See that creek? They've been good stewards

When Elizabeth Heidt was a child, she remembers the creek very green, gunked up with algae. Occasionally stinky. Ducks were the only wildlife in sight. ... Things have changed since then. Sunday I watched a blue heron take off not 50 feet from the wooden steps that lead from Casa Cristina to the creek. Herons and egrets dine in the slow-moving waters, as do raccoons that lunch on the smaller critters that hide in the mud. ... Preserving the creek didn't just happen, though. Rip-wrap and rebar line the creek on private property, while concrete fills the streams the City got its hands on. ... Some 50 years ago, Heidt's grandfather, Kendric French, rebuffed attempts by the Army Corps of Engineers to pave the creek bank. ... "He said, 'What are we going to call it? Walnut Ditch, Walnut Gutter, Walnut Sewer?' " recalls Heidt. ... When you look from Lincoln into the creek, you see a family's stewardship. Walnut Creek should be grateful. ...