Lafayette Creek
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CountyContra Costa County
CityLafayette
Physical characteristics
MouthLas Trampas Creek
 • location
Lafayette, California
 • coordinates
37°53′33″N 122°06′41″W / 37.89250°N 122.11139°W / 37.89250; -122.11139
Length3.78 Miles
Basin features
ClimateMediterranean Climate

Lafayette Creek is a 3.78 mi (6.08 km)[1] long creek in Contra Costa County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1][2][3] It is a tributary of Las Trampas Creek.[2]

Course

Lafayette Creek begins as a number of small streams in the Briones hills at an elevation of 1483' above sea level, to the north of the city of Lafayette, California.[1][2] The creek also receives flow from the Lafayette Reservoir. Though many of its upper tributaries are intermittent, Lafayette Creek has perennial flow due to input from urban runoff.[1][2]

It flows generally east passing through Downtown Lafayette. Lafayette Creek is urbanized through much of its course in the town, in some places its channel has been lined with concrete as a flood control measure.[2]

Geography

Lafayette Creek is located in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its watershed is home to approximately 25,000 people and is dominated by the town of Lafayette, California, which is built out along its banks.[4]

Lafayette Creek is a tributary of Las Trampas Creek, which drains into Walnut Creek which in turn drains into the Suisun Bay through a series of wetlands.

Ecology

Lafayette Creek is heavily urbanized as it passes through Lafayette, California. Arroyo Willow and California grapevine are present alongside invasive English ivy (December 28th, 2023)

Lafayette Creek has been heavily altered from its natural state as a result of agricultural and later urban development in its watershed. To control erosion and mitigate flooding, city planners in the 20th century implemented a number of concrete flood control structures and channel alignments. The subsequent modification of streamside habitat drastically changed the ecological structure of the creek. For example, invasive species like arundo donax have established themselves in the creek and reduce the biodiversity of the local ecosystem by outcompeting native species.[5]

Despite alterations to its habitat, Lafayette Creek retains many of the tree species native to the San Francisco Bay Area along its banks, including Coast Live Oak, Valley oak, California buckeye, California bay, Fremont cottonwood and White alder.[6] Some specimens of oak trees along the creek are very old. California Grape, California mugwort and a variety of other plants common in the region are present along Lafayette Creek.

Rainbow Trout Population

Like many Central California streams, Lafayette Creek hosted a population of anadromous Coastal rainbow trout until the rapid suburbanization of Contra Costa County in the second half of the 20th century.[3][2][7] Isolated sightings of trout occurred in Lafayette Creek through the early 2000s, though some of these fish were thought to have originated in the Lafayette Reservoir during a flood event.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Contra Costa County Creeks Inventory" (PDF). www.cccleanwater.org. p. 83.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Contra Costa County Watershed Atlas" (PDF). www.cccleanwater.org.
  3. 1 2 3 Leidy, Robert. "Historical Distribution and Current Status of Steelhead/Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California" (PDF). www.cemar.org.
  4. ↑ "Lafayette - Place Explorer - Data Commons". datacommons.org. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  5. ↑ "Friends of the Creeks". www.friendsofthecreeks.org. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ↑ "Atlas of the Biodiversity of California". wildlife.ca.gov. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  7. ↑ Fisheries, NOAA (2021-12-06). "Central California Coast Steelhead | NOAA Fisheries". NOAA. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
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