In the fall of 2023, the Living Arroyos program will celebrate its 10th anniversary. “The Living Arroyos Program is an important interface between our community and our urban streams,” says Zone 7 Water Agency General Manager Valerie Pryor. “It helps us to coordinate long-term flood protection improvements, habitat enhancements, and community involvement in stream management and stewardship.”

The program’s history and accomplishments over the years reflect a microcosm of the Tri-Valley’s strengths. These include environmental stewardship, cross-agency collaboration, educational outreach, community support, and a passionate volunteer base working to improve the natural habitat of urban streams and arroyos, the Spanish word for dry streams. Arroyos are common in California; these stream channels are dry at times and filled with water at other times.

Healthy Watersheds Matter

Living Arroyos is one of the Tri-Valley’s many thriving environmental programs. It has four goals, according to its most recent annual report. Those goals are to engage residents in hands-on stewardship of natural resources while they experience nature close to home; increase public awareness of important watershed issues; improve habitat and water quality of local streams while maintaining and enhancing both public safety and regional flood protection; and strengthen public-private partnerships within the community.

The program provides a multifaceted solution to a number of problems, according to Joseph Steelman, Program Manager. Clearing out trash and invasive plants and planting trees next to streams works to prevent floods and conserve water. Over time, the trees will shade the streams and slow water evaporation. “We're also providing habitat,” says Steelman. “We're providing green ways for wildlife to migrate through the urban environment. We're providing green spaces for people to walk and enjoy nature in their own backyards. There is the land stewardship component, where we're actually engaging the community and educating them on the watershed.”

The health of the 660-square-mile Alameda Creek Watershed, the largest watershed in the Bay Area, is critically important to the Tri-Valley. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, healthy watersheds improve a region’s quality of life by improving water quality. Natural landscapes and floodplains filter pollutants, promote nutrient cycling, and help retain sediment. Watersheds with intact natural land cover and soil resources can help offset greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering carbon. Healthy watersheds also reduce the risk of invasive species colonization because naturally functioning ecosystems are more resilient and favor indigenous species.

Those benefits, while important, are not the only ones, according to the EPA. “Protecting healthy watersheds can reduce capital costs for water treatment plants and reduce damages to property and infrastructure due to flooding, thereby avoiding future costs. Additionally, protecting healthy watersheds can generate revenue through property value premiums, recreation, and tourism.”

A Partnership That Works

The program began with just three program partners, the Urban Creeks Council, which was the implementing partner; the City of Livermore; and the Zone 7 Water Agency, according to Steelman, who has been involved in the program since its inception. “At that time, we only had one project we worked on, a mile-long section of the Arroyo Mocho known as the Stanley Reach, which runs parallel to Stanley Boulevard from Murrieta Boulevard to Isabel Avenue. I was part of the original field crew as an intern.”

Today, the Living Arroyos program in the Livermore-Amador Valley includes the Zone 7 Water Agency; the Cities of Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton; and, as the new implementation partner, the Alameda County Resource Conservation District, which took over that role from the Livermore Area Recreation and Parks District in July. Urban stream areas that need restoration often fall outside of neat city and county limits. This fact of nature has made the multi-agency partnership key to the program’s success.

As part of its focus on education, Living Arroyos hires paid interns each year, conducts outreach to the public through social media outlets, and collaborates with school administrators and local community organizations, according to its 2021-2022 Annual Report. Because of the pandemic, there were no volunteer events during the first half of this year. That changed this past fall, when clean-up events started being held again in September. For the Creeks to Bay cleanup on September 17, for example, 99 volunteers showed up and removed a total of 738 pounds of trash from six different locations.

While the number varies by event, there is a core group of “rockstar” volunteers who have been participating in Living Arroyos events since 2014. New volunteers are always welcome. That includes employee groups looking for a cost-free team-building experience as well as families, because there is no minimum age to participate in Living Arroyos volunteer work. The work done by interns and volunteers is critically important, notes Steelman.

“Because of the stressors that we put on natural systems, just through urbanization, they naturally degrade. If you don't actively work to mitigate that degradation, those systems will get worse and worse. That includes the build up of pollution and habitat loss, which contributes to increased flooding issues. Debris that gets into the channels will eventually make its way out into the San Francisco Bay because this watershed is connected to the San Francisco Bay through Alameda Creek. Even though the creeks may run dry during a good portion of the year, heavy rain events will flush all of that debris downstream. All along the way, that debris and loss of habitat is affecting native wild native plants and native animals throughout the whole system, not just when it gets to the ocean.”

Those who work with Living Arroyos get something back for their labor, notes Steelman. “It helps people feel like they're actually doing something to make their urban environment better. So rather than complaining about all the trash in the creeks, you're actually getting involved in cleaning it up or complaining about all the weeds, you're actually helping to remove them. On these barren channels that don't have any trees, you're actually planting trees to provide shade. Maybe not for you, maybe not for your kids, but maybe for someone ten or twenty years from now. In a world where sometimes it can be really hard to put your feelings into action, this gives people something that they can act on. That is incredibly empowering.”

For more information about Living Arroyos, please visit www.livingarroyos.org, www.facebook.com/livingarroyos, mobile.twitter.com/livingarroyos, or  www.instagram.com/living.arroyos.

Companies seeking to volunteer teams for the program should contact Program Manager Joseph Steelman directly at (925) 858-7767.

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash