One of the main projects that Earth Team interns from Antioch High School and Pittsburg High School worked on throughout last school year focused on water quality testing and restoration activities around the Marsh Creek watershed. While the final contributions to this project from our interns have already been made, partners from American Rivers continue to assess the project site as the changing seasons reveal patterns and projections of how climate change may affect our local environment, and how we can reduce the negative impacts of humans on the watershed. As summer transitions into fall, Earth Team would like to reflect on the hard work of last year’s interns, many of whom have decided to continue their journey as environmental stewards in their communities.
Interns first became familiar with the Marsh Creek watershed through a guided tour of four lower watershed sites. At each site, the interns heard from our partners at American Rivers and from members of the Marsh Creek Watershed Council Board (MCWC). To start, interns were led along Marsh Creek from the trailhead in Brentwood near the Three Creeks Restoration Project area. This introduced them to the main site where they would be located for future field work. At the next site, the interns explored a fish ladder that was installed to help salmonid species return to their spawning grounds. Then, they went to Oakley Creekside Park to see a beaver dam that exhibited how wildlife rely on the materials in their environment and why it is important to keep litter out of waterways. Overall, the interns learned about the importance of watershed health, and how expanding flood areas in order to plant native vegetation helps combat the impacts of climate change. The interns ended the tour at Dutch Slough, where Marsh Creek flows out into the delta. This site is a critical tidal marsh habitat and it has undergone expansive restoration efforts to protect the ecological health of the delta.
Interns returned to the Three Creeks Restoration Project area in Brentwood to install three water quality data loggers and three temperature probes in Marsh Creek. While the probes only measure the temperature of the creek water, collected at one-hour intervals, the data loggers measure both temperature and dissolved oxygen, and could transfer the data via bluetooth. After learning how to calibrate the devices by connecting them to a laptop and setting the collection intervals, interns took turns placing each logger into protective housing units. Then, the interns helped install these devices in the creek using cords, clasps, and bricks to keep them in place. With one data logger upstream, one downstream, and one inside the project site, the goal is to quantify the impacts of the project itself based on whether the restored vegetation helps decrease water temperature and increase dissolved oxygen.
Since the data loggers must remain in the creek for months to collect water quality data across seasons, the interns changed their focus to further restoring the Three Creeks Project area by planting native oak trees along the creek banks. The oak saplings were grown from acorns by a prominent community member who was not only willing, but excited to volunteer his time and plants towards these restoration efforts. Following the community member’s lead, the interns restored specifically designated planting areas with coast live oak and valley oak saplings. Through this field work, they got hands-on experience using post-hole diggers, removing saplings from their pots and planting them, and watering the freshly planted trees in order to help them establish deep roots before summer.
As all of these field activities came to a close, interns had the opportunity to present their project progress to the Marsh Creek Watershed Council during a virtual meeting on Zoom. The interns shared preliminary water quality metrics with the council and public attendees, and they explained how their field work aligns with the objectives of their project funded by the Rose Foundation. They even discussed the data trends from their temperature probes and dissolved oxygen loggers, as well as the expected long-term results within the Three Creeks restoration area. This presentation not only gave the interns public speaking experience, but it also provided them with greater insight into the community organization that is heavily invested in the health of the Marsh Creek watershed.
Thank you so much to our partners at American Rivers for assisting in these project activities and leading interns in the related field work. We also greatly appreciate the Rose Foundation for their financial support and dedication to community environmental action.
