Mission StatementThe Gallinas Watershed Council's mission is to connect the people who live and work in Las Gallinas Valley with their watershed, to help each other take responsibility for our impact on the watershed through protection, restoration and education, and to advance conservation action in our watershed environment.Sign up as GWC member
 What is a Watershed?A watershed is nature's boundary for water resources.It covers an area of land within which water (rainwater, snowmelt) drains into a common body of water such as a creek or bay - in our case Gallinas Creek and San Pablo Bay. Look at some maps as well as some photos of our Watershed Area. Learn more Email us
What is the Watershed Approach?The watershed approach to solving water quality and natural resource problems considers the inputs from all pollution sources and activities with a watershed. Understanding the watershed on a more holistic level helps determine the needs for restoring and maintaining the watershed's chemical, physical, and biological integrity. Watershed approaches also consider social and economic factors. Wisely managing our watershed helps us gain new places to live, flood protections, good quality waters, and places to walk, swim and fish.Learn about the watershed approach.
| About Your WatershedOur Watershed contains several creeks. The largest, the Las Gallinas Creek South Fork, flows through Gallinas Valley in San Rafael, from its headwaters in the hills of Terra Linda, through the Santa Margarita neighborhood, along Freitas Parkway, under Highway 101, through Santa Venetia and Contempo Marin and out to the San Pablo Bay where the North and South forks of the Creek terminate.The Las Gallinas Creek North Fork flows from Smith Ranch Road to McInnis Park where it meets the North Fork. Both Meadow Creek and Armory Creek flow from the hills of San Pedro Mountain into the Gallinas Creek South Fork. Those of us who live along this highly altered and impacted stream would like to see it clean, restored and recreated as habitat for native plants and animals, including the salmon. This will substantially enhance our lives as humans, too. To see how this can be accomplished, read the Gallinas Creek Hydrology Report. Explore Your WatershedLas Gallinas Valley Watershed is home to:
| Announcements See the Program (PDF). Success! Truck and Dumpster Removed from Illegal Dumpsite by Gallinas Creek  2009 Coastal Cleanup Results! San Rafael Airport Recreation Facility GWC Joins San Rafael Clean 
Gallinas Watershed Council (GWC) is a group of concerned citizens who live and work in Las Gallinas Valley, San Rafael, Marin County, USA. |
"We all really learned how to swim in the creek at the home ranch which is now the creek in Terra Linda, which has been straightened out, but in those days [the early 1900’s] it meandered and had potholes, as it were. We would learn how to swim in those potholes. I remember coming to town here on horseback and bringing my lunch with me and going to the San Rafael Municipal Baths and swimming there all day long then riding horseback home, and that was a full day."
INTERVIEW WITH MANUEL T. FREITAS, JR., JUDGE CARLOS FREITAS, LOUIS FREITAS, AND WALTER FREITAS by Carla Ehat & Anne Kent, February 6, 1976. ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OF THE MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY (Original recording available at the Anne T. Kent California Room).
http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/lb/main/crm/oralhistories/freitasft.html
