22 Sep Owen’s Blog #8: Conlon Clearwater Revival
It’s construction time at Muir Woods National Monument! Conlon Creek, a small tributary to Redwood Creek, is getting a facelift, and it’s been a long time coming. In January 2016, a culvert under Conlon Avenue blew out and caused major erosion damage to the creek. To stop the erosion, the roads crew dumped some big rocks where the culvert was. It worked as a temporary fix, but there was another erosion problem nearby: road runoff was carving a deep gully that fed into Conlon Creek. This gully and the blown out culvert were discharging large amounts of sediment, likely causing water quality issues downstream at Redwood Creek. 10 years passed… then, the funding to restore the area was approved!
Conlon creek provides habitat for steelhead trout and California giant salamanders… or so we thought… until we found two coho salmon hanging out in the stream before construction! We moved the coho along with some steelhead and salamander larvae upstream and out of harm’s way. The aquatics team will continue to monitor the area during construction to ensure the wildlife’s safety. We’ve already found lots of adult giant salamanders hiding in the ground after excavation.
When the project is completed at the end of October, the creek will be stabilized, and the fish and salamanders will have 3 new state-of-the-art rock pools to hang out in. We will have also removed an additional 80 ft of culvert, seen in the featured photo of this blog. The creek there will finally see the sun. There will be no trace of the gully as it will have been filled in with rocks and dirt. Salmonids will now be able to travel up the crystal clear stream with ease!
did you know that CCR Donated a whole boat to the alcatraz indian occupation back in the 70’s? Comment your favorite Creedence song!
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