Volunteer to Plant Willows along Wildcat Creek in San Pablo

Volunteer to Plant Willows on Wildcat Oct 28
Please Register Here

The Willow Staking event will take place on Saturday, October 28th from 9:00am-12:00pm at the Wildcat Greenway Trail at 1000 Gateway Ave, San Pablo. We plan to plant up to 200 willow stakes along the creek bank. If time allows we’ll spend the rest of the time doing litter pick up along the trail. 

Willows create important stream side habitat for both terrestrial and aquatic life. Pools of deep, cool water gather under the shade of a willow’s dense canopy. Insects feeding on or in the willows may drop to the water and feed a waiting fish. When the snows of winter melt and become the floods of spring, willows protect the stream bank from the erosive power of the flooding water. Their roots and branches both armor the stream bank and slow the floods velocity. Without populations of willows the banks of these creeks are washed downstream leaving a bare bank. These bare banks are also known as cutbanks.

John Muir Trout Unlimited is committed to restoring Wildcat Creek. Some of our projects include; removing plastic pollution washed down from winter rains, planting willows, building a new fish ladder in the lower creek, and creating a water quality monitoring program to better understand the aquatic habitat for fish.

A couple of things we would encourage folks to bring are:
• Work/garden gloves
• Close-toed shoes
• Buckets (for trash cleanup)
• Extra water, snacks, and sun protection
• Ear plugs and hard hats (it could get loud when using the t-post driver tool to pound in the supporting poles)