Overview and History

The Streaminders was founded in 1980 as a citizens advocacy group, in response to concerns that local and state agencies inadequately addressed issues such as storm water runoff, erosion and other water quality issues, urban forest and riparian destruction, stream alteration, and lack of streamside greenbelts. In 1990, Streaminders affiliated with the Izaak Walton League of America as the Northern California chapter of this national organization.

Inspired by an article in Human Ecology journal describing how farmers in a valley in Mexico used willow and cottonwood cuttings to protect their fields from erosion, Streaminders began it's first bioengineered revegetation project and other revegetation projects. The newly created California Department of Water Resources Urban Streams restoration program provided the first grant in 1984 for stream restoration, a project to do a “palmiter style" bank protection using fence posts and tree prunings to slow water flow and protect a cut bank from erosion. In 1986, a second DWR grant provided funding to do education, cleanup and restoration of Dead Horse Slough with students from two classrooms at Chapman Elementary School and volunteers from the local area, including a four-wheel drive club. In 1989 a third DWR grant funded revegetation of a harsh gravel covered site on Big Chico Creek, and marked our first use of heavy equipment. Since that time, Streaminders members have received technical training and continue to be engaged in urban stream restoration projects utilizing state of the art techniques, and involving groups of community volunteers who receive “on the job training” in riparian ecology and stream care.

Since its inception, Streaminders advocates have had a profound effect on city and county policy on care of local streams, such as issues concerning water quality and urban runoff, required setbacks and greenways on riparian areas, cessation of watering practices on valley oaks, and watchdogging agency approaches to streambank protection. The organization is highly respected in the community, with two members serving as consultants and advisors to the City of Chico for local environmental preservation and restoration challenges.

Streaminders Hands-On Environmental Education, the group’s education sub-committee, was established in 1988. Their focus is in the domain of public school education, involving school-aged children in hands-on learning through nature and creek exploration, rearing salmonids from eggs to fry in refrigerated aquaria, storm drain stenciling and riparian restoration. Over six thousand students from twenty-five schools in four Butte County communities have participated in environmental action projects on six local streams. Currently, forty classrooms from nineteen schools, plus two home school groups, are enrolled in two inter-related education programs:

• Salmonids in the Classroom facilitates raising salmon and steelhead from eggs to fry in refrigerated classroom aquaria and guides creek exploration field trips for students grades 1-12, funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Restoration Ecology in Action involves classrooms of students grades 2-12 in ecology education / restoration projects on local waterways, removing nonnative invasive species and replanting with native riparian plants, funded by a grant from the California Department of Fish & Game.

CTrEE has received upwards of $350,000 in grants and contracts from government agencies, community groups and the City of Chico, over $90,000 of this for educational programs. CTrEE was funded with $20,000 from PG&E's Safe Tree program 2 years ago and $4,000 from the City of Chico each year. The following sources have provided funding:

• California Dept. of Water Resources' Urban Stream Restoration Program
• California Dept. of Education
• California Dept. of Forestry
• California Dept. of Fish & Game
• U.S. Forest Service
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Butte County Fish & Game Commission
• Chico Area Flyfishers
• City of Chico Park Department
• Chico Unified School District

Current and ongoing projects include:

• CTrEE, our street tree care program which was funded this year with $7,482 grant from Calif. Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection.
• Providing input to the proposed Rock Creek flood management proposal by Butte County and the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Working to protect Teichert ponds a unique wetland in the City of Chico.
• Working to persuade the City of Chico to use biotechnical (plant based) solutions for stream bank protection. (The City has adopted a cookbook of techniques created by Roger Cole's Interactive Design.)