Photo by Melania Mahoney
On a warm and bright Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a group of 17 volunteers and 6 Sonoma Ecology staff members came out for a day of service to help clean up Nathanson Creek. The crew worked hard throughout the day removing trash and clearing natural debris from a stretch of the creek that flows from the Nathanson Creek Preserve on East MacArthur Street, past Sonoma Valley High School, all the way to Nathanson Creek Park. SEC’s Restoration Team also weeded garden beds, reseeded native valley wildflowers, and installed new irrigation in the native plant demonstration gardens at Nathanson Creek Preserve.
Sonoma Ecology Center began leading cleanup and restoration efforts along the banks of Nathanson Creek in the late 1990s, with help from partners Sonoma County Ag + Open Space District, Sonoma Water, and the City of Sonoma. At that time, the creek had deteriorated from years of pollution and neglect to little more than a run-off ditch. Today, the water in the creek is clear and cool, allowing for the return of Chinook Salmon, and the Preserve is accessible to the public by bridges, trails and bike paths.
Yet the creek, which runs north to south through the middle of Sonoma, adjacent to downtown, the high school, and football fields can still be an easy dumping ground for litter and debris, making these biannual cleanups essential to ensure the ecological health and natural beauty of this thriving greenway.
Photos by Melania Mahoney
In addition to filling 5-gallon buckets full of everyday trash and natural debris, the team removed a shopping cart, sets of dumbbells and a massive and extremely heavy metal hoop which took the sweat and teamwork of four crew members donned in waders to wrench out from the middle of the creek.
These cleanups provide a unique opportunity for connection and collaboration in our community. Two of the volunteers, JR and Kelly Wolf, who helped weed invasive grasses from the Preserve had only just recently moved to Sonoma from Asheville, NC. They read about the clean up online and came out to help looking for a way to get involved in their new community and meet new people. Other volunteers wanted to give back to their community on MLK Day. After sharing a morning of hard work together in the Preserve’s native plant demonstration garden, the volunteers enjoyed coffee and donuts while chatting and sitting in the sun at the garden’s picnic tables.
Volunteers learned how to identify the weeds we were targeting and helped us create more space in the grassland and wildflower planting areas for native plants to self-seed and spread.
—Manuel Hernandez, Restoration Project Manager
Photo by Melania Mahoney
“I want to express my appreciation for all the volunteers that helped pull weeds!” said Manual Hernandez, SEC’s Restoration Project Manager who led the cleanup. “The volunteers were willing to learn how to identify the weeds we were targeting and helped us create more space in the grassland and wildflower planting areas for native plants to self-seed and spread.”
This particular cleanup also allowed for a collaboration between Sonoma Ecology Center’s Restoration and Education teams. It was the first creek cleanup for Education staff members Mickey Abate and Mario Coronado, both Sonoma natives and former classmates at Sonoma Valley High School. For Mickey, SEC was her first and only choice when looking for volunteer hours in the field as part of the requirements for a Master’s degree she is pursuing in Ecology, Spirituality and Religion. Mickey began volunteering at Sonoma Garden Park where she has warm memories of playing as a child on school field trips. She found she enjoyed the work, people, and opportunities to think with the land and so continued on even after her volunteer hours had concluded.
Mickey now works with the Education team, helping connect local students to the natural world around them. “The creek cleanup was a chance to see a different side of how plastic and waste show up in our town,” says Mickey. “It emphasized how important each step of trash disposal is in helping our local ecologies thrive. It was also a great opportunity to see how much work the restoration team puts into the sometimes daunting task of creek-clean ups.”
Photos by Melania Mahoney
The Creek Cleanup emphasized how important each step of trash disposal is in helping our local ecologies thrive.
—Mickey Abate, Environmental Educator
Mario feels very fortunate to have grown up in Sonoma and be surrounded by accessible open spaces, and a community that values conservation. He shared: “I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to serve my community through my own passions. Working for Sonoma Ecology Center inspires me to continue learning, so that we can better connect people in the Valley to their natural resources.”
THANK YOU to everyone who came out to help steward Nathanson Creek Preserve—doing this work alongside our community is what it’s all about. If you would like to participate in a future creek cleanup or volunteer opportunity with SEC, please visit https://sonomaecologycenter.org/volunteer/ for a list of ways to get involved!
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Photos by Melania Mahoney
