Petaluma Wetlands, Watershed, and River Projects
I have been a long term member of Petaluma Wetlands Alliance and now serving as President. Besides an Education Program that has served over 10,000 students and parents, we also have crews working on bird research and maintenance. I led the effort to clean up the trash deposited by dredging, refurbishing benches and kiosks, removing invasive nonnative plants, and trail maintenance. I kayak the river and want to develop a bank restoration program to help prepare us for sea level rise. I am also working on creating River Access in the north river flood zone working with Friends of the Petaluma River. I am also encouraging the city to work with the Groundwater Sustainability Agency to create more rain catchment basins to recharge groundwater and reduce flood risk.
I co-wrote the Petaluma Wetlands Field Guide photographing and documenting all the plants and writing many other sections. It can be purchased on the PWA website by clicking on image.
I paddled with the Petaluma Paddlers when they toured the Petaluma Marsh during a king tide. I have kayaked the marsh many times. That's the bow of my boat. The marsh is at risk from sea level rise.
Oak on river bank in north floodplain. This is a community effort to establish a river path, park, and protected habitat in this area.
This short 3 minute video showcases the north river floodplain area using walking, bike, and drone footage. I worked with local videographer and drone operator to showcase this Greenway. Friends of the Petaluma River have recently created map showcasing the possibilities.
This is the new Greenway proposal by Friends of the Petaluma River. They are working on grants to create this open space and make accessible to all. It will be a a huge financial benefit as well as benefiting ecology and bike and ped transit across town.
Lynch Creek Trail was improved for ADA access and is now traveled frequently by walkers and bikers. The River Access Plan includes this type trail over a much more of the river. Many bikers and walkers now use this trail to cross town east-west. I use this trail regularly to get downtown on my ebike.
Paddler going down river south of Payran overpass. This a a flood control project which we need to duplicate effort on other parts of the river.
Shollenbeger Park Central Pond starting to dry up after dredging spoils deposited. It is currently dry due to our drought.
Shollenberger Park trail is the most used trail in Petaluma with over 300 people walking, running, and biking here daily. It was also voted most popular park. It is now a mixed used area for industrial waste (dredging), 2 mile trail for people, and habitat for over 200 species of birds, many migratory.
I led the teams refurbish all 32 benches at Shollenberger Park and Alman Marsh and work with city staff on the Memorial Bench Program.
Image of me refurbishing roof of kiosk. I manage the kiosk cases and have a team filling the brochure boxes. One of our PWA docents painted the Wetlands poster that now adorns this kiosk near the Shollenberger parking lot.
I created several posters currently in Shollenberger Park and they are all about water. This one covers dredging and is located near the viewing pier.
This poster explains wetland ecology. I did the finishing touches of construction on this kiosk after it was replaced by a contractor when the dredging pipe pushed it over.
This is the kiosk at entrance of Shollenberger Park with poster I created on flooding in Petaluma. Boxes on sides have QR codes and brochures.
I built new doggie bag boxes to replace the broken ones in Shollenberger Park and have a team resupply bags.
I rebuilt and painted doggie bag box by bridge over Adobe Creek. A PWA volunteer team resupplies regularly.
Marty Slonim helped me refurish the posts and QR code stations at Shollenberger Park. You use your phone camera to link to the trail descriptions on each of the 16 stations. Try using the QR codes I linked to the PWA website.
PWA birders volunteer to lead instruction bird surveys for children twice a year.
Teams of volunteers stepped through muck to collect dredge spoils trash.
End of cleanup session showcasing all the trash the volunteers picked up after dredging. This is just one of fourteen sessions needed to cover entire area.
I led 14 teams of volunteers cleaning out trash left in SP Central Pond by dredging in 2010, filling up my truck each time. This was team effort with FOPR and STRAW.
I interviewed Mayor Teresa Barrett after we cleaned up the trash in Shollenberger Park that came out of the dredge spoils. Click on pic to go to YouTube video.
I help clean out the owl boxes at ECWRF. We collects the owl pellets for use in our education program getting students to dissect the pellets to study owl diet.
Here I am cleaning out the owl box at ECWRF I rebuilt on the dead Eucalyptus tree adding a phone based camera to watch owlets grow. PWA volunteers count all the bone remains in this box after cleanout for research.