Alameda Creek
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (November 2021) |
Alameda Creek Spanish: Arroyo de la Alameda | |
---|---|
Etymology | Spanish |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Region | Alameda County, Santa Clara County |
City | Union City, California |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Packard Ridge in the Diablo Range |
• location | 12 miles (19 km) east of San Jose |
• coordinates | 37°23′16″N 121°36′44″W / 37.38778°N 121.61222°W[1] |
• elevation | 2,950 ft (900 m) |
Mouth | San Francisco Bay |
• location | Fremont |
• coordinates | 37°33′48″N 122°7′51″W / 37.56333°N 122.13083°W[a] |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Length | 45 mi (72 km) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Calaveras Creek |
• right | San Antonio Creek, Arroyo de la Laguna |
Alameda Creek (Spanish: Arroyo de la Alameda) is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge[1] to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. [b] Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks (Mount Isabel and Mount Hamilton) and tallest waterfall (Murietta Falls) in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant
History
Whereas other Bay Area streams flow down from, or around, mountain ranges, Alameda Creek is unique in that it cuts across the Diablo Range at
Five Spanish expeditions led by
Alameda Creek is the most important stream in Alameda County. From this Creek is derived the name of the county. Alameda Creek was the former boundary between Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties during the period from 1850, when Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties were formed, to 1853 when Alameda County was carved from the two Counties. The portion of Alameda County south of Alameda Creek is the only part of Alameda County that is not derived from Contra Costa County.[6]: 17, 26
Completion of the Central Pacific Railroad through Niles Canyon in 1869 was essential to completion of First transcontinental railroad that terminated at Alameda Terminal and Oakland Long Wharf that same year. The Western Pacific was also routed through Niles Canyon, connecting Sacramento, California and San Jose, California in 1906.[7]
The creek bed had once been used as a
In May 2015, vandals damaged an inflatable dam across the creek in Fremont, releasing 50 million gallons (190 million litres) of drinking water into San Francisco Bay.[11]
Alameda Creek watershed
Alameda Creek is the largest
The Alameda Creek Watershed can be divided into six major reaches:
- Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel – the channelized, trapezoidal section extending from the Bay upstream to the Niles Canyon area
- Niles Canyon – the area above the flood control section to the confluence of the Alameda Creek mainstem and Arroyo de la Laguna
- Upper Alameda Creek (above the confluence with Arroyo de la Laguna) – the reach extending up the mainstem of Alameda Creek into the canyons of the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness Area and beyond
- Arroyo de la Laguna – the reach paralleling Interstate 680 upstream of the confluence with the mainstem Alameda Creek, including the Alamo Canal, to its source at the confluence of South San Ramon Creek and Arroyo Mocho
- Shadow Cliffs Regional Park to Del Valle Regional Park
- Arroyo Mocho – the reach extending upstream from the confluence with Arroyo de la Laguna through the Livermore–Amador Valley and into unincorporated ranch and agricultural lands[13]
A more comprehensive list inclusive of minor as well as major named tributaries includes (from top of mainstem heading downstream) Valpe Creek (right), Bear Gulch (right), Whitlock Creek (right), Calaveras Creek (left), Leyden Creek (left), Indian Joe Creek (right), Welch Creek (right), Haynes Gulch (left), Pirate Creek (left), San Antonio Creek (right), Arroyo de la Laguna (right), Stonybrook Canyon (right) and Dry Creek (right). Alameda Creek now runs through the man-made Alameda Creek flood channel near the Bay, the latter is parallel to and south of the old Alameda Creek channel. Ward Creek is a tributary to old Alameda Creek.[14]
Ecology, past and present
Alameda Creek historically supported spawning runs of at least three salmonid species:
Alameda Creek is considered a potential ‘anchor watershed’ for steelhead, regionally significant for restoration of the threatened trout to the entire Bay Area, although by the late 1950s the
