Garrity Creek is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed March 15, 2011 creek in
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council. 's
Hilltop neighborhood. It runs into
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water ch ...
. It is sometimes called Hilltop Creek.
The creek is supported by two springs, two separate legs which join into Garrity Creek in El Sobrante, California. The basin feeding this watershed was, for hundreds of years, a sacred fishing and hunting site for the Huchiun Band of the Native Ohlone at Garrity Creek & Along San Pablo Bay. Garrity Creek was a highly prized and sacred site because it provided food; acorns from tanbark, valley, coast and live oak trees, as well as buckeye trees. The Huchiun also harvested seeds, berries, greens, nuts and roots in the basin and would travel along Garrity Creek to fish for steelhead, salmon and sturgeon that swam up Garrity Creek to spawn.
Major sections of the creek have been dramatically, and perhaps irrecoverably altered by development. Much of waterway to the bay is now underground; in culverts under the Hilltop Green residential development, under highway 80, and under the Hilltop Mall. Just north of the Hilltop mall, the water is retained in "Hilltop Lake". This man made lake was first created by the Standard Oil company as a recreation site for its employees in the early 1900s. This lake and area around it has now been designated as
Hilltop Lake Park
Hilltop Lake Park, United States, is a city of Richmond, California park in the San Francisco Bay Area situated at Richmond Parkway and Lakeside Drive in the Hilltop neighborhood.
For nearly 20 years, the headwaters of Garrity Creek were threatened by potential development. This was opposed by residents, neighborhood associations, the organization
Friends of Garrity Creek The Friends of Garrity Creek (FGC) is a political organization in Contra Costa County, California which promote the preservation of Garrity Creek.
Overview
The Friends was formed in 2001 when development on steep slopes near the creek's artesian ...
and environmentalists. They claimed the proposed plans for developing the site were illegal since it violates county rules prohibiting construction on slopes steeper than .
Berkeley Is Not Alone in Saving Creeks, Natural Habitat
by Barbara A. Pendergrass, Berkeley Daily Planet, June 15, 2004, retrieved July 26, 2007 Ultimately, the developer was forced into bankruptcy in 2010 and the creek was saved, for the time being.
In 2011, in perhaps the best possible turn of events for Garrity Creek and the watershed, a group of organic farmers purchased the 10-acre property. They have planted over 1000 fruiting trees and shrubs on the landscape in "swales" that will help protect the water quality of Garrity creek and rehydrate the groundwater that supports the springs which feed the creek.
Notes
External links
Friends of Garrity Creek
Bodies of water of Richmond, California
Rivers of Contra Costa County, California
Rivers of Northern California
Tributaries of San Pablo Bay
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