E-R Article: Nov. 11, 2003

On Foot: Young grasses, willows will grow to shore up the shore

By LAURIE KAVENAUGH, November 11, 2003

It may just look like orange netting stretched around dry grass and mud, but to Roger Cole and volunteers with Streaminders, the area next to Chico Creek behind Sycamore Field in Bidwell Park is a place where little ones are starting to grow.

It's a nursery of sorts where young native grasses and tiny plugs from Willow trees are getting their start in the damp soil. Once they get a foothold along the bank, the plants will play the role of bank enforcers, helping to strengthen the weakened stream edge and protect Chico Creek from creeping too close to the trail.

"It would be good if people would stay off the area for awhile," Cole said Monday. He and a host of volunteers have spent the last few months planting 600 to 700 clumps of native grasses and what he calls Willow "plugs" to make the soft, frequently wet area stronger.

Although he's not sure of the exact history, he believes that at one time people could! drive along the trail there beside Chico Creek. Within the past 30 to 40 years, with each rainy season and resulting high water, the stream has flowed farther and farther to the southwest. The result is a "C" shape to the stream, called a meander, that is slowly wearing away the bank.

Cole explained all that is perfectly normal behavior for a stream.

But in the case of a waterway that exists within the confines of a public park with facilities such as rest rooms, bike paths and playing fields, it's important to keep the stream in tow in as "least obtrusive" process as possible. Cole said he's heard an estimate that the stream has moved some 10 to 20 feet just in the last few years.

So why not dump a bunch of concrete and rocks there and call it a day?

"Creeks need small areas of access flood plain next to them," he said. These small areas can fill up with water and silt, plants can get started and the area actually enhances the stream bank, he explained.

Also, these areas provide places for the stream to ov erflow and then drain back. Streaminders have made sure that will happen by creating what looks like a gravel path transversing the stream edge. There have been several 30-foot and one 40-foot long logs, called "log veins," buried underneath to help the ground to help support it.

Besides their efforts to bring back the shore, Streaminders in the next three years will tackle the removal of 8-foot high wall of blackberry bushes growing in the area and will add more willows to the soil.

"The trees will provide shade to the water, which the fish like," he said, and their roots will create the anchor for a strong stream bank.

More planting days are planned, said Cole, and notices will be sent out announcing days when people can roll up their sleeves and help.

For now, Streaminders volunteers ask that people on foot stay off the areas marked by the orange netting until the new plants can mature some.

"It's just for a while," he said, adding that ! the area won't be off-limits forever and predicted things should be intact by next summer.

On Foot is all about walking and occasionally the joys of Bidwell Park. Laurie Kavenaugh is the Style section editor. E-mail questions or comments to On Foot, lifestyle@chicoer.com.