Copeland Creek (California)

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Coordinates: 38°20′37″N 122°43′25″W / 38.34361°N 122.72361°W / 38.34361; -122.72361
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Copeland Creek
Copeland Creek with basalt armor in channel, Fairfield Osborn Preserve
Copeland Creek (California) is located in California
Copeland Creek (California)
Location of the mouth of Copeland Creek in California
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSonoma County
CitiesPenngrove, California, Rohnert Park, California
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationSonoma Mountain
 • coordinates38°19′52″N 122°34′38″W / 38.33111°N 122.57722°W / 38.33111; -122.57722[1]
MouthLaguna de Santa Rosa
 • location
west of Rohnert Park, California
 • coordinates
38°20′37″N 122°43′25″W / 38.34361°N 122.72361°W / 38.34361; -122.72361[1]
 • elevation
92 ft (28 m)[1]

Copeland Creek is a 9.0-mile-long (14.5 km)[2] perennial stream that rises on Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County, California.[3]

Description

The headwaters area is slightly above the Fairfield Osborn Preserve, while the middle reaches drain grazing land and vineyards on the lower western slopes of the Sonoma Mountains. Upon reaching the valley floor Copeland Creek bisects the campus of Sonoma State University on its journey to discharge into the Laguna de Santa Rosa. The Copeland Creek watershed is part of the Russian River basin, which drains to the Pacific Ocean.

History

The

William Matson Roth
.

The lower reaches were heavily disturbed as late as the 1990s, when a restoration of the reach between Roberts Road and Petaluma Hill Road was started. These lower reaches would have been historically heavily

avafauna, amphibians and macro invertebrates
.

Ecology

Partially submerged Pacific giant salamander larva, upper Copeland Creek.

Principal plant communities within the upper reaches include the dominant

snowberry and the uncommon American ginseng
.

Upper reach wildlife includes the federally listed

rough skinned newt, Taricha granulosa, and California slender salamander
, Batrachoseps attenuatus.

Management

Oversight of Copeland Creek is by the

arroyo willow from certain lower reach portions of the creek in order to improve flow characteristics.[5] As with any flood control management strategy, unintended environmental impacts can arise from stream channel modification. The Sonoma County General Plan Open Space Element calls for a Copeland Creek Trail along Copeland Creek to connect Rohnert Park near Sonoma State University to Crane Creek Regional Park.[6] In addition, the 2003 County Outdoor Recreation Plan calls for a Copeland Creek Regional Park of about 500 acres (2.0 km2) to be situated near Fairfield Osborn Preserve at elevation 1,500 ft (460 m).[7] Through the city of Rohnert Park, the creek is largely channelized.[8]

The Sonoma County Water Agency in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Game have developed a strategy for enhancing

anadromous species: Coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead. A Copeland Creek Restoration Project addressed the creek channel along approximately 6,000 ft (1,800 m) of Copeland Creek, which had been overgrazed by cattle for over 100 years.[9] Commencing in 1999, the project was implemented in four phases, the fourth and final phase of construction having been completed in the autumn of 2003. The project was designed to stabilize banks, decrease creek turbidity, exclude cattle from the creek by fencing, and improve habitat for steelhead and other native fish and wildlife
. The outcome yielded a creek with less sediment load and a more natural undulation of channel, where an almost linear creek geometry had existed for the previously modified reach.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Copeland Creek
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2016-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 9, 2011
  3. USGS
    Quadrangle Map, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC (1958)
  4. ^ David Cook and Jessica Martini-Lamb, Copeland Creek Restoration Project Monitoring Plan,Sonoma County Water Agency, April, 2001
  5. ^ Sonoma County Water Agency 2006 Maintenance Plan Archived 2007-07-23 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Excerpts from Sonoma County General Plan pertaining to Copeland Creek Archived 2006-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Sonoma County Outdoor Recreation Plan Park Summary Archived 2006-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Environmental Impact Report
    for the City of Rohnert Park General Plan, C. Michael Hogan, Marc Papineau, Ballard George et al. , published by the city of Rohnert Park, California and the State of California Environmental Clearinghouse, Sacramento, Ca., Report #10351, March 9, 1990
  9. ^ Copeland Creek Fisheries Enhancement Program Archived October 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Copeland Creek.
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