To request a printed copy of Redwood Creek Watershed: Vision for the Future or for more information about the watershed please contact:
Kirke Wrench/NPS
Golden Gate National Recreation Area Planning Division 201 Fort Mason San Francisco, CA 94123
Redwood Creek Watershed: Vision for the Future SECOND PRINTING - 2015
First Printing, 2003 Second Printing, 2015
Preface / 01 The Watershed / 02 Creating the Vision / 04 The Vision / 05 Watershed Area Maps / 06 Natural Resources / 08 Cultural Resources / 09 Visitor Experience / 10 Resident Community / 11 Infrastructure, Facilities, and Emergency Services / 12
Since its first printing in July 2003, the Redwood Creek Watershed Vision for the Future has been disseminated widely, and has served as a foundation and reference for numerous plans and projects. Its guiding principles and desired future conditions are as relevant today as they were in 2003, as managers, residents, and Alison Taggart-Barone/Parks Conservancy
visitors continue to work together to achieve this shared vision. This second printing contains all of the original text, plus updated photos and maps.
Community members and agencies continue to work towards a common vision for the watershed
Successful management of the Redwood Creek watershed requires a coordinated effort among the watershed’s public and private landowners and resource managers. To develop this coordinated effort, public agencies* in the Redwood Creek watershed joined with the public to create a “watershed vision.� This vision provides a foundation for land managers, residents, and businesses to manage the watershed for its ecosystem functions, local residents and visitors, educational opportunities, cultural and agricultural resources, recreation, and rural character. This vision does not alter or override existing policies of the participating agencies. Rather, it serves as a guideline to support future planning and projects in the watershed, ensuring that planning and projects within the scope of this vision strive to meet the common goals described herein. While the management focus is likely to change over time as we learn more about the
* Public Agencies in the Watershed Vision
R E D W O O D C R E E K W AT E R S H E D : V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E
Maria Durana/Parks Conservancy
Preface
California Department of Fish and Wildlife California Department of Parks and Recreation Marin Municipal Water District Marin County Muir Beach Community Services District National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
watershed, its resources, and the effects of management actions, this vision is intended to provide a broad, durable foundation for future planning, decisionmaking, and cooperative management that will persist over the coming years.
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The Watershed The Redwood Creek watershed extends from
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s
the peaks of Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County’s
(UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program to
tallest mountain, to the Pacific Ocean and is
provide a global network representing the world’s
nestled in one of the nation’s most densely
major ecosystem types.
populated regions (see map on page 6). The watershed encompasses an area of less than Alison Taggart-Barone/Parks Conservancy
nine square miles, yet it harbors an incredibly diverse ecosystem and rich assemblages of plant and animal species. Within this small watershed are found grasslands, coastal chaparral, mixed hardwood and old-growth redwood forests, seasonal wetlands, and riparian woodlands that extend in an unbroken mosaic from the mountain’s ridge tops to the sea. This watershed is also home to some of the west coast’s most imperiled species, such as coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), steelhead (O. mykiss), northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), and the California The Redwood Creek watershed stretches from the top of Mount Tamalpais to the Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach
1. Stein, B.A., L.S. Kutner, and J.S. Adams, eds. 2000. Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii).
In addition to its ecological importance, the watershed is rich in human history. For thousands of years before European colonization of the Bay Area, native people who today call themselves the Coast Miwok lived in the watershed and throughout the region. In fact, the name “Mt. Tamalpais” is a Spanish derivation of the Coast Miwok language meaning “west hill” or “coast hill.” After European colonization, Mt. Tamalpais and the redwood forest of Muir Woods attracted hikers, scientists, conservationists, and many other visitors. By the turn of the 20th century, the work of numerous local conservation groups to protect the mountain from urban development helped give rise to the American environmental conservation
An indication of its ecological value, the watershed
movement. Since William Kent’s donation of Muir
is included in one of 25 global biodiversity “hot
Woods to the federal government in 1908, almost
spots” recognized by The Nature Conservancy and
the entire watershed has been either donated
targeted by the global conservation community as
to or purchased by public agencies and private
key to preserving the world’s ecosystems . It is also
stewards, to allow its protection from urban
within the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve, one
development and sprawl.
