Carriger Creek (Sonoma County, California)

Last updated
Carriger Creek
Location
Country United States
State California
Region Sonoma County
City El Verano, California
Physical characteristics
Source Sonoma Mountain
  location4 mi (6 km) southwest of Glen Ellen, California
  coordinates 38°19′34″N122°34′24″W / 38.32611°N 122.57333°W / 38.32611; -122.57333 [1]
  elevation2,160 ft (660 m)
Mouth Fowler Creek (below)
  coordinates
38°16′0″N122°28′33″W / 38.26667°N 122.47583°W / 38.26667; -122.47583 [1]
  elevation
49 ft (15 m)
Basin features
Tributaries 
  rightFelder Creek
Fowler Creek
Relief map of California.png
Red pog.svg
Location of the mouth in California
Location
Country United States
State California
Region Sonoma County
Physical characteristics
SourceCarriger Creek (above)
  locationsouth of Sonoma, California
  coordinates 38°16′0″N122°28′33″W / 38.26667°N 122.47583°W / 38.26667; -122.47583 [2]
  elevation49 ft (15 m) [1]
Mouth Sonoma Creek
  location
3 mi (5 km) south of Sonoma, California
  coordinates
38°14′28″N122°27′9″W / 38.24111°N 122.45250°W / 38.24111; -122.45250 [2]
  elevation
20 ft (6.1 m) [2]
Basin features
Tributaries 
  rightRodgers Creek

Carriger Creek is a stream Sonoma County, California. Southwest of the city of Sonoma, California, its name changes to Fowler Creek. This article covers both parts of the creek.

Contents

Carriger Creek springs from the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain, 4 mi (6 km) southwest of Glen Ellen. It flows southwest through a 3 mi (5 km) canyon that opens west of El Verano. In the Sonoma Valley, it joins with Felder Creek just north of West Watmaugh Road and becomes Fowler Creek. Fowler Creek parallels State Route 12 south, joined by Rodgers Creek along the way. It flows into Sonoma Creek just north of State Route 121. Its waters reach the Napa Sonoma Marsh and San Pablo Bay by way of Sonoma Creek.

Ecology

Carriger Creek is studied by the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District. Steelhead migration and spawning occur in Carriger Creek. Ongoing stream bank stabilization and riparian revegetation is being conducted in the creek to prevent erosion and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. [3] The major correction required was compensation for a poorly conceived concrete ford historically constructed for access to the Van Hoosear Wildflower Preserve; this concrete structure led to severe downstream downcutting and resultant denial of fish passage. [4] According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Carriger Creek was a "renowned steelhead fishery" prior to the ecological damage of human modification of the streambed. Besides eliminating the downcutting by creating a fish ladder, restoration work will also result in use of rip-rap for certain streambank stabilization.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Napa River</span> River in California, United States

The Napa River is a river approximately 55 miles (89 km) long in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region called the Napa Valley, in the mountains north of the San Francisco Bay. Milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few of its many tributaries. The river mouth is at Vallejo, where the intertidal zone of fresh and salt waters flow into the Carquinez Strait and the San Pablo Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stevens Creek (California)</span> Creek in Santa Clara County, California

Stevens Creek is a 20.9-mile-long (33.6 km) stream in Santa Clara County, California. The creek originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the western flank of Black Mountain in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve near the terminus of Page Mill Road at Skyline Boulevard. It flows southeasterly through the Stevens Creek County Park before turning northeast into Stevens Creek Reservoir. It then continues north for 12.5 miles (20.1 km) through Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale and Mountain View before emptying into the San Francisco Bay at the Whisman Slough, near Google's main campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Putah Creek</span> River in California

Putah Creek is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass, and ultimately, the Sacramento River. The 85-mile-long (137 km) creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range, and flows east through two dams. First, Monticello Dam forms Lake Berryessa, below which Putah Creek forms the border of Yolo and Solano Counties, and then flows to the Putah Diversion Dam and Lake Solano. After several drought years in the late 1980s, the majority of Putah Creek went dry, prompting a landmark lawsuit that resulted in the signing of the Putah Creek Accord in 2000. The Accord established releases from the dams to maintain stream flows in Putah Creek, with natural flow regimes which spike in winter/spring and ebb in summer/fall. The restoration of natural flow regimes has resulted in a doubling of riparian bird species and a return of spawning native steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, as well as protecting the livelihood of farmers on the lower watershed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonoma Creek</span> Stream in California

Sonoma Creek is a 33.4-mile-long (53.8 km) stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by Sonoma Creek is roughly equivalent to the wine region of Sonoma Valley, an area of about 170 square miles (440 km2). The State of California has designated the Sonoma Creek watershed as a “Critical Coastal Water Resource”. To the east of this generally rectangular watershed is the Napa River watershed, and to the west are the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian River (California)</span> River in California

The Russian River is a southward-flowing river that drains 1,485 sq mi (3,850 km2) of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately 1,600,000 acre feet (2.0 km3), it is the second-largest river flowing through the nine-county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, with a mainstem 115 mi (185 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brush Creek (Sonoma County, California)</span> River in California, United States

