:Alameda Creek

Whereas other Bay Area streams flow down from, or around, mountain ranges, Alameda Creek is unique in that it cuts across the Diablo Range at Niles Canyon. To geologists this is evidence that it is an antecedent stream that existed prior to the rise of the East Bay hills about a million years ago. As the mountain range was lifted by tectonic forces, the creek kept pace by eroding the canyon, which continues to this day. The large alluvial fan under Fremont, Newark, and Union City which juts into San Francisco Bay is further evidence that this creek has been in place for a very long time.{{cite book |last1=Sloan |first1=Doris |title=Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region |location=Berkeley, California |publisher=University of California Press |year=2006 |page=225 |isbn=978-0-520-24126-8 }}

Five Spanish expeditions led by Portolà, Ortega, Fages, Anza and Amador passed over Alameda Creek between 1769 and 1795. El Camino Viejo between Pleasanton and Mission Pass crossed it near Sunol. Mission San José, in Fremont, was dedicated in 1797. The Mission thrived for 49 years until the Mexican government's Secularization Order liquidated mission lands in 1834. Alameda Creek was the boundary of the mission lands and the {{convert|17000|acre|km2|adj=on}} Rancho Arroyo de la Alameda granted to Jose de Jesus Vallejo, who built a flour mill near the mouth of Niles Canyon. The mill and the importance of the canyon as a passage through the hills led to growth of Niles (which in 1956 became part of Fremont, California) in the 1850s. A favorable climate, excellent soils, and a fast-growing population helped agriculture to boom. Early roads led to landings where small ships would load grain and other foodstuffs for transport to market.

Alameda Creek is the most important stream in Alameda County, which was named after it. It was the boundary between Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties between 1850, when Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties were formed, to 1853, when Alameda County was carved from the two counties. The portion of Alameda County south of Alameda Creek is the only part of Alameda County that is not derived from Contra Costa County.{{cite book |last1=Thompson & West |title=Official and historical atlas map of Alameda County, California |date=1878 |publisher=Valley Publishers |location=Fresno, CA |isbn=0913548340 |edition=Bicentennial 1976}}{{rp|17,26}}

File:Central Pacific Railroad, and Alameda Creek. (26268982186).jpg

Completion of the Central Pacific Railroad through Niles Canyon in 1869 was essential to completion of First transcontinental railroad that terminated at Alameda Terminal and Oakland Long Wharf that same year. The Western Pacific was also routed through Niles Canyon, connecting Sacramento, California and San Jose, California in 1906.{{cite web |title=Alameda Creek Regional Trail |publisher=East Bay Regional Park District |url=http://www.ebparks.org/files/EBRPD_files/brochure/alameda_text.pdf |access-date=June 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804014803/http://www.ebparks.org/files/EBRPD_files/brochure/alameda_text.pdf |archive-date=August 4, 2009 |url-status=dead }}

The creek bed had once been used as a gravel quarry.[http://www.water.ca.gov/lgagrant/docs/applications/Alameda%20County%20Water%20District%20(201209870035)/Att03_LGA12_ACWD_GWMP_4of5.pdf Chen, E., McMahon, P., Shorno, A., By, F., Bautista, J., Goza, G., ... & Inn, S. D. (2012). Alameda County Water District, Engineering Department, Groundwater Resources Division.] When the gravel pits were flooded by water purchased by the public for groundwater recharge of the Niles Cone, the gravel harvesters began to daily pump out enough water to meet the needs of 30,000 people down the creek into San Francisco Bay.[http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1111&context=elq Victor E. Gleason, Water Projects Go Underground, 5 Ecology L.Q. (1976)] discussing [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15653618963212166716&hl=en&as_sdt=2006 Niles Sand & Gravel v. Alameda County Water Dist., 37 Cal. App. 3d 924, 112 Cal. Rptr. 846 (Ct. App. 1974).] After the pumping was declared to be an illegal waste the Alameda County Water District acquired the quarry in 1975.{{cite web|url=http://www.ebparks.org/parks/quarry_lakes|publisher=East Bay Regional Park District|title=Quarry Lakes Recreation Area}}

In May 2015, vandals damaged an inflatable dam across the creek in Fremont, releasing 50 million gallons (190 million litres) of drinking water into San Francisco Bay.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/East-Bay-Loses-50-Million-Gallons-of-Water-After-Vandals-Destroy-Dam-304782741.html|title = East Bay Loses 50 Million Gallons of Water After Vandals Destroy Dam| date=23 May 2015 }}