In 2009, the Alameda County Water District removed a rubber dam that blocked trout passage in the lower creek, adjacent to Quarry Lakes Regional Park. In June, 2010 environmentalists and water district officials celebrated the removal of a dam on Alameda Creek in Fremont, and the planned installation of fish ladders to allow salmonids to bypass two other dams on the lower creek.[18] At the same time, PG&E is working to modify a cement barrier farther upstream in Sunol to help steelhead swim farther into the watershed, water officials said. Ground was broken on the first ladder the Alameda County Water District is building in April 2018 and is just west of the Mission Boulevard overcrossing in the Niles district of Fremont, allowing passage around a rubber dam. The second ladder, which should start construction in 2019, is about a mile downstream at the concrete structure, called a weir. The two ladders are funded by nearly $10 million in grants from several agencies, including $5.36 million from the California Wildlife Conservation Board and $3 million from the California Natural Resources Agency.[22] When those projects are completed in 2021, steelhead will be able to migrate upstream to spawning habitats in the Sunol Valley for the first time in a half-century.[18]
California's archaeological record has contributed to knowledge of the prehistoric distribution of fishes in Alameda Creek and its tributaries including
There is historical evidence of beaver in the Alameda Creek watershed. In 1828 fur trapper Michel La Framboise travelled to "the missions of San José, San Francisco Solano and San Rafael Arcángel. La Framboise stated that "the Bay of San Francisco abounds in beaver", and that he "made his best hunt in the vicinity of the missions".[24] Alexander Roderick McLeod reported on the progress of the first Hudson's Bay Company fur brigade sent to California in 1829, "Beaver is become an article of traffic on the Coast as at the Mission of St. Joseph alone upwards of Fifteen hundred Beaver Skins were collected from the natives at a trifling value and sold to Ships at 3 Dollars".[25] In the 1840s Kit Carson was granted rights to trap beaver on Alameda Creek in the East Bay where they "abounded...from the mouth of its canyon to the broad delta on the bay".[26][27] Physical evidence of beaver include faunal remains in the Arroyo de la Laguna tributary recovered in an archaeological site west of Interstate 680.[28] Beaver may be beneficial to efforts to restore salmonids in Alameda Creek as beaver ponds benefit oversummering salmonid smolts by raising the water table which then recharges streams in the dry summer season and also by providing perennial deep pools when streams are only seasonal.[29][30]
Conservation
In January, 2011, the
Downstream of San Francisco's dams, the Alameda Creek Alliance has helped to initiate the removal of 11 barriers to fish passage since 2001.[31]
Alameda Creek Regional Trail
The Alameda Creek Regional Trail runs along Alameda Creek for 12 miles (19 km). The trail starts in the Niles neighborhood of Fremont and continues westward to the San Francisco Bay through the cities of
See also
Notes
- ^ These are the coordinates of the southern mouth, which as of 2023[update] is the creek's primary outflow. The coordinates listed by USGS are for the northern mouth in Hayward.
- ^ One source describes Packard Ridge as being a few miles north of Mount Hamilton and a few miles east of Rattlesnake Butte.[2]
References
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Alameda Creek
- ^ Clark, William Otterbein. "Ground Water in Santa Clara County, California." p. 11. (1924). U. S. Department of the Interior. U.S. Geological Survey. Water Supply Paper 519. Available on Google Books. Accessed August 1, 2017.
- ^ "Alameda Creek Watershed Overview". Alameda Creek Coalition. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
- ^ "Steelhead Get Boost in Alameda Creek Thanks to Restoration Efforts". sfpuc.org. April 24, 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-520-24126-8.
- ISBN 0913548340.
- ^ a b "Alameda Creek Regional Trail" (PDF). East Bay Regional Park District. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 4, 2009. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ Chen, E., McMahon, P., Shorno, A., By, F., Bautista, J., Goza, G., ... & Inn, S. D. (2012). Alameda County Water District, Engineering Department, Groundwater Resources Division.