Brush Creek or Rincon Creek is a tributary of Santa Rosa Creek in Sonoma County, California. Brush Creek rises in the southern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains within Sonoma County. The lower reach of the creek is a suburban medium density residential area in the city of Santa Rosa, and that reach of Brush Creek has been restored during the 1990s under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to promote steelhead migration and spawning. Further restoration and incorporation into citywide park planning is currently underway as of 2006. The location of the confluence with Santa Rosa Creek is particularly noteworthy, since it was a locus of prehistoric life as a village of the Pomo people and a scenic geologic feature of massive flat boulder outcrops within the stream channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copeland Creek (California)</span> River in California, United States

Copeland Creek is a 9.0-mile-long (14.5 km) perennial stream that rises on Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County, California.

Graham Creek is a 2.9-mile-long (4.7 km) perennial stream in Sonoma County, California, tributary to Sonoma Creek. Graham Creek rises in the northern Sonoma Mountains and flows generally northeasterly down the northeastern flank of Sonoma Mountain. Historically this watercourse was called Wild Water Creek, a name used in the time of author Jack London, some of whose work was inspired by the stream. Steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss, have historically entered Graham Creek via Sonoma Creek for spawning. Stream surveys conducted from 1966 to 1986 indicated significant, but declining populations of anadromous fish. The spawning habitat of Graham Creek is considered medium to high value, with both winter and summer sheltering characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisquito Creek</span> River in California, United States

San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio</span> River in California, United States

Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio is a 4.1-mile-long (6.6 km) year-round stream in southern Marin County, California, United States. This watercourse is also known as Corte Madera Creek, although the actual stream of that name flows into San Francisco Bay further north at Point San Quentin. This watercourse has a catchment basin of about 8 square miles (21 km2) and drains the south-eastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais and much of the area in and around the town of Mill Valley; this stream discharges to Richardson Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calabazas Creek (Sonoma County)</span> River in California, United States

Calabazas Creek is a 5.5-mile-long (8.9 km) stream in the Sonoma Valley, California, United States, that rises in the southern Mayacamas Mountains and empties into Sonoma Creek near Glen Ellen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildcat Creek (California)</span> River in California, United States

Wildcat Creek is a 13.4-mile-long (21.6 km) creek which flows through Wildcat Canyon situated between the Berkeley Hills and the San Pablo Ridge, emptying into San Pablo Bay in Contra Costa County, northern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pescadero Creek</span> River in California, United States

Pescadero Creek is a major stream in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in California, United States. At 26.6 miles (42.8 km), it is the longest stream in San Mateo County and flows all year from springs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its source is at 1,880 feet (570 m) above sea level on the western edge of Castle Rock State Park, with additional headwaters in Portola Redwoods State Park, and its course traverses Pescadero Creek County Park and San Mateo County Memorial Park before entering Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve at Pescadero State Beach and thence to the Pacific Ocean 14.4 miles (23 km) south of Half Moon Bay.

Maacama Creek is a 7.3-mile-long (11.7 km) stream in northern Sonoma County, California, U.S.A., which empties into the Russian River near the city of Healdsburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Creek (Sonoma County, California)</span> River in California, United States

Adobe Creek is a southward-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows past the historic Rancho Petaluma Adobe on the creek's 7.5-mile (12.1 km) course to its confluence with the Petaluma River. It has also been called Casa Grande Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lichau Creek</span> River in California, United States

Lichau Creek is an 8.9-mile-long (14.3 km) southwest-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows through the town of Penngrove and discharges into the Petaluma River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller Creek (Marin County, California)</span> River in California, United States

Miller Creek is a 7.6-mile-long (12.2 km) stream in eastern Marin County, California, United States. It originates on Big Rock Ridge and empties into San Pablo Bay east of Marinwood. A middle school called Miller Creek Middle School was named after the creek and is home to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Bill Creek</span> River in California, United States

Dutch Bill Creek is a 6.5-mile-long (10.5 km) north-flowing stream in the hills of western Sonoma County, California, which empties into the Russian River at Monte Rio about 7 miles (11 km) from the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County)</span> Stream in Santa Clara County, California

Adobe Creek, historically San Antonio Creek, is a 14.2-mile-long (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto on its way to the Palo Alto Flood Basin and thence to southwestern San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Historically, Adobe Creek was a perennial stream and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from the Bay, but these salmonids are now blocked by numerous flood control structures, including a tidal gate at the creek's mouth and a long concretized rectangular channel culminating in an impassable drop structure at El Camino Real. The co-founders of Adobe Systems both lived on Adobe Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permanente Creek</span> River in California, United States

Permanente Creek is a 13.3-mile-long (21.4 km) stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named by early Spanish explorers as Arroyo Permanente or Río Permanente because of its perennial flow, the creek descends the east flank of Black Mountain then courses north through Los Altos and Mountain View, discharging into southwest San Francisco Bay historically at the Mountain View Slough but now virtually entirely diverted via the Permanente Creek Diversion Channel to Stevens Creek and Whisman Slough in San Francisco Bay.

References