Take a walk during any season along the 4.4-mile trail winding its way along Spring Creek Canyon and you’ll be rewarded with a dizzying array of plants. Known locally as a botanical “hot spot” by amateur and seasoned botanists alike, Spring Creek Canyon boasts a mixture of mature forests and successional communities, cultivated areas and unique ecological communities each contributing to the botanical richness of the area. Although proximity to developed areas has overwhelmingly shaped the flora...
Dynamic Wetlands in Time and Space: Vernal pools are wetlands that experience alternating periods of flooding and drying, and are synonymous with animal species that exploit these seasonal waters that are free of predatory fish. Fish have a difficult time colonizing vernal pools because they dry up during seasons (or years) with moderate rainfall, or lack stream connections through which fish can immigrate. For these reasons, vernal pools are more broadly called seasonal pools or isolated dep...
The following article has been condensed from the publication “The Fishery of Spring Creek – A Watershed Under Siege” by Robert F. Carline, Rebecca L. Dunlap, Jason E. Detar, and Bruce A. Hollender.
Figures 1 and 2. (Left) Average-size wild brown trout from Spring Creek. (Right) Large wild brown trout. Few individuals reach this size in Spring Creek.
Historically, native brook trout sustained the fishery, which was apparently good enough to attract the famous angler, Theodore Gordon, who raved a...