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of 631 reserves designated by the United Nations
and managed as parkland by the Marin Municipal Water District, California Department of Parks and Recreation (Mt. Tamalpais State Park), and National Park Service (Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Muir Woods National Monument). These areas are popular destinations for Bay Area residents and visitors. Each year, more than a million people visit the watershed to be among its old-growth redwoods, experience its scenic beauty, hike or ride its extensive trail network, and visit its historical and cultural
R E D W O O D C R E E K W AT E R S H E D : V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E
John Northmore Roberts/June 2014
Today, ninety-five percent of the watershed is publicly owned
treasures. Three private communities also reside in the watershed — the communities of Muir Beach, Muir Woods Park, and Green Gulch Farm (a part of the San Francisco Zen Center). These communities contribute to the watershed and rely on it for clean water and the quality of life that it offers. Even though most of the land in the watershed is protected in public ownership, its resources and the public’s ability to enjoy them remain vulnerable to factors both within and outside of the watershed. Some key factors affecting the watershed include: overcrowding in the parks, traffic congestion on roads throughout the watershed and in
Located where the watershed meets the sea, the restoration of Redwood Creek at Muir Beach has transformed the site for both visitors and wildlife
the surrounding region, diversion of water from Redwood Creek and its tributaries for residential and agricultural uses, fuel loading and alteration of native plant communities due to fire suppression, and flooding of local roads.
Threatened northern spotted owls make their home in Muir Woods
Heather Jensen/NPS
invasion by non-native plant and animal species, increased
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Alison Taggart-Barone/Parks Conservancy
Creating the Vision The watershed vision was created through a one-
website and written response forms. The vision
year collaboration among agencies, the public,
team included technical experts from a range
and a watershed “vision team.” Through this
of creative and scientific disciplines, as well as
effort, public agencies in the watershed worked
community organizations and leaders. This team,
with the public and the vision team to identify
which contributed to the process through two
issues and values in the watershed and define
workshops, helped synthesize input from the
desired future conditions for watershed resources.
public and agencies to frame issues and define
Public participation was essential to creating the
desired future conditions for the watershed vision.
vision and included three public workshops, as
The process used to create the vision is shown
well as opportunities for input through the project
below…
Public Workshop One February 2002
Identify Issues and Values
Public Workshop Two June 2002
Define desired future conditions Vision Team Workshop One March 2002
Public Workshop Three November 2002
Develop vision consensus Vision Team Workshop Two September 2002
THE R E DW O O D CR E E K WATE R S HE D VI S I O N P R OC E S S 4
Publish the Watershed Vision
Subsequent planning and management by individual agencies or in partnership
GUIDING PRINCIPL ES
Stated simply, the vision is that “the Redwood Creek watershed exists as an intact natural ecosystem that offers opportunities for people to learn about, experience, and protect a rich blend of nature, rural character, and cultural history in an urbanized area.” This vision is stated as a set of Guiding Principles for managing the watershed and Desired Future Conditions for the watershed’s natural and cultural resources, resident and visitor communities, and local infrastructure, facilities, and emergency services. These Desired Future Conditions are “what” statements describing goals for resource conditions and human experience for the watershed’s future. They do not prescribe how to attain these conditions. Determining how best
1. Land management agencies, local communities, and the public work together to build support for and implement the watershed vision. 2. The watershed is managed as a model of the interdependency of all resources and beings, acknowledging the presence and activities of people historically and currently. 3. The natural beauty and rustic character of the landscape is maintained. 4. Sustainable land management and resource use practices are used to ensure natural and cultural resources protection, resident quality of life, and quality of visitor experience.
5. An adaptive, scientifically based approach provides the foundation for informed resource decision-making and management of the watershed’s resources, and scientific research in the watershed is encouraged and supported.
R E D W O O D C R E E K W AT E R S H E D : V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E
The Vision
6. Education is provided as a foundation for future watershed protection and stewardship. 7. Opportunities for human and cultural experiences and interaction with the natural environment are fostered. 8. People are active stewards of the watershed, and land management agencies provide an example for and promote stewardship of the watershed’s resources by watershed residents and visitors.
to meet these conditions and where they should apply in the watershed will be accomplished in future planning either on a watershed-wide basis or for individual projects or jurisdictions within the watershed. 5
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Natural Resources DE S IR E D FUTUR E CONDITIONS 1. The watershed is managed as an intact, continuous, and linked system from the ridge tops to the ocean, with all parts contributing to the health of the whole. 2. Ecosystem management in the watershed is founded on the restoration and protection of natural processes and disturbance regimes, such as fire and flooding.
