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Cotati Creek Critters is a grassroots citizens' group working to restore a section of the upper reach of the Laguna de Santa Rosa that runs through Cotati and a small section of Rohnert Park.
CCC began as an all-volunteer group in 1998.
In 2005, CCC received a grant from the California Department of Water Resources to involve the local community in planting native trees and shrubs along a one-mile section of the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Over 2,000 volunteers and many partners, collaborators and supporters were involved in planting, caring for the plants and raising awareness. (Read about our achievements to date and our history!)
Volunteers have included people of all ages from three year olds (the Cotati Co-op Nursery School) to high school students, to students from Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) and Sonoma State University (SSU), to professionals and retired people, and a range of community groups.
We meet for regular Creek Stewardship days on second Saturdays (9 a.m. -12 noon) and last Sundays (10 a.m. -1 p.m.) from October to April/May. We can offer a presentation to any group that is interested in knowing more about the work of Cotati Creek Critters, and we welcome any opportunity to schedule special workdays for specific groups or classes of 15 or more volunteers. Please contact Outreach Coordinator Jenny Blaker to set up a presentation or organize a workday for your group.
CCC's Inside/Outside Nature Education series, featuring local experts, consists of monthly presentations in the fall and winter and guided walks, field trips and bicycle rides in the spring and summer. These events are complemented by a monthly column in the local newspaper, The Community Voice. See Press & Media.
The main way we keep in touch is via email and via this website. To be added to the email list, please contact Jenny Blaker, Outreach Coordinator. You will receive email announcements and reminders of all our events, usually twice a month in the fall and winter, once a month in the summer.
 Jenny and Wade
Stewardship Coordinator: Wade Belew organizes and manages every aspect of the restoration project from the native plant nursery to the Creek Stewardship Days. Wade is a lifelong Sonoma County resident and avid outdoor enthusiast. He is a self-employed woodworker with a specialty in designing, building, installing, and maintaining bird nest boxes made from recycled redwood fencing. He also does environmental education and leads interpretive walks for LandPaths and Sonoma County Regional Parks. He is on the Board of Directors of the California Native Grasslands Association.
Outreach Coordinator: Jenny Blaker is responsible for organizing the community outreach program including volunteer recruitment and the Inside/Outside Nature Education series. Along with Community & Environment Commission members Maria Alvarez and Linda Christopher, and other friends and neighbors, she helped start the Cotati Creek Critters in 1998. She and her husband Neil built the first fully permitted straw bale building in Cotati in 1997. Jenny is a Fellow of the Leadership Institute for Ecology & the Economy. She received her MA in Conservation Psychology, in the program "Action for a Viable Future" at Sonoma State University, in 2006, focusing on the Cotati Creek Critters Outreach Program. Jenny was nominated Cotati Citizen of the Year 2007 by Cotati’s Chamber of Commerce, in recognition of her “dedicated service and involvement in the community” and her “enthusiastic and diligent work” with Cotati Creek Critters.
Sponsors, Partners, Donors, Collaborators ~ CCC works closely with and is deeply appreciative of the support of a number of essential sponsors and partners.
Sponsors:
The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, a 501(c) 3 non-profit public benefit corporation is our fiscal sponsor and administers all CCC’s grant funding.
The Sonoma County Water Agency was the agency sponsor for the Department of Water Resources grant (see below) and is continuing to support CCC’s project. SCWA is responsible for the flood control channel itself.
The City of Cotati provides CCC’s base of operations at “Ladybug Lot,” Cotati City well lot #2 on Lakewood Avenue, adjacent to Ladybug Park, and a number of other in-kind contributions.
The City of Santa Rosa provided Environmental Enhancement funding for the first phase of the understory planting project.
Sonoma Mountain Village, Christopher Joseph & Associates, the Sustainable Enterprise Conference (2008 & 2009) and the California Native Plant Society have generously donated funds to support various aspects of the project.
Partners:
Many other partners have made essential contributions to the project.
- STRAW (Students & Teachers Restoring a Watershed, a project of the Bay Institute) and Acorn Soupe, an environmental education organization based in Napa, have both brought hundreds of local elementary school children to the project.
- Many Sonoma State University students and interns from a number of classes, student groups, fraternities and sororities, have contributed to the project in various ways, as have students from Santa Rosa Junior College and local high schools.
- The California Native Plant Society, Appleton Nurseries, Circuit Rider Productions Inc. (now the Center for Environmental Stewardship), and Sonoma County Jail Industries have all provided plants.
- Many of our used tools have been obtained from Recycletown and Sonoma Mountain Village provided used tree stakes. (See Appropriate Technology, Resources, for further information.)
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Many thanks to Oliver’s Market, the Redwood Café, Fregene’s, Cotati Coffee, and Giovanni’s Pizzeria for generously providing refreshments for some of our workdays and other events, and to Clif Bar & Company for supplying us with healthy energy bars for our Creek Stewardship Days.
Volunteers:
Last but not least, all of our achievements have depended upon the involvement, participation, energy and enthusiasm of well over 2,000 volunteers - individuals, families, community groups, and classes. Thank you all for your ongoing support!
Cotati Creek Critters was granted the Outstanding Environmental Education Program award at the 25th anniversary Environmental Awards dinner hosted by Sonoma County Conservation Coalition (SCCC) on March 7, 2009. This award is granted
to programs and projects “that are recognized by SCCC as having used special
innovation and insight to teach students, young and old, about the environment.”