File:Alameda_Creek_west_of_Niles_3325.JPG

Alameda Creek is the largest watershed within the southern San Francisco Bay, draining 700 square miles (1,813 square kilometers), or about 20% of the total drainage area for the South Bay.{{cite report |title=Ecology, Assemblage Structure,Distribution, and Status of Fishes in Streams Tributary to the San Francisco Estuary, California |author =Robert A. Leidy |publisher=San Francisco Estuary Institute |date=April 2007 |url=http://www.sfei.org/leidy_No530/index.html |access-date=June 22, 2010 }} Two-thirds of the watershed is in Alameda County including the reach through the Sunol Valley, the rest is in Santa Clara County. The tributaries of Alameda creek include Arroyo de la Laguna, Arroyo Valle, San Antonio Creek and Calaveras Creek, whose main tributary is Arroyo Hondo. The watershed includes three man-made reservoirs: Lake Del Valle, San Antonio Reservoir and Calaveras Reservoir.{{cite report|title=An Assessment of the Potential for Restoring a Viable Steelhead Trout Population in the Alameda Creek Watershed |author1=Andrew J. Gunther |author2=Jeffrey Hagar |author3=Paul Salop |date=2000-02-07 |publisher=Alameda Creek Fisheries Restoration Workgroup |url=http://www.amarine.com/information/accwp/pdf/acfishrpt.pdf |access-date=June 22, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730223857/http://www.amarine.com/information/accwp/pdf/acfishrpt.pdf |archive-date=July 30, 2009 }}

The Alameda Creek Watershed can be divided into six major reaches:

• Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel – the channelized, trapezoidal section extending from the Bay upstream to the Niles Canyon area
• Niles Canyon – the area above the flood control section to the confluence of the Alameda Creek mainstem and Arroyo de la Laguna
• Upper Alameda Creek (above the confluence with Arroyo de la Laguna) – the reach extending up the mainstem of Alameda Creek into the canyons of the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness Area and beyond
• Arroyo de la Laguna – the reach paralleling Interstate 680 upstream of the confluence with the mainstem Alameda Creek, including the Alamo Canal, to its source at the confluence of South San Ramon Creek and Arroyo Mocho
• Arroyo Valle – the reach extending from the confluence with Arroyo de la Laguna upstream through Shadow Cliffs Regional Park to Del Valle Regional Park
• Arroyo Mocho – the reach extending upstream from the confluence with Arroyo de la Laguna through the Livermore–Amador Valley and into unincorporated ranch and agricultural lands

A more comprehensive list inclusive of minor as well as major named tributaries includes (from top of mainstem heading downstream) Valpe Creek (right), Bear Gulch (right), Whitlock Creek (right), Calaveras Creek (left), Leyden Creek (left), Indian Joe Creek (right), Welch Creek (right), Haynes Gulch (left), Pirate Creek (left), San Antonio Creek (right), Arroyo de la Laguna (right), Stonybrook Canyon (right) and Dry Creek (right). Alameda Creek now runs through the man-made Alameda Creek flood channel near the Bay, the latter is parallel to and south of the old Alameda Creek channel. Ward Creek is a tributary to old Alameda Creek.{{cite web |title=Ward Creek |publisher=Oakland Museum |url=http://museumca.org/creeks/1320-OMWard.html# |access-date=2013-01-27 }}

File:Alameda Creek in Niles Canyon 2626.JPG

Alameda Creek historically supported spawning runs of at least three salmonid species: steelhead (the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus),{{cite journal |title=Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California |author1=Leidy, R.A. |author2=G.S. Becker |author3=B.N. Harvey |year=2005 |journal=Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration |location=Oakland, CA |url=http://www.cemar.org/pdf/solano.pdf |access-date=June 22, 2010 }} coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch){{cite journal |title=Historical Status of Coho Salmon in Streams of the Urbanized San Francisco Estuary, California |author1= Robert A. Leidy |author2=Gordon Becker |author3=Brett N. Harvey |year=2005 |journal=California Fish and Game |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=219–254 |url=http://www.cemar.org/pdf/coho.pdf |access-date=June 22, 2010 }} and chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).

Alameda Creek is considered a potential ‘anchor watershed’ for steelhead, regionally significant for restoration of the threatened trout to the entire Bay Area, although by the late 1950s the California Department of Fish and Game decided the steelhead run was no longer viable due to numerous man-made barriers to fish runs. By the early 1970s the Army Corps of Engineers channeled and rip-rapped the lower {{convert|12|mi|km}} of the creek.{{cite news |title=Water district dedicates two projects along Fremont creek |author =Wes Bowers |date=2010-06-24 |newspaper=Fremont Bulletin |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/fremont/ci_15370244?nclick_check=1 |access-date=2010-07-01 }} The last steelhead and coho salmon runs in the 20th century were seen in the lower creek in 1964, the latter confirmed by photographic records.

