Muir Woods National MonumentPage 59 of 121
“Our One Shot”: The Crews That Rebuilt Redwood Creek in Muir Woods
"We're never going up there with equipment ever again," said the manager of the Redwood Creek project, calling the 2023 work in Muir Woods "our one shot." From July to November 2023, excavators, rocks and crews filled a place usually known for quiet. They were reshaping sections of Redwood Creek to improve habitat for endangered coho salmon. This was the second and final phase of the Salmon Habitat Enhancement Project, after a first phase in 2019. An NPS natural resources intern at Golden Gate National Recreation Area collected the voices of the people on site, and this page retells them.
A crew guides an excavator as it moves a fallen tree along the trails to place it in the creek for young salmon (NPS photo by Avani Fachon).
Who did the work
Park Service staff from several parts of the agency worked with a contractor, Hanford Applied Restoration and Conservation. The people quoted include:
| Role | What they did |
|---|---|
| Project manager, Golden Gate National Recreation Area | Has managed the project since the start; worked with site leaders on log placements, cobble volumes and rock removal, and on daily problems |
| Lead biomonitor, Golden Gate National Recreation Area | A hydrologic technician who collects and manages Redwood Creek data before and after restoration; the biomonitors protected the creek and the animals in the work zones, such as salamanders, banana slugs and fish |
| Contractor foreman and crew leader | Led laborers, engineers and equipment operators, and coordinated with the Park Service; the foreman worked on both phases |
| Park ranger, Muir Woods | Engaged visitors about the first phase in 2019, working for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and was back as a ranger for the second |
Why it took so long
The project manager said the park first looked at the creek in 1999. The rock walls along its banks (riprap) counted as a historic resource that had not yet been through the formal review, so nothing could be done for a long time. The park returned to the project in 2015 once those processes were finished, and the crews were on the ground for the first phase four years later. The boulders were built into the banks in the 1930s. Removing them gives the creek room to meander and form the slow, deep pools that young salmon need while they grow up.
Work in a tight space
Heavy equipment going into a sensitive ecosystem is intensive work with a very constrained schedule. The foreman described a typical day: one excavator operator might be placing a fallen tree to give juvenile coho cover in a pool, while another gently pulled out giant boulders. Two surprises came up:
- The plaza. Near the plaza, which had been altered over the years for other purposes, the crew kept finding new layers of rock, unexpected features and contaminated soil. They had to backtrack and protect a bank they had not planned to protect.
- Wood upstream. Upstream work zones had to rely on whatever wood was lying around, because wood could not be brought in. The density was lower than the project wanted, and the manager said they would see how it developed.
The lead biomonitor's duties ranged from finding and relocating salamanders and other animals to measuring water quality, to make sure construction caused no harm downstream, and collecting survey data for the design goals.
A California giant salamander found in the work area, about to be moved out of the construction zone (NPS photo by Maya Akkaraju).
Visitors and the finished look
Rangers staffed tables along the trails so that visitors could understand the work. The ranger said the first phase had brought much more disruptive trail closures, and this time it felt more controlled. For him the best part was showing people what conservation can look like, with excavators, hard hats and electric fishing gear in the creek.
The contractor's foreman compared the job with other construction. A road or hospital looks its best the day it is finished and slowly declines. A restored creek is the opposite: after the crews leave, nature takes over and it improves every year. His favorite part was coming back with his children and finding that the work looked so natural that nobody would imagine equipment had been brought in.
Looking back, the project manager said the team had changed the creek's trajectory, and that although the work was demanding and exhausting, it was also thrilling and worth it. The lead biomonitor said the months in the forest gave her a deeper appreciation of redwood ecosystems.
An excavator at work in the creek bed (NPS photo by Avani Fachon).
Sources
- National Park Service, Restoring Redwood Creek in Their Own Words, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Muir Woods National Monument; quotations paraphrased and rewritten in hubnx's own words.