Deep in the archives of the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library lies an 1865 landscape painting by French artist Edward Jump depicting “Rancho Los Meganos,” a region that was once a Mexican Land Grant, following the Old River from present day Antioch to Brentwood. In the middle of this painting is the John Marsh House, as it was nine years after his death.
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Behind the house is a shaded creek corridor, currently what we know as Marsh Creek, filled with what was more than likely willows, cottonwoods, valley oaks, and other riparian species that were tended by the Marsh estate. For millennia prior, Native Americans stewarded the land.
Today, the creek is not nearly as healthy, suffering from significant erosion issues as a result of the loss of that vegetation. While we can't tell the depth of the creek from the painting, we know it is far shallower than its present 25-foot drop. Steep walled channels, like those currently at Marsh Creek State Park, are harder for vegetation to survive on, and for wildlife to access and utilize.
Through the Marsh Creek Restoration Project at Marsh Creek State Park, we are nearing the completion of the planning process that will allow us to restore the creek by shaping the channel to reduce erosion and planting nearly 4,000 individual forb, shrub, and trees across Contra Costa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and California State Park properties. This project will be the largest creek restoration project completed by the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District in both scale, length, and cost. Early construction is planned for Summer 2027 but is contingent on finding and securing funding for the estimated $3-million restoration project.
Once completed, the restored Marsh Creek will serve as an important piece of connectivity, extending the current downstream riparian habitat upstream another third of a mile and building off the established riparian canopy that ends near the Vineyards Parkway bridge in Brentwood, CA. We dream of bringing wildlife and plants back into the State Park and conserving our natural resources. Give it another 40 years or so and Marsh Creek might start to resemble that painting in the Bancroft Library again, albeit nearly 200 years later.