Confirmation that adult steelhead captured attempting to migrate into the Alameda Creek watershed, and the rainbow trout sampled in the upper watershed (trapped above complete migration barriers), were native fish associated with the federally threatened steelhead Central California Coast Evolutionarily Significant Unit spurred a major effort to restore this historically important steelhead stream by removing barriers to migration and improving habitat quality. Since steelhead in the Bay Area and California's Central Coast were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997, numerous organizations, including the [http://www.alamedacreek.org/ Alameda Creek Alliance], and governmental agencies have cooperated on restoration projects to allow migratory fish from the Bay to reach spawning habitat in upper Alameda Creek, beginning in 1999. This coalition of agencies and organizations is called the Alameda Creek Fisheries Restoration Workgroup.{{Cite news |last=Stein |first=Carolyn |date=June 28, 2024 |title='Phenomenal': Species rebounds in Bay Area creek |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/steelhead-trout-alameda-creek-19540239.php |access-date=June 28, 2024 |work=San Francisco Chronicle}}

In 2009, the Alameda County Water District removed a rubber dam that blocked trout passage in the lower creek, adjacent to Quarry Lakes Regional Park. In June, 2010 environmentalists and water district officials celebrated the removal of a dam on Alameda Creek in Fremont, and the planned installation of fish ladders to allow salmonids to bypass two other dams on the lower creek.{{cite news |title=Steelhead trout, salmon closer to Alameda Creek return |author =Matthew Artz |date=2010-06-24 |newspaper=Oakland Tribune |url=http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_15360649 |access-date=2010-07-01 }} At the same time, PG&E worked to modify a cement barrier farther upstream in Sunol to help steelhead swim farther into the watershed, water officials said. Ground was broken on the first ladder the Alameda County Water District was building in April 2018, just west of the Mission Boulevard overcrossing in the Niles district of Fremont, allowing passage around a rubber dam. The second ladder, which was planned to start construction in 2019, is about a mile downstream at the concrete structure, called a weir. The two ladders were funded by nearly $10 million in grants from several agencies, including $5.36 million from the California Wildlife Conservation Board and $3 million from the California Natural Resources Agency.{{cite news |title=Work begins on $10 million Alameda Creek fish ladders |author=Joseph Geha |newspaper=East Bay Times |date=April 26, 2018 |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/04/26/work-begins-on-10-million-alameda-creek-fish-ladders/ |access-date=January 15, 2019 }} The goal was that when those projects were completed in 2021, steelhead would be able to migrate upstream to spawning habitats in the Sunol Valley for the first time in a half-century.

In April 2023, one juvenile steelhead was found in the creek.{{cite news |author=Jeanita Lyman |date=2023-05-04 |title=Rainbow trout in Alameda Creek signals return of normal migration |url=https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/2023/05/04/rainbow-trout-in-alameda-creek-signals-return-of-normal-migration |access-date=2023-09-26 |newspaper=Pleasanton Weekly}} The following year, monitoring by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recorded 50 tagged steelhead making the migration up Alameda Creek to the San Francisco Bay.

California's archaeological record has contributed to knowledge of the prehistoric distribution of fishes in Alameda Creek and its tributaries including Sacramento perch (Archoplites interruptus), Sacramento suckers (Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis), Tule perch (Hysterocarpus traskii), Hitches (Lavinia exilicauda), Hardheads (Mylopharodon conocephalus), Sacramento blackfish, and Sacramento pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis).{{cite journal |title=Archaeological Perspectives on Native American Fisheries of California, with Emphasis on Steelhead and Salmon |author =Kenneth W. Gobalet |journal=Transactions of the American Fisheries Society |pages=801–833 |year=2004 |url=http://afsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1577/T02-084.1 |access-date=June 22, 2010 |doi=10.1577/T02-084.1|display-authors=etal |volume=133|issue =4 |url-access=subscription }} Recent physical evidence has proved that the southern limit of coastal Chinook salmon included the southernmost tributaries of South San Francisco Bay.{{cite journal |author1=Richard B. Lanman |author2=Linda Hylkema |author3=Cristie M. Boone |author4=Brian Allee |author5=Roger O. Castillo |author6=Stephanie A. Moreno |author7=Mary Faith Flores |author8=Upuli DeSilva |author9=Brittany Bingham |author10=Brian M. Kemp |year=2021 |title=Ancient DNA analysis of archaeological specimens extends Chinook salmon's known historic range to San Francisco Bay's tributaries and southernmost watershed |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=16 |page=e0244470 |bibcode=2021PLoSO..1644470L |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0244470 |pmc=8049268 |pmid=33857143 |doi-access=free |number=4}} Many of these fishes still occupy the creek, although the number of introduced exotic fishes continues to increase. Exotic fish species such as the largemouth and Smallmouth basses (Micropterus salmoides and Micropterus dolomieui) respectively, were introduced to Alameda Creek (and the Napa River) by Livingston Stone in 1874.{{cite journal|title=The Freshwater Fish and Fisheries of the San Francisco Bay Area |editor=Skinner, John E. |journal=An Historical Review of the Fish and Wildlife Resources of the San Francisco Bay Area |author=John E. Skinner |year=1962 |url=http://www.estuaryarchive.org/archive/skinner_1962/7/ |access-date=June 22, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726035220/http://www.estuaryarchive.org/archive/skinner_1962/7/ |archive-date=July 26, 2011 }}