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Kirke Wrench/NPS
3. Native plant communities are healthy and comprise a mosaic of diverse cover types, including native grasslands, chaparral, riparian woodland, hardwood and redwood forests, and wetlands. 4. Restoration and protection of a full range of natural geomorphic and hydraulic functions (such as sediment transport, channel migration, and recruitment of large wood) in Redwood Creek from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean support complex instream and floodplain structure that, in turn, supports a diverse community of native aquatic and ripariandependent species.
5. Aquatic ecosystem health is not impaired by water diversion or water quality degradation. 6. Invasion by and the adverse effects of non-native plant and animal species on the ecosystem are reduced or reversed, and imperiled habitats are restored. 7. Special status and locally rare plant and animal species are protected and, where appropriate, their populations are expanded. 8. Human-caused erosion on watershed lands does not impact fish and aquatic habitat. 9. Native wildlife populations are viable and diverse, and key habitats and habitat linkages (i.e., corridors) are protected and restored. 10. Potential negative impacts of surrounding land uses are minimized.
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Cultural Resources D ES I RED F U T U R E C O N D I T I ONS 1. Residents and visitors are connected to the human history of the Redwood Creek watershed –– its heritage as the ancestral homeland of the Coast Miwok, its role in agriculture in western Marin County, and its place in the history of recreation and the environmental conservation movement –– through the preservation and interpretation of historically significant properties embodying this history.
4. The public agency landowners in the watershed work cooperatively to identify, preserve, and interpret archaeological sites, artifacts, structures, and cultural landscapes of historic significance on public lands in the watershed. 5. Historically significant structures are preserved, rehabilitated, and reused, where opportunity allows and as appropriate.
2. Archaeological sites in the watershed are identified, preserved, and interpreted.
Alison Taggart-Barone/Parks Conservancy
3. The Coast Miwok heritage in the watershed is maintained and enhanced through cooperation with the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria, the tribe descending from the Coast Miwok inhabitants of the watershed.
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Visitor Experience DE S IR E D FUTUR E CONDITIONS 1. Visitor experiences that are unique to this watershed are encouraged. 2. The watershed provides a range of visitor experiences from wild to structured and from solitary to shared. 3. Access to the watershed and recreational opportunities are provided for a range of trail users through a well-designed, comprehensive trail system. 4. Visitor uses and use levels are compatible with protection of natural and cultural resources of the watershed and visitor enjoyment.
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Š Michal Venera
5. Public education about watersheds, watershed management, and resource sustainability is provided through a range of programs both within and outside of the watershed.
6. Visitors to the watershed are active stewards of watershed resources as volunteers, educators, students, land managers, and citizen experts. 7. People visit the watershed in a manner that minimizes traffic congestion and its related negative impacts to communities and watershed resources. 8. Visitor use rules and regulations for each land management agency in the watershed are made readily available and understandable for park visitors. 9. Visitor services are adequate to support visitor experience but are kept minimal to protect the natural and cultural resources and rural character of the watershed.
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Resident Community D ES I RED F U T U R E C O N D I T I O NS 1. Resident communities are an integral part of the watershed and have minimal impacts on the natural environment. 2. Local residents are active stewards of the watershed and implement sustainable resource practices in their communities. 3. Watershed visitor traffic, parking, and recreation have minimal impacts on local communities. 4. Domestic water supply needs are met while minimizing impacts to natural resources.
Alison Taggart-Barone/Parks Conservancy
5. Sustainable agriculture minimizes impacts on natural resources and provides visible connections to food production and our agricultural history.
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Infrastructure, Facilities, and Emergency Services DE S IR E D FUTUR E CONDITIONS 1. Water use throughout the watershed is monitored, and its effects on the watershed’s creeks and aquatic resources are understood. 2. Infrastructure and its maintenance are appropriate to the anticipated use and public safety, while minimizing impacts on natural and cultural resources. 3. Infrastructure management is coordinated among responsible agencies, businesses, utilities, and residents.
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Roland Greenberg/NPS
4. Emergency services are provided throughout the watershed.
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Kirke Wrench/NPS
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