This year’s 4th annual Redding Community Creek Clean Up takes place on 3 October. The effort of hundreds of volunteers on this day will end a month of labor at several different venues.
West Side Trail Cleanup was Sept. 12; Henderson Open Space Litter Cleanup was Sept. 19; Pick-up Lake Litter at Whiskeytown NRA and Clear Creek Trail Clean-up were both on 26 Sept., a prelude to the City of Redding’s giant public work session.
The South Sacramento River Trail on the first Saturday in October will be cleared of non-native plants, dead material and trash for 3.5 miles.
All events are part of a larger statewide program which was started 25 years ago by the California Coastal Commission. Although the Silver Anniversary of Coastal Cleanup now includes parts of California like the Owens Valley and takes place on 19 Sept., any watershed clean up, plus or minus a few weeks of the actual date, gets credit.
Last year’s City of Redding event cleaned and cleared Churn Creek and Clover Creek. The collected material cost $12,000 dollars in land fill fees. The amount of litter gathered in Redding was 10 percetn of the state total of 100 tons.
Things being as they are in the local economy, it was decided this year to do something which would not generate such a large need for out of pocket expense.
Redding’s most used recreational asset, the Sacramento River Trail, has become overgrown with non-native species like Himalayan blackberry originally from Armenia and Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) from China.
Parts of the South Sacramento River Trail from the Diestelhorst Bridge to Keswick Dam Road travel through dense, jungle-like growth where the very nearby Sacramento River is never seen. Access is impossible. Over the summer, Redding Police Department Community Service Officer Robert Brannon and his Work Release crew have dismantled and piled material to be fed to and shredded by five donated industrial chippers on event day, which is 8 a.m. until noon, October 3.
Rotary Club of Redding, City of Redding, Bureau of Land Management, California Conservation Corps, Trail and Bikeways Council, McEntire Landscaping, Trader Joe’s and a host of other businesses and individuals have contributed labor, material, equipment, advice and support to this endeavor. The original riparian savanna so long denied by suppression of fire and absence of flooding since Shasta Dam’s completion will be returned soon for the enjoyment of the public and enhancement of the resource. Side benefits include protection of a lovely native large tree inventory, improved safety for near by homes, larger Trail capacity for competing activities and recreational possibilities like those which existed during the era of the once hugely popular Diestelhorst Auto Court.
Registration for participation is easy and prevents standing in line on the morning of the event. On line registration is <www.shastacreeks.com> or telephone City of Redding Community Services.
Walk-on volunteers over age 10 in appropriate attire (long sleeve shirts, long pants, sturdy shoes, gloves, hats) are very welcome.
Registration and assignments take place at the Court Street South Trail parking lot and at the east end of Middle Creek Road.
Here is an opportunity to give something back to an amenity which nearly everyone in Redding has enjoyed and we all take pride and give thanks for having available.
Randy Smith is a retired physician, member City of Redding Planning Commission, Cal-Tip Advisory Board, Rotary Club of Redding Stream Team.
