Alpine County is the birthplace for five rivers

Where can you go to pay homage to the birthplace of five roaring rivers and the aquatic organisms that make those waterways healthy? And also, where you can listen to live music by Acoustic Solution while eating free lunch and learning how to create a fish print upon your free tee shirt?

Alpine Creek Day organizer Lorraine Craik holds the answer to these questions. The five rivers that have their headwaters in Alpine County are: the Carson, Mokelumne, Stanislaus, Truckee and American, and people may demonstrate their respect for these rivers by turning out for Alpine Creek Day. Craik says that volunteers who appear at the Alpine County Library Park in Markleeville on 9 a.m. Sept. 30, will be given the opportunity to participate in all of the aforementioned activities, plus even more.

Alpine Creek Day participants also will be led by team captains in projects that will include helping to restore the meadow at Grover Hot Springs State Park, removing noxious weeds and trash, stenciling storm drains with warnings, releasing 100 pounds of trout into the stream, learning about fish habitat, experiencing an interactive watershed model, receiving educational literature, trying to win raffle prizes and listening to fish stories for tots read by librarian assistant Sonja Helfenstein.

"Alpine Creek Day presents a wonderful opportunity for community members of all ages to help preserve our waters for future generations," said Laura Lueders, Alpine Watershed Coordinator.

This event is the fifth annual Alpine Creek Day, initiated by the Sierra Nevada Alliance and then followed up by the Alpine Watershed Group. Other partners are Carson River Subconservancy District, California State Parks, Central Sierra Resource and Conservation Development, the Rose Foundation, Friends of Hope Valley and Alpine County.

After arriving at the park at 9 a.m., being assigned to a team and working on designated projects for a couple of hours, volunteers will return to the park to celebrate their accomplishments.

Acoustic Solutions will play music from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the just-finished ramada-style band shell, while folks enjoy their free lunch, catered by Dave Kirby of Woodfords Station.

Event organizer Craik, a four-year resident of Woodfords, is married to John Craik who grew up in Alpine County. She and Ginger Craik, her mother-in-law, have become citizen water monitors for the Alpine Watershed Group.

"Ginger and I go out four times a year to our designated spot in the West Carson River and conduct tests on the quality of the water. We test for Ph, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, depth and conductivity. We go to the same site each time, so the seasonal differences are readily apparent."

As the mother of Ethan, 7, and Mackenzie, 6, Lorraine Craik said "Stewardship of our watershed is important because it affects the future of our children and environment. I've been volunteering as a water monitor for two years."

Lorraine and John enjoyed living nine years in Colorado, but they moved to Alpine County to be near family. Their kids play soccer and the whole family skis at Kirkwood. At one time, Lorraine thought to be a forest ranger, but since she was always creative, she went to Brooks College in Long Beach, Calif., to study fashion design.

Now, Craik not only is a seamstress and designer, but also is a painter of interior walls, including faux painting, and a tilesetter. Her artistic talents are appreciated by her husband, who has a contracting business, "Big John."

During Alpine Creek Day, Lorraine and Sonja Helfenstein will assist kids in creating fish prints. Parents can choose whether their child will use washable paint-on-paper or permanent silkscreen paint on the free T-shirt. Fish printing originated in Japan in the early 1800s, when Japanese fishermen measured their fish that way. The craft is called "Gyotaku" - fish rubbing - gyo = fish, taku = rubbing. Gyotaku (pronounced ghio-ta-koo) is a good way to gain appreciation of the beauty of aquatic organisms.

The Alpine Watershed Group extends a warm welcome to people of all ages to participate in Alpine Creek Day on Sept. 30, to learn how to protect the quality of our waters and the health of our landscapes. For further information, phone Laura Lueders at (530) 694-2327.

A gentle hint: Be sure to wear old clothes to participate in the restoration work of Alpine Creek Day.

n Gina Gigli is a Markleeville

resident. Reach her at ginagigli@villagigli.com