We were presented with certificates signed by Assemblyman Jared Huffman and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. SCCC is the organization which supports the Environmental Center of Sonoma County. Read the article in the Empire Report.
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The National Women’s History Project honored Jenny Blaker as one of seven women in Sonoma County to be recognized as “Women taking a lead to save the planet.” (March 21, 2009) |
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In May, SCAYD (Sonoma County Adult & Youth Development) Family Resource Center honored Wade and Jenny with their environmental award at their Community Awards celebration. (May, 2009)
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Jenny Blaker received the 2007 Cotati Citizen of the Year award!
From the "Community Voice":
Jenny Blaker, outreach coordinator for Cotati Creek Critters was honored as Cotati's Citizen of the Year at the Cotati Chamber of Commerce's 50th annual awards ceremony and dinner. Blaker was awarded for her devotion to Cotati's natural wildlife through Cotati Creek Critters, and she, in turn, thanked the "hundreds of volunteers" that make the Critters' work possible. The award was presented by Chamber president Andrew Hutchins (right).
Read the full article...
Jenny Blaker says "Thank You!" to all the volunteers, individuals and organizations, partners, sponsors, and funders, who are such an integral part of the Cotati Creek Critters!
Read the letter to the Editor... |
Cotati Creek Critters Time-line
| 1998: |
Cotati Creek Critters began as an all-volunteer grass roots citizens group working closely with Cotati’s Community & Environment Commission. |
| 2003: |
Wade Belew and Jenny Blaker wrote a “Baseline Assessment & Habitat Enhancement Feasibility Study of the Cotati Reach of the Laguna de Santa Rosa.” |
| 2005: |
CCC, with help from the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation staff and other local experts, successfully applied for an Urban Stream Restoration grant from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation was the non-profit sponsor, the Sonoma County Water Agency was the Agency sponsor, and the application was supported by the City of Cotati.
Wade Belew became Stewardship Coordinator, Jenny Blaker became Outreach Coordinator, and the grant funding enabled them to establish a base of operations at Cotati City well lot #2, with a plant nursery and a substantial collection of tools and equipment, and to greatly expand outreach efforts. |
| 2006: |
The Inside/Outside Nature Education series began – see Educational Events and related articles listed under Media.
The City of Santa Rosa funded a project to plant an understory of native grasses, sedges, and rushes. This project is ongoing. |
| 2008: |
Hundreds of volunteers and community groups participated in the DWR-funded project, and by May 2008, a one-mile reach has been planted with approximately 1400 native trees and shrubs. |
| 2009: |
The understory project continued and CCC continued to manage existing plantings by pruning, weeding, mulching, etc.
Spring semester: Six interns from SSU's Environmental Studies programs regularly participated in Creek Stewardship Days and took on a range of individual projects, from designing a poster about plastics, to organizing a large Trash PickUp Day for Earth Day in April.
April-May: CCC was in the news for winning three awards!
July-August 2009: CCC and Laguna Foundation partnered with SCAYD to host a six-week Summer Youth Ecology Corps program connecting local youth organizations with environmental restoration programs.
October: CCC hosted an Open House event on the theme “Collaboration for Urban Stream Restoration”. Speakers included California Assemblyman Jared Huffman; Grant Davis and Keenan Foster, Sonoma County Water Agency; David Bannister, Laguna Foundation; Laurette Rogers, the Bay Institute STRAW Project; John Guardino, (then) Mayor of Cotati.
Three interpretive signs, which tell the story of the biology, history and restoration of the Cotati reach of the Laguna, were installed. Approximately 30 people including graphic designers, ecologists and historians, writers and editors, artists and photographers, City and SCWA staff and officials, manufacturers and installers, contributed to the signs. |
Read more about our history!
Read more about our achievements to date!
Cotati Creek Critters is seeking interns to support our work in the areas of Stewardship, Outreach/Education, and Videography. See Mission Statement for further details.
As well as our regular Creek Stewardship Days, we can use help for one-time projects, or on a regular, weekly basis if you’re available. We will value and appreciate any time you have to contribute.
1) Staff Ladybug Lot. Staff Ladybug Lot on Creek Stewardship Days. This is a great job for someone who can’t physically manage the other working tasks.
2) Plant Nursery Help. We will be buying most of our plants for this project, but want to propagate or transplant some ourselves. We’ll need thousands of plants for future re-vegetation projects in Cotati. We want to gather seed for sowing, and transplant appropriate plants into containers for use at other sites. If you have experience in plant propagation and care, we can use your help. We also want to feature Ladybug lot as a beautiful demonstration garden of native plants. Regular or drop in help needed.
3) Team Leader for Planting Days. If you have experience planting or would like to learn, we need people that can demonstrate and oversee planting by our various volunteer groups, and generally help out on workdays.
4) Development. If you have experience fund-raising for non-profits we are continually seeking donations and contributions to further our goals.
5) Graphics/signage. We need help with posters, flyers and signs.
6) Photographer. It’s hard to take photos and plant trees, let alone organize a workday! If you can’t do the hard physical work, we’d love to have someone take digital photos that we can use for the website, brochures, etc.
7) Snack chefs. So maybe getting your hands dirty isn’t your thing, or you don’t have time or you’re physically not able to help with other tasks. How’s your baking? We’d love to be able to reward our volunteers with tasty homemade cookies or treats whenever possible.
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