By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Creek activists want your support at the ballot box.

For the next couple of months, volunteers will be out and about, trying to collect the approximately 17,000 signatures needed to put the Save Our Creeks Initiative on the November ballot. (The initiative will likely be known as I-79 or I-80.)

If voted into law, the measure would use a carrot-and-stick approach to get developers to restore, and in some cases daylight, the area's many creeks, including Piper's, Ravenna and Thornton in North Seattle.

The stick in the Save Our Creek's Initiative is that restoration would be mandatory. The carrot is the promise of any number of benefits from the City, all the way from reduced set-backs to financial assistance from the City for projects.

The initiative is being put forward by Yes for Seattle, a 2-year-old organization that lobbies on a variety of issues, all centered around the theme of livability. Last year, the City Council passed into law Initiative 63, sponsored by Yes for Seattle, which focused on water conservation for salmon.

Knoll Lowney, co-chair of Yes for Seattle, said that the group first started contemplating a creek initiative last year when a poll they conducted indicated that 78 percent of "likely" Seattle voters favor strengthening regulations to protect creeks.

So far, no organized opposition to the measure has surfaced, though Lowney said he expects it will eventually.

"We hope that everyone will support it, but there are developers in this city who have very little concern for our environment," said Lowney.

Not surprisingly, two groups concerned with the fate of Thornton Creek - Citizens for a Livable Northgate and the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund - did have input in the shaping of the Save Our Creeks Initiative. However, Lowney said, it's about the whole city, not just North Seattle.

"There's pretty much a creek in every neighborhood," Lowney said.

For details, call Yes for Seattle at 956-8050.