San Anselmo Creek

San Anselmo Creek is an eastward-flowing stream that begins on the eastern flank of Pine Mountain in the Marin Hills of Marin County, California. At its confluence with Ross Creek, it becomes Corte Madera Creek.

Sais Footbridge over San Anselmo Creek in the dry season of 1997, courtesy of Charles Kennard, Friends of Corte Madera Creek
Massively woven alder roots on the bank of San Anselmo Creek, courtesy of Charles Kennard, Friends of Corte Madera Creek
A river otter on the bank of San Anselmo Creek, July 2007, courtesy of Charles Kennard, Friends of Corte Madera Creek
San Anselmo Creek
Elliott Preserve, San Anselmo Creek in Fairfax, CA, courtesy Charles Kennard, Friends of Corte Madera Creek
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionMarin County
CitiesRoss, San Anselmo, Fairfax
Physical characteristics
SourceEastern flank of Pine Mountain, Marin Hills
 • coordinates37°58′56″N 122°38′33″W
 • elevation1,200 ft (370 m)[1]
MouthCorte Madera Creek (Marin County, California)
 • location
Ross, California
 • coordinates
37°57′58″N 122°33′31″W[1]
 • elevation
36 ft (11 m)[1]
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • leftCascade Creek, Fairfax Creek, Sleepy Hollow Creek
 • rightCarey Camp Creek, Deer Park Creek

History

Its name came from the Punta de Quintin land grant, which marked the valley as the Canada del Anselmo, or Valley of Anselm, Anselm being the name of a native American who was baptized and later buried in the area.[2] The Canada de Herrera, a 6,658-acre rancho that includes the areas that are now Fairfax, Sleepy Hollow, and part of San Anselmo, was granted to Domingo Sais in 1839. His family used the land for crops, sheep, horses, and cattle and fished San Anselmo Creek for salmon.[3]

Ecology

San Anselmo Creek, along with its Sleepy Hollow and Cascade creeks tributaries, is the principal steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) contributor of the Corte Madera Creek watershed.[4] Although short on water by late summer, Cascade Creek is considered to have the best trout habitat in the watershed.[5] Rich electrofished five species of fish in San Anselmo Creek in 1999 of which rainbow/steelhead trout were the most abundant, followed by threespine stickleback, California roach, sculpin species, and Sacramento sucker.[6]

Historically, Corte Madera Creek watershed supported coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) with observations recorded from 1926-1927, the 1960s, 1981, and the last sighting in 1984.[7] While salmon were reported across the whole Corte Madera Creek watershed, Fry specifically observed coho in San Anselmo Creek in 1936.[8] A spawning pair of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) was observed by Michael Cronin just below Saunders Avenue in San Anselmo in 2003.[6]

River otter (Lontra canadensis) were photographed on the creek in 2007 despite not being listed as native to Marin County in Grinnell's 1937 Fur-bearing Mammals of California.[9]

Watershed

Tributaries of San Anselmo Creek (from source to Corte Madera Creek) are Cascade Creek, Carey Camp Creek, Deer Park Creek, Fairfax Creek, Sleepy Hollow Creek and Ross Creek.[1] In summer 2012 a partial fish passage barrier, the culvert beneath Center Boulevard in San Anselmo, is being modified with a fish ladder and concrete baffles, the latter to create resting places for migrating salmonids as they try to transit the high-velocity flows created by the concrete culvert.[10]

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See also

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Anselmo Creek
  2. California Place Names. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  3. "Ross Valley Watershed". Marin County Watershed Program. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  4. Gordon S. Becker, Isabelle J. Reining, David A. Asbury, Andrew Gunther (August 2007). San Francisco Estuary Watersheds Evaluation: Identifying Promising Locations for Steelhead Restoration in Tributaries of the San Francisco Estuary (PDF) (Report). Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration & California Coastal Conservancy. Retrieved 2011-05-14.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  5. Alice A. Rich (2000-11-10). Fishery Resources Conditions of the Corte Madera Creek Watershed, Marin County, California (PDF) (Report). Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  6. Fish and Wildlife in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed (PDF) (Report). Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed. May 2004. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  7. 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: 219–254. Retrieved 2011-05-15.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  8. D. H. Fry (1936). "Life history of Hesperoleucus symmetricus Snyder". California Fish and Game: 65–68.
  9. Joseph Grinnell, Joseph S. Dixon, and Jean M. Linsdale (1937). Fur-bearing mammals of California; their natural history, systematic status, and relations to man. Berkeley, California: University of.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Mark Prado (2012-08-12). "Culvert work in San Anselmo seeks to help threatened fish". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
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