Our Mission
Our mission is to support community efforts, scientific studies, public education, and restoration projects that protect and enhance beneficial uses and resources in the entire watershed. The Council encourages sharing information and promotes collaboration among the stakeholders.
Our Vision
We envision a Walnut Creek Watershed where the creeks are visible and thriving natural assets that join our communities into a unified whole. Grayson, Las Trampas, Pine, San Ramon, Walnut, and tributary creeks are widely appreciated as places where families gather, children explore, and workers take respite in a creek-side cafe. Our homes, businesses, urban centers, public spaces, and neighborhoods are oriented toward the creeks for enrichment and economic benefit, with enough space to allow for dynamic channels, natural floodplain habitat, and to protect us from powerful storm hazards. The built environment is constructed to slow down storm water, capture it in the soil, and release it slowly back into our waterways. Our communities are intertwined with a network of parks and natural areas that provide healthy recreation for the community and habitat corridors for native plants, fish, and wildlife. These corridors connect large natural reserves on the slopes of Mount Diablo and Las Trampas Ridge to the marshes and shoreline of Suisun Bay. Residents, business owners, and government officials share an ethic of stewardship.
Private landowners are respected and rewarded for their contributions to excellent stewardship of these lands. Everyone, young and old, knows the names of their closest waterways and takes joy in spotting a heritage species, such as chinook salmon, river otter, wood duck, or native walnut, that thrives in a resilient and healthy watershed.
Private landowners are respected and rewarded for their contributions to excellent stewardship of these lands. Everyone, young and old, knows the names of their closest waterways and takes joy in spotting a heritage species, such as chinook salmon, river otter, wood duck, or native walnut, that thrives in a resilient and healthy watershed.
Our Guiding Principles
Our vision is further defined by the following principles to guide its implementation:
QUALITY OF LIFE
The quality of life is highly valued in local land-use policies, plans, and projects, resulting in communities that reflect the intrinsic natural beauty of the watershed. Residents feel a sense of ownership and connection to their watershed, which they regard as a place of refuge and comfort that they are proud to call home.
HABITAT PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION
The watershed provides core habitat for major biotic communities, connected by habitat corridors across urban and industrial landscapes, to support thriving populations of native flora and fauna, thereby protecting the unique natural heritage of the watershed.
RECREATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Everyone in the watershed has ample opportunities for and easy access to healthy recreation in diverse natural environments.
COMMUNITY
Neighborhoods are connected by a network of creeks, providing a sense of community within the watershed. Communities are designed to integrate creeks into their social fabric, and infrastructure is designed to accommodate creeks as valuable amenities. Local communities are engaged in the well-being of the larger watershed community.
ECONOMICS
Creeks in the watershed are viewed as an asset. This asset value is improved with each development, investment, or mitigation opportunity by incorporating the creek into the community fabric, thus spurring economic growth and creating lasting prosperity.
FORM AND FUNCTION
Natural reaches of creek are preserved and restored to a state of dynamic equilibrium. Creek reaches in urban environments are engineered to provide the form and function necessary to support healthy, natural processes. Urban infrastructure is designed to slow down storm water, direct it for beneficial purposes, and increase infiltration rates to provide sustainable base flows within the creek system.
RESILIENCY
Rebuilding the urban landscape and reshaping creek corridors result in a resilient system that provides ongoing, sustainable flood protection and other community benefits that are adaptable to future environmental change. As storms become more intense due to climate change, diversion of run-off to
infiltration basins to reduce pollutants and recharge groundwater will become more important.
QUALITY OF LIFE
The quality of life is highly valued in local land-use policies, plans, and projects, resulting in communities that reflect the intrinsic natural beauty of the watershed. Residents feel a sense of ownership and connection to their watershed, which they regard as a place of refuge and comfort that they are proud to call home.
HABITAT PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION
The watershed provides core habitat for major biotic communities, connected by habitat corridors across urban and industrial landscapes, to support thriving populations of native flora and fauna, thereby protecting the unique natural heritage of the watershed.
RECREATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Everyone in the watershed has ample opportunities for and easy access to healthy recreation in diverse natural environments.
COMMUNITY
Neighborhoods are connected by a network of creeks, providing a sense of community within the watershed. Communities are designed to integrate creeks into their social fabric, and infrastructure is designed to accommodate creeks as valuable amenities. Local communities are engaged in the well-being of the larger watershed community.
ECONOMICS
Creeks in the watershed are viewed as an asset. This asset value is improved with each development, investment, or mitigation opportunity by incorporating the creek into the community fabric, thus spurring economic growth and creating lasting prosperity.
FORM AND FUNCTION
Natural reaches of creek are preserved and restored to a state of dynamic equilibrium. Creek reaches in urban environments are engineered to provide the form and function necessary to support healthy, natural processes. Urban infrastructure is designed to slow down storm water, direct it for beneficial purposes, and increase infiltration rates to provide sustainable base flows within the creek system.
RESILIENCY
Rebuilding the urban landscape and reshaping creek corridors result in a resilient system that provides ongoing, sustainable flood protection and other community benefits that are adaptable to future environmental change. As storms become more intense due to climate change, diversion of run-off to
infiltration basins to reduce pollutants and recharge groundwater will become more important.
Our Partners
Our Supporters
Our supporters include municipalities, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, community organizations, and members of the public.
MunicipalitiesCity of Concord
City of Lafayette & Lafayette Creeks Committee City of Martinez City of Orinda City of Pleasant Hill City of San Ramon City of Walnut Creek Town of Danville Town of Moraga |
Nonprofit & Community OrganizationsDiablo Valley Fly Fishing Club
Friends of Concord Creeks Friends of the Creeks Friends of Pleasant Hill Creeks Friends of San Ramon Creek Greenbelt Alliance John Muir Land Trust Mount Diablo Audubon Society Mount Diablo Interpretive Association Save Mount Diablo Sustainable Contra Costa Sustainable Walnut Creek Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation |
Government AgenciesCentral Contra Costa Sanitary District
Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority Contra Costa County Flood Control & Water Conservation District Contra Costa Resource Conservation District East Bay Municipal Utility District East Bay Regional Park District |