Carpinteria Creek

Carpinteria Creek is an 8.1-mile-long (13.0 km)[6] stream that runs from headwaters in the Santa Ynez Mountains, flows south past Snowball Mountain, then continues southwest to its estuary at Carpinteria State Beach on the Santa Barbara Channel at Carpinteria.[4]

Carpinteria Creek
[1][2][3]
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSanta Barbara County
CityCarpinteria
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationSanta Ynez Mountains, Los Padres National Forest
 • coordinates34°27′48″N 119°29′56″W[4]
 • elevation3,460 ft (1,050 m)
MouthSanta Barbara Channel, Pacific Ocean
 • location
Carpinteria, California
 • coordinates
34°23′25″N 119°31′13″W[4]
 • elevation
0 ft (0 m)[4]
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • leftGobernador Creek[5]
 • rightSutton Canyon Creek

History

The Portola Expedition of 1769 found a Chumash Indian village building canoes so named the area La Carpinteria for "carpenter's shop".[7][8]

Watershed and course

The Carpinteria Creek watershed drains 15.3 square miles (40 km2). Carpinteria Creek originates at 3,460 feet (1,050 m) above sea level, and its main tributaries are Sutton Canyon Creek and Gobernador Creek.[5] The tributaries of Gobernador Creek are El Dorado Creek and Steer Creek. The latter's source is on Divide Peak at 4,690 feet (1,430 m) elevation. Unlike many other southern California coastal streams, Carpinteria Creek still runs freely under open spans (rather than through culverts) at both the Union Pacific tracks and the 101 freeway. The creek is perennial through the urban reach of the creek. An historical map from 1869 showed that the Carpinteria salt marsh "El Estero" extended almost to Carpinteria Creek.[9]

Ecology

Once a significant spawning stream for hundreds of southern steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), trout are now rare visitors to Carpinteria Creek. Other threatened and endangered species in the creek include Coulter's goldfields, Coulter's saltbush, Ventura marsh milk-vetch, late-flowered mariposa lily, monarch butterfly, sandy beach tiger beetle, tidewater goby, and western snowy plover.[10] Trees in the upper watershed include white alder, California sycamore, black cottonwood and coast live oak, and in the lower watershed include California sycamore, southern walnut and arroyo willow.

Monarch butterflies winter at Salzgeber Meadow, which is located along the eastern bank of Carpinteria Creek upstream of the railroad tracks.[9]

Conservation

Major habitat restoration efforts include removal on non-native giant reed (Arundo donax) and other water-thirsty species as well as removal of non-native iceplant from the coastal area.[11]

References
  1. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Sanger, California: Word Dancer Press. p. 591. ISBN 1-88499-514-4.
  2. "Palo Alto Creeks Topo, 1899". Oakland Museum. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
  3. William S. Cooper (January 1926). "Vegetational Development Upon Alluvial Fans in the Vicinity of Palo Alto, California". Ecology. 7 (1): 1–30. doi:10.2307/1929116. JSTOR 1929116.
  4. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Carpinteria Creek
  5. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gobernador Creek
  6. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 15, 2011
  7. Erwin G. Gudde; William Bright (1998). 1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning. University of California Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-520-21271-8. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  8. David L. Durham (2001). Durham's Place Names of California's Central Coast: Includes Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Monterey & Santa Cruz Counties. 9781884995293. p. 42.
  9. The Carpinteria Creek Watershed (PDF) (Report). Carpinteria Creek Watershed Coalition. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  10. "Threatened/Endangered Species Carpinteria Creek" (PDF). Carpinteria Creek Watershed Coalition. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  11. Carpinteria Creek Watershed Plan (Report). Cachuma Resource Conservation District & the Carpinteria Creek Watershed Coalition. March 2005. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
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