February 16, 2006

The fate of Stevens Creek

When I first moved to California the backbone of my world was Stevens Creek Blvd. It was one of the main streets to go through the Apple Campus back then. Our first apartment was in Campbell, just off of the blvd.

When I was trying to learn to play golf, we played often at Deep Cliff which had the actual creek, Stevens Creek, running through it.

I often rode my bike along the trail that this guy writes about.

For thousands of years, these creeks ran basically at surface level, overflowing their banks, twisting and turning their courses as they gradually eroded their banks. As they approached the bay, they fanned out, gradually forming estuaries that interact with the tides, and disappearing into marshes and tidal swamps.

Then, in a very brief time, our farming, building, and industry, by constraining these flows, have turned them into deep, straight-line channels carrying fresh water right out to the bay, bypassing and thus destroying entire habitats. Water that used to filter down into the acquifers is now discharged miles downstream.

Posted by jackhodgson at February 16, 2006 10:53 PM