The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles (640 km) before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay. The river drains about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km2) in 19 California counties, mostly within the fertile agricultural region bounded by the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada known as the Sacramento Valley, but also extending as far as the volcanic plateaus of Northeastern California. Historically, its watershed has reached as far north as south-central Oregon where the now, primarily, endorheic (closed) Goose Lake rarely experiences southerly outflow into the Pit River, the most northerly tributary of the Sacramento.
The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of where the rivers enter Suisun Bay, which flows into San Francisco Bay, then the Pacific Ocean via San Pablo Bay. The Delta is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta was designated a National Heritage Area on March 12, 2019. The city of Stockton is located on the San Joaquin River at the eastern edge of the delta. The total area of the Delta, including both land and water, is about 1,100 square miles (2,800 km2). Its population is around 500,000.
The California Central Valley grasslands is a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in California's Central Valley. It a diverse ecoregion containing areas of desert grassland, prairie, savanna, riparian forest, marsh, several types of seasonal vernal pools, and large lakes such as now-dry Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Kern Lake.
The Yolo Bypass is one of the two flood bypasses in California's Sacramento Valley located in Yolo and Solano Counties. Through a system of weirs, the bypass diverts floodwaters from the Sacramento River away from the state's capital city of Sacramento and other nearby riverside communities.
The delta smelt is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about 5 to 7 cm long, in the family Osmeridae. Endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone of the estuary, except during its spawning season, when it migrates upstream to fresh water following winter "first flush" flow events. It functions as an indicator species for the overall health of the Delta's ecosystem.Delta Smelt are usually found at temperatures of less than 25°C and prefer temperatures of around 20°C. They are euryhaline but occur mostly at salinities of 0–7 practical salinity units.
The Sacramento blackfish is a species of freshwater fish in central California. A cyprinid, the blackfish is the sole member of its genus.
Located in northern California, the Suisun Marsh has been referred to as the largest brackish water marsh on west coast of the United States of America. The marsh land is part of a tidal estuary, and subject to tidal ebb and flood. The marsh is home to many species of birds and other wildlife, and is formed by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers between Martinez and Suisun City, California and several other smaller, local watersheds. Adjacent to Suisun Bay, the marsh is immediately west of the legally defined Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as well as part of the San Francisco Bay estuary.
The California roach is a cyprinid fish species complex native to western North America and abundant in the intermittent streams throughout central California. Once considered a single species, it has recently been split into a number of closely related species and subspecies. It is closely related to the Hitch, and together they form a species complex. The California roach derives its common name from its visual similarities to the roach of Europe, however they are not closely taxonomically related.
The longfin smelt is a smelt that is found in several estuaries and lakes along the northern Pacific coast of North America.
Cordelia Slough is a 10.8-mile-long (17.4 km) tidal watercourse which discharges to the Suisun Slough, which in turn empties into Grizzly Bay in Solano County, California. The Suisun Slough, fed by the Green Valley Creek and Red Top Creek, provides a productive habitat for a diversity of aquatic flora and fauna. In particular steelhead migrate up Cordelia Slough to spawn in its two tributaries.
The green sturgeon is a species of sturgeon native to the northern Pacific Ocean, from China and Russia to Canada and the United States.
The San Francisco Estuary together with the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta represents a highly altered ecosystem. The region has been heavily re-engineered to accommodate the needs of water delivery, shipping, agriculture, and most recently, suburban development. These needs have wrought direct changes in the movement of water and the nature of the landscape, and indirect changes from the introduction of non-native species. New species have altered the architecture of the food web as surely as levees have altered the landscape of islands and channels that form the complex system known as the Delta.
Alhambra Creek is a stream in Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
The Night smelt is a true smelt of the northern family Osmeridae and part of the larger order Osmeriformes. The family of the true smelt consists of 12 species; 7 of which are native to California’s estuary and coastal waters. The night smelt is one of the three exact species in the Spirinchus genus, along with the Longfin Smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) and the shishamo (Spirinchus lanceolatus), native to northern Japan.
Marsh Creek is a stream in east Contra Costa County, California in Northern California which rises on the eastern side of Mount Diablo and flows 30 miles (48 km) to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta at Oakley, California, near Big Break Regional Shoreline. The creek flows through Marsh Creek State Park (California), where water is impounded to form Marsh Creek Reservoir, then through the city of Brentwood, California.
The Sacramento pikeminnow, formerly known as the Sacramento squawfish, is a large cyprinid fish of California, United States. It is native to the Los Angeles River, Sacramento-San Joaquin, Pajaro-Salinas, Russian River, Clear Lake and upper Pit River river basins. It is predatory and reaches up to 1.4 m (4.6 ft) in total length.
Acanthogobius flavimanus is a species of fish in the goby family known by the common name yellowfin goby. Other common names include mahaze, Japanese river goby, Oriental goby, and spotted goby. It is native to Asia, where its range includes China, Japan, Korea, parts of Russia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. It has spread beyond its native range to become an introduced, and often invasive, species. It has been recorded in Australia, Mexico, and Florida and California in the United States.
The Delta Cross Channel is a facility in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that diverts water from the Sacramento River. The facility was built in 1951 in Walnut Grove, California.
Sacramento–San Joaquin is a freshwater ecoregion in California. It includes the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems of California's Central Valley, which converge in the inland Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. It also includes the mostly-closed Tulare Lake basin in the southern Central Valley, the rivers and streams that empty into San Francisco Bay, and the Pajaro and Salinas river systems of Central California which empty into Monterey Bay.
Restore the Delta is a campaign, based in Stockton, California that advocates for restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta also known as the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. It began in 2006 working towards education and outreach to help Californians recognize the Delta as part of California's heritage. Currently, there are up to 40,000 members throughout California of both residents and various organizations working towards the same goal.
