The Creek Page - Guardians of Lick Creek

This is What we are Fighting For

Here it is (or more accurately, here it was). We neighbors had always assumed that the creek - Lick Creek - our creek would perpetually be a perfectly pristine piece of paradise - the spiritual centerpiece of our neighborhood.

This photo by Pam Wendell is what Lick Creek looked like just one year ago, when it still ran crystal clear, as it had run since the tapir and dire wolf drank its cool waters.

Herbert Alexander Jr. of the Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas, Austin, led a team of volunteers in a series of excavations in 1959-60 at the Levi rock shelter near the mouth of Lick Creek.

Dr. Alexander reported in the April, 1963 issue of American Antiquity that the team had "...uncovered several artifact types previously unknown in Paleo-Indian cultures." They discovered a wide variety of tools left by human inhabitants of the area approximately 10,000 years ago.

Plainview, Clovis and Angostura points were found, along with burins, burin spalls, scrapers and prismatic blades.

For more information about the anthropology and geology of the Creek, go to the History page.

Green Hole before West Cypress Hills development.

Pictured above, and in the photo on the left by Pam Wendell, are the Green Hole, also known as the Cave Hole, and the pool downstream from the Green Hole. This is what the water looked like before the West Cypress Hills subdivision started construction upstream. You could see the bottom over much of the pools' surfaces. The water was so clear you had to hold yourself back from drinking it.

Here is another shot showing the fantastic clarity the Green Hole used to have. This photo is by noted photographer Rick Williams, who used to live in these parts but now resides in Eugene, Oregon. Rick took this picture in the Summer of 2003.

"Green" Hole, cloudy and murky, July 27, 2004

This photo by Cindy Phillips shows what the "Green" Hole looked like on July 27, 2004, after a heavy rain caused gobs of silt to overflow from the West Cypress Hills subdivisions "detention pond". Want a drink? We didn't think so.

The hole and the east branch of the creek that feeds it have looked murky and cloudy like this after every major rain event since the subdivision's construction began.

Jim Phillips samples water from the east branch of Lick Creek on April 6, 2004.

Engineer and long-time Lick Creek landowner Jim Phillips took water samples from both the east and west branches of Lick Creek on April 6, 2004. Here, he is collecting, at the low water crossing, from the nasty East branch. The bottle of clear water Jim holds in his left hand is from the unspoiled West branch, which does not run through West Cypress Hills.

Samples of water collected from the west and east branches of Lick Creek on April 6, 2004.

Low water crossing 7/27/04. Shows road - creek very murky.

And here is that same low water crossing, in a photo Cindy Phillips shot on July 27, 2004, fouled by West Cypress Hills pollution.

Here it is up close and personal. Taken by Pepper Morris on April 8, 2004, this ugly, silty mess is what creek becomes periodically now.

This sort of devastation must be stopped. Nature needs her creek back and so do we.

Please help us in our struggle to return Lick Creek to its former perfection. Go to the Action page to find out how.

If you haven't had enough (which would make you a glutton for punishment) you can view more pictures of the seriously polluted creek (as it has been after each rain event since April) by going to the Gallery of Shame.