Creek Week is an annual community event that celebrates Santa Barbara’s creeks, allowing Santa Barbara locals to get involved in protecting water quality in our creeks and ocean. Horny Toad teamed up with the City of Santa Barbara Creeks Division to remove invasive ivy and plant native plants at the Mission Creek Restoration and Fish Passage Project at the Tallant Road Bridge in Oak Park. The goal was to remove barriers and allow endangered Southern California Steelhead Trout the chance to migrate and spawn in Mission Creek.
These trout have attempted to spawn in the lower end of Mission creek during five of the last seven years, but have been turned away by invasive plant barriers that behave like surly doormen at a swinger’s party. Born in freshwater streams, steelhead generally live in the stream for the first year before moving to the ocean where they spend most of their adult life. Being anadromous, the trout migrate back up freshwater streams and rivers to do their thang.
Our volunteer efforts were focused on getting them into the party at Mission Creek, modifying the barriers in the creek and creating more natural passages for the trout. We joined forces with the Creeks division and had approximately 20 volunteers turn out for the event. Together, Horny Toad and the SB Creeks Division planted over 200 native plants, pulled a lot of ivy and collected trash along the way in our effort to help give the creek new life.