Creek Week 2007
by Alta Tura
Urban Creeks Council President
April 28th dawned clear, and an estimated 1,400 volunteers turned out to clean a creek on Clean-Up Day... more

Cleaning Steelhead Creek
by Libby Harmor
Valley View Acres is a rural neighborhood in North Natomas bordered on two sides by Steelhead Creek and the Ueda Parkway... more

Mosquito Fish, Friend or Foe?
by Bill Templin, Board Member
Urban Creeks Council and Upper American River Foundation
Mosquito fish are as a predator of mosquito larvae in many diverse aquatic habitats throughout the world.... more

Is Your Garden Creek Friendly?
by Betty Cooper
What can we do to help creeks every day around our own homes? The choices we make in our gardens and home landscaping can contribute to the long-term health of our creeks... more

Pyrethroids in Creeks
by Dave Tamayo,
Pesticide Control Program Manager
Sacramento County Stormwater Program
Since the 1990s, the Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership has known that water in local creeks was contaminated with the insecticides... more

Dry Creek Salmon Count
by Bill Templin, Board Member
Urban Creeks Council and Upper American River Foundation
Once again, a good volunteer turnout of over 30 people participated in walking 16 reaches of Dry Creek and it's tributaries... more

Winter Doesn't Stop Students
from Dipping Into Creeks
by Beth Etgen, UCCS Vice President - Education
January 16th, 2007 marked the first "Dipping Into Creeks in the Classroom" program at... more

Time is Ripe for "Scoop the Poop" Pilot Program
Courtesy of Sacramento County Stormwater Quality
Studies show that animal waste is a major source of bacteria found in Sacramento area urban runoff... more

Frank Cruzen Remembered
by Alta Tura, Bruce Swineheart and Benjamin Etgen
in memory of the Urban Creeks Council founder,
Frank Cruzen... more

Creek Critters by Bonnie Ross
They live on the water surface film and one genus, would you believe, lives on the surface of the ocean, sometimes many miles from land!... more

The Other Kings By Bill Templin
Dry Creek and its tributaries are noteworthy for having the only documented salmon run of any of the area's creeks... more

Arrundo Invasion By Frank Wallace
It can grow up to 30 feet tall, as much as 1 foot a week in the summer!... more

Doves By Bill Templin
They migrate from as far north as Canada in the late summer and up from Mexico in the spring... ... more

And the Winner Is...
The 2006 Creek Steward Award goes to Calvine High School. Includes student essays ... more

Pesticides in Creeks:
The Argentine Connection By Dave Tamayo
A favorite activity of my childhood was collecting big "red ants" and creating ant habitats in a jar... more

Adventures of a Creek Week Site Leader
By Kris Olsen
Leading a site? Sound unappealing? Not at all... more

Cliff Swallows By Bruce Swinehart
No story of Spring would be complete without mention of the return of the swallows... more

Creek Plants: Buckeye By Bruce Swinehart
One of the most obvious changes that is evident in fall is the transition many plants make. ... more

Dipping Into Creeks: An Educator's Guide and Kit By Beth Etgen
With flowing water, wooded banks, and a variety of wildlife, local creeks are an ideal resource for learning through experiential environment-based education.... more

Reaching Out to the Community By Lisa Kelly
The Arcade Creek Project began as a result of the International Baccalaureate Program coming to Mira Loma High School. and ... more

Creek Week 2005 By Alta Tura
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. ... more

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.... more

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. ... more

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.... more

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.... more

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 ... more

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.... more

Thoughts From a Local Biologist By Tim Pafford
Recently, restoration work on a 1.4-mile reach of Dry Creek was completed. The benefits to the creek included reduction of sediment, stabilized stream banks, and ... more

Mayflies by Bonnie Ross
Mayflies are found in a diverse array of aquatic habitats from standing water to cold and rapid head-water streams. ... more

McClellan Park West 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, ... more

Mira Loma High School Arcade Creek Project
by Outreach Team for MLACP
The Arcade Creek project is much more than just your average high school venture. Rather, it is a fusion of ideas ... more

Removing Red Sesbania 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 ... more

Salmon in Arcade Creek by Alta Tura
A group of Mira Loma High School students observed a salmon in Arcade Creek on November 18 ... more

One-Day Salmon Count by Gary W. Flanagan
I remember reading an article in Field and Stream when I was about ten or eleven years old, the article was titled "How to tell the difference between a " Creek" and a "Crick" ... more

Dragonflies by Bonnie Ross
The other day as I was walking to my car, a gleaming object on the hot pavement caught my eye ... more

Creek-Friendly Landscaping by Dave Tamayo,
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 ... more

New Communities - New Creeks
Members of the communities of Mather, Folsom and Rancho Cordova have organized to monitor, preserve and restore urban waterways in their respective communities ... more

The Giant Water Bug by Bonnie Ross
This is the first in a series of articles about aquatic insects. By way of introduction, an extinct relative of the modern-day mayfly was first detected in 250 million year old rocks ... more

Promoting Stewardship,
Preserving Biodiversity by Frank Wallace
The American River Parkway and riparian areas along creeks throughout Sacramento are being invaded ... more

West Nile Virus and Urban Creeks by Dave Tamayo
West Nile Virus (WVN) has been in the news a lot recently, especially since it appeared in Southern California last year. It is almost certain to arrive in Sacramento this year ... more

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Sacramento Urban Creeks Council
4855 Hamilton Street Sacramento, California 95841
phone (916) 454 - 4544
email: ucc@arcadecreekrecreation.com
site manager: input@sacto-ucc.org