Creek Week: Restoring and Protecting Our Watershed

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On a picturesque autumn day, nearly twenty people came together with Palmer staff to help clean up some cherished wetlands during Fountain Creek Watershed District’s 11th annual Creek Week event.

With the goal to improve and sustain a healthy Fountain Creek Watershed, Creek Week has inspired thousands of people to get involved and clean up our watershed. Water from the Fountain Creek drainage not only sustains us and wildlife throughout the region, but the water (and everything in it) also flows down through the irrigation systems of many farms that produce our food, so a clean watershed is crucial to all of us.

Palmer staff hosted clean-ups in Colorado Springs and in Pueblo. 

Runyon Lake

Pueblo

Originally used by the Rocky Mountain Steel Mill, Runyon Lake now provides an incredible habitat for wildlife and a prime spot for outdoor recreation for the community. Concentrating on picking up small plastics accumulating at the shoreline, the dedicated volunteers removed several large bags of trash and debris. Large clumps of tangled fishing line and discarded hooks are particularly dangerous for the hundreds of bird and aquatic species that visit the wetlands and the lake, so volunteers worked diligently to remove as much of this hazardous debris as possible. 

As the group cleaned up the open space surrounding the lake, the group enjoyed a fall bluebird day as the sun's rays glistened on countless ripples formed by the slightest breeze. The group bonded over their shared love of the community and the beauty of the lake.   

Sinton Pond

Colorado Springs

Lacing up boots and donning protective gloves, a dedicated crew of volunteers cleaned up and removed an estimated 600 pounds of trash from this Palmer-protected property in just two hours.

The pond was initially part of the Sinton Dairy founded by Melvin Sinton in 1880. Dairy cows drank from the pond while orchard fruit trees produced heavy boughs loaded with apples and pears (many of which can still be seen along the pond’s shorelines). Today, the pond is one of the few historic remnants of the old dairy operation, and now serves as critical habitat for both local and migratory wildlife such as birds, small mammals, deer, and even raptors such as great-horned owls.

As individuals bagged up trash, mallards and ruddy ducks splashed across the water’s glassy surface, enjoying the warm weather of the day. Among many other oddities, volunteers also recovered a mattress, a shopping cart, some coloring books, and half of a plastic yard statue shaped like a dog.

In celebration of a hard day’s work, participants from the Sinton Pond Crew met up with fellow conservationists from the Pikes Peak Group of the Sierra Club to enjoy some much-deserved pizza and brews at Goat Patch Brewing, a member of the Fountain Creek Brewshed Alliance. Community-led initiatives like Creek Week not only help increase the health and wellness of our local watersheds but also show that anyone can pitch in to be a steward for our natural spaces.