Calabazas Creek (Santa Clara County)

History

In the Spanish language, calabazas means squash, pumpkins or gourds. The name was especially popular to the south of San Francisco Bay.

Watershed and course

An unnamed tributary of Calabazas Creek starts at an elevation of 1714 ft on Table Mountain, whose summit is at 2037 ft and located at 37°15'30" N and 122°04' 55" W, although the creek's official USGS source is at 794 ft and located at 37°16'29" N and 122°04'07" W. Named tributaries of Calabazas Creek include Prospect, Rodeo and Regnart Creeks. Prospect Creek flows 1.4 miles before entering Calabazas Creek from the left (heading downstream) at elevation 325 feet, then Rodeo Creek from the right, and finally, Regnart Creek joins at elevation 226 feet. Historically Calabazas Creek was a tributary of Saratoga Creek joining it just downstream of San Francisco Road (probably El Camino Real) on the Thompson and West 1876 map, and thence to the Guadalupe River. When the Guadalupe River was redirected from Guadalupe Slough to Alviso Slough (formerly Steamboat Slough), Calabazas Creek was extended directly to meet Saratoga Creek at the beginning of Guadalupe Slough at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale.

Thirty-two percent of its length, approximately 4.2 miles, is classified as "hard bottom" and the reach between Highway 101 and Lawrence Expressway is a trapezoidal, concrete-lined channel. From Guadalupe Slough to Highway 101, Calabazas Creek is an enlarged earthen channel with levees. The culvert at Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road was widened and the upstream detention basin completed in September, 2011.

Habitat and wildlife

Steelhead trout (coastal rainbow trout) (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) occurred historically in Calabazas Creek but have not been seen since the 1970s. Leidy (2005) identified at least several impassable barriers to migration upstream from the Bay including a 13 ft inclined dam at Comer Drive, and drop structures at Bollinger Road and Rainbow Drive. The latter two have now been removed, and the Comer Dam, which was constructed in 1973 to trap gravel and cement debris from the upstream Cocciardi Quarry (closed for several years now), has raised the creek to within four feet of the underside of Comer Drive bridge posing a flooding threat to the bridge. It was scheduled to be removed by the SCVWD.

Leidy (2007) identified three species of native fishes in Calabazas Creek: California roach, Sacramento sucker, Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), and rainbow trout (Oncohrynchus mykiss) (now extirpated). Non-native fishes include goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) and Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).

References

References

1. "National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data". U.S. Geological Survey.
2. {{gnis. 220373. Calabazas Creek
3. Durham, David L.. (1998). "California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State". Word Dancer Press.
4. Erwin Gustav Gudde. (1974). "California Place Names". University of California Press.
5. "Calabazas Watershed". Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program (SCVURPPP).
6. {{cite gnis. 253793. Prospect Creek
7. {{cite gnis. 231483. Regnart Creek
8. "Lower Guadalupe Slough Watershed Map". Oakdland Museum.
9. (1876). "Historical Atlas of Santa Clara County California". Thompson & West.
10. "Calabazas Creek Flood Control Project". Santa Clara Valley Water District.
11. "Calabazas Creek Flood Control Project". Santa Clara Valley Water District.
12. (2005). "Historical Distribution and Current Status of Steelhead/Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California". Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration.
13. Emily Zedler. (2006). "Comer Dam modification alternatives". Santa Clara Valley Water District.
14. Robert A. Leidy. (2007). "Ecology, Assemblage Structure, Distribution, and Status of Fishes in Streams Tributary to the San Francisco Estuary, California". San Francisco Estuary Institute.