Calling all volunteers! We need YOUR help in the 2015 Great Sierra River Cleanup (GSRC) restoring the heart of Redding!

This year we will be cleaning up and enhancing the Sulphur Creek basin, including Sulphur Creek and Little Sulphur Creek. We will also be restoring the area around the Old 99 Trail, a trail that Shasta Land Trust has adopted through the City of Redding Adopt-A-Park/Adopt-A-Trail program.

The 2015 GSRC will take place Saturday, September 19th and is scheduled from 9am-noon. The Cleanup location is directly off of N Market Street at the entrance to the Old 99 Trail. We will have juice and breakfast pastries ready for everyone before the cleanup, so make sure you show up at 8:30am to get your fill before the fun and rewarding work begins!

Please bring the following on the day of the GSRC:

closed-toe shoes
work gloves
sunscreen
a filled water bottle

Sulphur Creek has been a hot area for local stream restoration over the years, most notably by John McCullah and the Sacramento Watersheds Action Group (SWAG).

Sulphur Creek flows through the heart of Redding and is tributary to the Sacramento River. When water is present, Sulphur Creek historically has supports runs of trout and salmon. However, since it’s dredging from the old mining days, coupled with its recent channel redirection, fish passage and spawning has been in this areas has been a concern. This is where SWAG steps in!

“In collaboration with Turtle Bay, Shasta College, and the McConnell Foundation, from 1996 to 2007, SWAG designed and implemented almost 2 miles of stream restoration [through the Turtle Bay area], completed the Old Highway 99 Road to Trail conversion, and “daylighted” [Little Sulphur Creek], once buried by the Shasta Dam Conveyor Belt. …On a normally wet year it is now possible to observe dozens of salmon and hundreds of steelhead and rainbow trout spawning, rearing and escaping through this reach.”

— John McCullah

In that time, project phases 1, 2, and 3 have been completed. These phases helped to restore over 3 miles of stream from the Sacramento River up to the Union Pacific Railway. In addition to the stream restoration, over 10 acres of riparian habitat was restored by removing unbelievably dense areas of blackberries, poison oak, and star thistle.

With future plans by SWAG to restore fish passage from the railroad crossing and further up Sulphur Creek, it is imperative that we do our part to ensure this area is free of debris for the enjoyment and use of humans and wildlife alike as well as protecting the water quality of our area.

Click here to sign up for the 2015 Great Sierra River Cleanup today!

See you all on the 19th!