- ^ Victor E. Gleason, Water Projects Go Underground, 5 Ecology L.Q. (1976) discussing Niles Sand & Gravel v. Alameda County Water Dist., 37 Cal. App. 3d 924, 112 Cal. Rptr. 846 (Ct. App. 1974).
- ^ "Quarry Lakes Recreation Area". East Bay Regional Park District.
- ^ "East Bay Loses 50 Million Gallons of Water After Vandals Destroy Dam".
- ^ Robert A. Leidy (April 2007). Ecology, Assemblage Structure,Distribution, and Status of Fishes in Streams Tributary to the San Francisco Estuary, California (Report). San Francisco Estuary Institute. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ a b c Andrew J. Gunther; Jeffrey Hagar; Paul Salop (2000-02-07). An Assessment of the Potential for Restoring a Viable Steelhead Trout Population in the Alameda Creek Watershed (PDF) (Report). Alameda Creek Fisheries Restoration Workgroup. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 30, 2009. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ "Ward Creek". Oakland Museum. Retrieved 2013-01-27.
- ^ Leidy, R.A.; G.S. Becker; B.N. Harvey (2005). "Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California" (PDF). Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration. Oakland, CA. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ a b Robert A. Leidy; Gordon Becker; Brett N. Harvey (2005). "Historical Status of Coho Salmon in Streams of the Urbanized San Francisco Estuary, California" (PDF). California Fish and Game. 91 (4): 219–254. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ . Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- ^ a b c Matthew Artz (2010-06-24). "Steelhead trout, salmon closer to Alameda Creek return". Oakland Tribune. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ Jeanita Lyman (2023-05-04). "Rainbow trout in Alameda Creek signals return of normal migration". Pleasanton Weekly. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
- ^ Wes Bowers (2010-06-24). "Water district dedicates two projects along Fremont creek". Fremont Bulletin. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- PMID 33857143.
- ^ Joseph Geha (April 26, 2018). "Work begins on $10 million Alameda Creek fish ladders". East Bay Times. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
- ^ John E. Skinner (1962). Skinner, John E. (ed.). "The Freshwater Fish and Fisheries of the San Francisco Bay Area". An Historical Review of the Fish and Wildlife Resources of the San Francisco Bay Area. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
- JSTOR 25155808.
- ^ Nunis, Doyce (1968). A. R. McLeod, Esq. to John McLoughlin, Esq.Dated Fort Vancouver 15 Feby. 1830, in The Hudson's Bay Company's First Fur Brigade to the Sacramento Valley: Alexander McLeod's 1829 Hunt. Fair Oaks, California: The Sacramento Book Collectors Club. p. 34.
- ^ Bruce A. MacGregor (1976). The Centennial History of Newark. Newark Days Bi-Centennial Committee. p. 13.
- ISBN 978-0-520-08878-8. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Lanman CW, Lundquist K, Perryman H, Asarian JE, Dolman B, Lanman RB, Pollock MM (Fall 2013). "The historical range of beaver (Castor canadensis) in coastal California: an updated review of the evidence". California Fish and Game. 99 (4): 199. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
- . Retrieved Feb 28, 2010.
- ^ Pollock, Michael M.; Morgan Heim; Danielle Werner (2003). "Hydrologic and geomorphic effects of beaver dams and their influence on fishes" (PDF). American Fisheries Society Symposium. 37: 213–233. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-07. Retrieved Jan 17, 2010.
- ^ a b "Calaveras Dam Project Revised, Future Operations Could Help Restore Alameda Creek" (PDF). Alameda Creek Alliance. 2011-01-25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
- ^ Kelly Zito (2011-01-28). "Calaveras Dam rebuilding projected approved". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
- ^ SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION SUNOL/NILES DAM REMOVAL PROJECT, State Clearinghouse No. 2004072049, February 24, 2006. EIR Certification Date: March 16, 2006. http://sfwater.org/Files/Reports/1_53_SunolNilesDamRmvl_RTC201591a.pdf Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ https://www.ebparks.org/projects/bay-area-ridge-trail-garin-regional-park-niles-canyon