Mad River (California)
Mad River | |
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Location | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Counties | Humboldt, Trinity |
City | McKinleyville |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | California Coast Ranges |
• coordinates | 40°12′20″N 123°9′23″W / 40.20556°N 123.15639°W[1] |
• elevation | 4,845 ft (1,477 m)[2] |
McKinleyville | |
• average | 1,573 cu ft/s (44.5 m3/s) |
• minimum | 17 cu ft/s (0.48 m3/s) |
• maximum | 81,000 cu ft/s (2,300 m3/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | South Fork Mad River, Blue Slide Creek, Littlefield Creek |
• right | Barry Creek, Pilot Creek, Bug Creek, Lindsay Creek, Mill Creek |
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The Mad River (Wiyot: Baduwa't[4]) is a river in upper Northern California. It flows for 113 miles (182 km)[3] in a roughly northwest direction through Trinity County and then Humboldt County, draining a 497-square-mile (1,290 km2) watershed into the Pacific Ocean north of the town of Arcata near [California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport[5]] in McKinleyville. The river's headwaters are in the Coast Range near South Kelsey Ridge.
History
Before Euro-American settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, the native peoples occupying the lower Mad River watershed were the
Watershed and river modifications
The Mad River drains approximately 497 square miles (1,290 km2) of the Coast Range Geomorphic Province and empties into the Pacific Ocean north of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California. The basin is about 100 miles (160 km) in length and averages six miles (10 km) wide. Elevations range from sea level at the mouth to 3,000 feet (910 m) along the western ridge to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in the headwaters. Principal tributaries to the Mad River include South Fork Mad River, North Fork Mad River, Barry Creek, Pilot Creek, Deer Creek, Bug Creek, Graham Creek, Grace Flat, Blue Slide Creek, Boulder Creek, Maple Creek, Canõn Creek, Lindsey Creek, and Mill (Hall) Creek.[6]
The river provides
In the 1960s, a dam for the Mad River in Humboldt County was proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The proposed blockage would have flooded the Maple Creek/Butler Valley area and adversely affected the health of the Mad River watershed. Gradually the opposition from the community, including the urban areas of the county, forced a suspension of the project schedule and finally the cancellation of the project. The dam was never built.[10]
The greatest problem of the Mad River
Land use
The upper half of the river is inside the
Ecology
The river provides recreational opportunities and important habitat to fish and wildlife. Flora of the area includes the Mad River fleabane (Erigeron maniopotamicus), a wildflower which was named for the river.[8] Key fish species include coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and steelhead (O. mykiss), which were federally-listed as threatened in the Mad River in 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively. Two threatened osmerid species - longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthy) and eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) - are also listed as present in the estuarine portion of the Mad River, but have not been observed in recent years.[11]
Before entering the ocean, the river turns abruptly north near the triple junction of the Gorda, North American, and Pacific plates. This bend denotes the usual upper limit of the estuary, although brackish waters can extend as far upstream as Highway 101 during king tides. Although small, this estuary provides nursery habitat for juvenile rockfish (Sebastes melanops, S. rastrelliger) and several species of flatfish, including starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus), English sole (Pleuronectes vetulus), and speckled sanddab (Citharichthys stigmaeus). The estuary also serves as a migration corridor for salmonids and Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata), and as a summer feeding ground for several marine species, including topsmelt (Atherinops affinis) and surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosis). Pacific staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus) prickly sculpin (Cottus asper), coast range sculpin (C. aleuticus), and Three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteous aculeatus) are present in the estuary year-round.[11] Above the estuary, the Mad River is home to resident coastal cutthroat trout (O. clarki clarki), rainbow trout (O. mykiss irideus), Sacramento sucker (Catostomas occidentalis), and Humboldt sucker (Catostomas occidentalis humboldtianus).
The Mad River Estuary is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy.[12] The Mad River watershed was described as at carrying capacity with 22 colonies of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in 1954, from the river mouth to well upstream. These beaver were re-introduced into the North Fork Mad River in 1946, or possibly were migrants from the Little River (Humboldt County).[13] North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) were also numerous.
See also
- List of rivers in California
- Mad River, California - the small community near the western extent of Ruth Lake.
- South Fork Trinity River, which parallels much of the river
References
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mad River, USGS, GNIS
- ^ Google Earth elevation for source coordinates
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 9, 2011
- ^ "Wiyot Tribe Declares State of Emergency Regarding Local Rivers". www.wiyot.us. Wiyot Tribe. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ "(ACV) CALIFORNIA REDWOOD COAST-HUMBOLDT COUNTY". adip.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ a b c Stillwater Sciences (2010). Mad River Watershed Assessment Final Report (PDF) (Report). Eureka,California: Redwood Community Action Agency and Natural Resources Management Corp. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-23. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
- ISBN 978-0-520-24217-3. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
- ^ a b State of California Water Quality Control Plan North Coastal Basin 1B July 1975 p.13
- ^ "Hydro-Electric Plant". Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. Archived from the original on 2010-09-04. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- ^ Butler Valley Collection. Arcata, CA: Humboldt State University Special Collections, Humboldt State University.
- ^ a b Osborn, Katherine (December 2017). Seasonal fish and invertebrate communities in three northern California estuaries (Master's Thesis). Humboldt State University.
- ^ State Water Resources Control Board Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California (1974) State of California
- ^ Charles F. Yocum; William A. Stumpf; Kennedy M. Perkins (May–August 1956). "Status of Beaver Formerly Introduced into the Mad River and River Otter in Northwestern California". The Murrelet.