Author: Sacramento Area Creeks Council

  • 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…

  • Mira Loma High School
    Arcade Creek Project

    by the Outreach Team for the Mira Loma Arcade Creek Project The Arcade Creek project is much more than just your average high school venture. Rather, it is a fusion of ideas, a network of cooperating people dedicated to environmental awareness and preservation. It is a group of students determined to prove to themselves and…

  • Join The Fight Against Alien Invaders

    by Frank Wallace Since 2001, each Creek Week Cleanup Day has included work sites to remove red sesbania, an invasive plant that grows naturally in southern South America. This plant is spreading rapidly along many creeks in north Sacramento and along the American River, threatening the existence of native plants used by wildlife for food…

  • McClellan Park West Nature Area

    by Brian Sytsma Tucked away in the western portion of the former McClellan Air Force Base, now known as McClellan Park, lays a unique natural resource area, called the “West Nature Area.” This 220-acre parcel of land is home to a wide variety of plants and wildlife. With the exception of a small rice farming…

  • Salmon in Arcade Creek

    by Alta Tura A group of Mira Loma High School students observed a salmon in Arcade Creek on November 18. Greg Suba, a former science teacher who happened to be with the students that day, reports that the fish was swimming in a pool of rancid water darkened by the tannin that had leached out…

  • Creek Critters: May Flies

    by Bonnie Ross Mayflies are found in a diverse array of aquatic habitats from standing water to cold and rapid head-water streams. They are ecologically very important; essentially being the first-order consumers in all water bodies they inhabit. As a preferred for most aquatic and terrestrial insectivores, they survive by sheer numbers alone. Mayflies were…

  • One-Day Salmon Count

    Excerpts from an article by Gary W. Flanagan, president of the Granite Bay Flycasters Association I remember reading an article in Field and Streamwhen I was about ten or eleven years old. I was living in K-part housing at Mather AFB. The article was titled “How to tell the difference between a “Creek” and a…

  • Thoughts From a Local Biologist

    By Tim Pafford Reprinted from Watershed, the Dry Creek Conservancy newsletter When I was a little boy, I was always messing around with water. I remember an incident of playing in rain-swollen puddles one stormy winter day after being sent home from kindergarten with a high fever. And I often came home muddy and wet…

  • Creek Critters: Dragonflies

    by Bonnie Ross The other day as I was walking to my car, a gleaming object on the hot pavement caught my eye. I bent down and picked up a dead dragonfly that seemed to radiate iridescent colors from its huge eyes, its long, delicate abdomen, and its stained-glass like wings. I decided at once…

  • Creek-Friendly Lansdscaping

    by Dave Tamayo, Pesticide Control Program Manager, Sacramento County Stormwater Program. The way you design and maintain the landscaped areas of your home or business can either help or hurt local creeks and rivers, and the creatures that depend on them. Landscapes have the potential to trap pollutants, conserve water, and prevent creek erosion. However,…