Streams & Salmon

One hundred and fifty years ago, West Marin’s creeks were virtually pristine. Beginning with the gold rush, creeks and their watersheds were dramatically altered by logging, timber- and paper-mills, dams, gravel-mining, road-building, creekside grazing, and water drawdown for agriculture, industry, and burgeoning communities. The resultant sedimentation, pollution, diminished streamflow, loss of vegetative cover, changes to the streambed structure, and physical barriers to fish passage, seriously reduced the ability of salmon to breed and survive in our streams.

Development and change intensified after the Second World War. Lagunitas Creek’s population of breeding salmon declined even more, from an estimated 6000 in the 1940s to fewer than 100 a mere forty years later. Salmon were nearly or completely wiped out from other creeks, including Pine Gulch Creek, which flows into Bolinas Lagoon and Walker Creek which flows into Tomales Bay, and Redwood Creek which empties into the Pacific at Muir Beach.

Over the past twenty years, local people, environmental groups, and government agencies have worked hard to bring back the salmon. Today, thanks to these restoration efforts, Lagunitas Creek has a robust breeding coho population of about 500–1000 per year and salmon are making a comeback in Pine Gulch Creek and Redwood Creek. Compared to 60 years ago, the numbers are still relatively low, but West Marin creeks now support 10-20% of California’s coho salmon population.

Despite the great work that has been done, however, pressures on salmon and steelhed in West Marin creeks are continuing and in some cases intensifying. Although logging, mills, and gravel-mining no longer pose a threat to creeks, dams and roads continue to affect the natural functioning of the watershed, and pollution, loss of riparian vegetation, and sedimentation are increasing as more and more creekside lots are developed and existing creekside homes are enlarged.

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