California National Guard Cleans Arcade Creek

by Alta Tura Wayne Lorentzen of the California National Guard was looking for a worthy Earth Day service project when he called me in March. I had just the place that needed a tough, well-organized group with experience in tackling hazards safely. This very needy section of Arcade Creek had not been cleaned for the […]

Horsing Around Ueda Parkway during Creek Week 2005!

By Bill Templin This year Creek Week offered a new activity, a horseback tour of the Ueda Parkway! The idea was Barbara Eggleston’s and it was a good one. What a great way to spend a beautiful Sacramento Saturday morning in spring. It had been quite a while since I had last ridden a horse, […]

Red-Shouldered Hawk

by Bruce Swinehart Wow! What is that noise? This is a comment often made by people hearing the shriek of the Red-shouldered Hawk. This bird is often heard long before it is seen sitting inside the branches of a tall tree rather than out near the edge. The shrill call is often described as “kee-yoo”. […]

Mission Accomplished!

By Alta Tura In the weeks and days leading up to the yearly clean-up of Sacramento County’s creeks, planners worried a bit about the weather. Nothing can squelch a creek clean-up more thoroughly than a heavy rainstorm. So the sunny and mild spring conditions on the day of the clean-up were very welcome. Not too […]

Promoting Environmental Stewardship

by Frank Wallace For the past 15 years, the Urban Creeks Council-Sacramento has conducted the popular Creek Week program. Young people, their families, local businesses, government agencies, environmental organizations, neighborhood groups – and many more – have all been enthusiastic supporters of this event. While cleaning creeks is our immediate objective, the Creek Week program […]

Ithuriel’s Spear (Triteleia laxa)

by Frank Wallace Ithuriel’s spear grows 1-2 feet in height and produces 8-20 lovely funnel-shaped violet-blue flowers on its leafless stem. This plant blooms in profuse clusters in early spring along many of Sacramento’s urban creeks and along the bluffs overlooking Lake Natoma. Ithuriel, from Milton’s Paradise Lost, was one of the angels appointed to […]

Walking The Creeks

by Abigail Stocking Being a naturalist at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center allowed me the privilege of celebrating Creek Week 2005 by sharing the importance of creeks through two interpretative programs. On Saturday, April ___, I led a walk along the Arcade Creek. To start off, we looked at various artifacts from critters that make […]