more formal Consultation Program, through which staff biologists and
trained volunteers provide free consultations to private landowners. These consultations address everything from restoration and best-management practices to permitting requirements and funding sources. We also became more and more involved in on-the-ground riparian restoration efforts on individual parcels, including growing the native plants we needed and mobilizing and training restoration volunteers.

In 2007, our Landowner Program reached new heights when we were awarded the largest grant in our history through Proposition 50's Coastal Non-Point Source Pollution Program fund. The new funds allowed us to assess sediment sources from dirt roads and failing streambanks on private lands while reaching out to hundreds of private landowners and to provide the incentives needed to do much-needed repairs.

Also, this year a new partnership with the Marin Community Foundation allowed us to expand our focus on stormwater issues and offer incentives to landowners who were willing to implement stormwater capture and water conservation projects on their parcels. Raingardens, rooftop stormwater harvesting systems, and permeable paving projects will all be designed and implemented to help mitigate for impervious surfaces during the rainy months and to turn winter stormwater surpluses into a resource which will help meet summer irrigation needs.

Growing a Coho Community

Streambank along San Geronimo Creek in the San Geronimo Valley Golf Course, before restoration.

	Restored streambank along San Geronimo Creek in the San Geronimo Valley Golf Course, eight months later.

In 1999, SPAWN, in partnership with multiple government and non-profit partners, began working with the Valley's largest recreational property, a 150-acre golf course, during Roy's Pools' dam removal and riparian restoration project to shade newly created jump pools. This collaborative, largely volunteer-driven project continues upstream today to repair and re-vegetate streambanks along some of the most prime spawning and rearing grounds remaining in the San Geronimo Valley. The project is restoring several thousand square-feet of turf back to critical riparian habitat for the salmon, thus providing salmon with needed shade, sanctuary from predators, and food sources in the form of insects that young salmon fry require to grow. For the landowner, the new buffer-zones mean less fertilizers, pesticides, and water are required, and the projects help prevent bank erosion that threatens property and could be costly to repair in the future.

In 2006, we partnered with the Lagunitas School District to build a model water-quality friendly stormwater harvesting project. SPAWN secured state funds and worked closely with the School Facilities Committee, School Board, community members, and a pro bono team of contractors to design a system that reduces stormwater runoff into an adjacent coho-bearing stream. The system also provides irrigation water for the school's organic garden project, thereby reducing the amount of chloramine-treated water the school must buy from the Water District. Hundreds of landowners, agency personnel, and non-profit partners have toured the site to learn about replicable and scaleable stormwater harvesting projects like the Lagunitas School District model. Our recent incentives-based rooftop stormwater harvesting program was born as a result of the momentum built through this project.

Each year, we work with dozens of residential landowners to provide everything from technical assistance and creek emergency response to on-the-ground restoration. For example, in 2007, staff biologists consulted with over 50 landowners who called us seeking advice on best-management practices. As a result, we surveyed 2.5 miles of dirt roads that are now slated for design repairs; we are growing over 2,200 native plants in our nursery slated for planting at restoration sites throughout the Valley this coming winter; and this past winter, our Watershed Stewards Project interns and core volunteers helped re-vegetate streambanks at six local residences providing locally grown native plants from our nursery, tools, and services.

To learn more about all of our programs visit www.SpawnUSA.org and contact SPAWN's Conservation Program Director, Paola Bouley, at 415-663-8590 x111,Paola@Tirn.Net


This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-324

Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation. For more information contact:
Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN)
PO Box 400
Forest Knolls, CA 94933
Email: spawn@igc.org
Phone: (415) 488-1090 Fax: (415) 488-0372