Seventeen hundred native plants and trees will be put in the ground at the former San Geronimo Golf Course this winter as part of a 10-year project to offset the impacts of a flood-risk reduction project in Fairfax. Valley oak, coast live oak, buckeye, bigleaf maple, hedgenettle, mugwort, blackberry, wild rose and other native trees, shrubs and herbaceous species will be planted just south of San Geronimo Creek adjacent to San Geronimo Valley Drive. The species will enhance existing vegetation in the riparian area, and non-native species found during the planting process will be removed. Earlier this month, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved the agreement between the county’s Flood Control and Water Conservation District and the owner of the former golf course, the Trust for Public Land. The flood control district built a flood basin on the other side of White’s Hill to mitigate flood risk in the Ross Valley. Julian Kaelon, a spokesman for the district, said it did not anticipate the need for offsite mitigation but the removal of trees at the flood basin site impacted the riparian habitat of Fairfax Creek. The California Environmental Quality Act required that the district find a suitable place to mitigate the impacts. “We needed to find 0.33 acres of land that we could get property rights to and meet the mitigation requirements, as well as be able to ensure that the land would not be slated for another use in the future,” Mr. Kaelon said. “The San Geronimo site was the best and closest location that met the criteria.” Since the 157-acre property was purchased by the Trust for Public Land for $8.85 million in 2018, little restoration work has taken place. The county is in the process of purchasing the property for $4.5 million. “We were really excited about enhancing the riparian corridor with more native trees,” said Erica Williams, a senior project manager for the trust. This is the first restoration project taking place outside of the creek, where the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network conducted riparian work in 2020. Ms. Williams said the trust will soon begin its own 10-year restoration plan aimed at connecting the site’s two meadows through trail and floodplain restoration, wildfire management and the introduction of native species. In June, the Marin County Open Space Trust acquired a conservation easement for 85 percent of the property, using $3 million in grant funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board and California Natural Resources Agency. The easement permanently protects the San Geronimo and Larsen Meadows as wildlife habitat and publicly accessible open space. The county is in the process of purchasing the rest of the former golf course for a new fire station.