File:Alameda Creek - panoramio.jpg

There is historical evidence of beaver in the Alameda Creek watershed. In 1828 fur trapper Michel La Framboise travelled to "the missions of San José, San Francisco Solano and San Rafael Arcángel. La Framboise stated that "the Bay of San Francisco abounds in beaver", and that he "made his best hunt in the vicinity of the missions".{{cite journal |title=Fur Brigade to the Bonaventura: John Work's California Expedition of 1832-33 for the Hudson's Bay Company (Continued) |author1=Alice Bay Maloney |author2=John Work |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |date=December 1943 |page=343 |jstor=25155808 |volume=22|issue=4 }} Alexander Roderick McLeod reported on the progress of the first Hudson's Bay Company fur brigade sent to California in 1829, "Beaver is become an article of traffic on the Coast as at the Mission of St. Joseph alone upwards of Fifteen hundred Beaver Skins were collected from the natives at a trifling value and sold to Ships at 3 Dollars".{{cite book |title=A. R. McLeod, Esq. to John McLoughlin, Esq.Dated Fort Vancouver 15 Feby. 1830, in The Hudson's Bay Company's First Fur Brigade to the Sacramento Valley: Alexander McLeod's 1829 Hunt |author =Nunis, Doyce |year=1968 |publisher=The Sacramento Book Collectors Club |location=Fair Oaks, California |page=34 }} In the 1840s Kit Carson was granted rights to trap beaver on Alameda Creek in the East Bay where they "abounded...from the mouth of its canyon to the broad delta on the bay".{{cite book |title=The Centennial History of Newark |author =Bruce A. MacGregor |page=13 |publisher=Newark Days Bi-Centennial Committee |year=1976 }}{{cite book |title=San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide |author =California Coastal Conservancy |year =1995 |editor=Rasa Gustaitis |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-08878-8 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJwh6DQqojUC&pg=PA69 |access-date=2010-07-14 }} Physical evidence of beaver include faunal remains in the Arroyo de la Laguna tributary recovered in an archaeological site west of Interstate 680.{{cite journal |title=The historical range of beaver (Castor canadensis) in coastal California: an updated review of the evidence |vauthors=Lanman CW, Lundquist K, Perryman H, Asarian JE, Dolman B, Lanman RB, Pollock MM |journal=California Fish and Game |volume=99 |issue=4 |page=199 |date=Fall 2013 |url=https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=78258. |access-date=January 12, 2019 }} Beaver may be beneficial to efforts to restore salmonids in Alameda Creek as beaver ponds benefit oversummering salmonid smolts by raising the water table which then recharges streams in the dry summer season and also by providing perennial deep pools when streams are only seasonal.{{cite journal |title=The Importance of Beaver Ponds to Coho Salmon Production in the Stillaguamish River Basin, Washington, USA |first1=Michael M. |last1=Pollock |author2=G. R. Pess |author3=T. J. Beechie |journal=North American Journal of Fisheries Management |pages=749–760 |year=2004 |volume=24 |issue=3 |doi=10.1577/M03-156.1 |url=http://duff.ess.washington.edu/grg/publications/pdfs/Pollock.pdf |access-date=Feb 28, 2010 }}{{cite journal|title=Hydrologic and geomorphic effects of beaver dams and their influence on fishes |first1=Michael M. |last1=Pollock |author2=Morgan Heim |author3=Danielle Werner |journal=American Fisheries Society Symposium |volume=37 |year=2003 |pages=213–233 |url=http://www.albergstein.com/cao/Best%20Available%20Science/Fish/Beaver%20dam%20effects%20paper%20final.pdf |access-date=Jan 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707103342/http://www.albergstein.com/cao/Best%20Available%20Science/Fish/Beaver%20dam%20effects%20paper%20final.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-07 }}

In January, 2011, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission won approvals to construct a replacement dam just downstream from the existing earthen Calaveras Dam, which has been maintained at 40% of capacity because of seismic concerns. However, construction of a fish ladder to provide steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) access to the waters above the dam were deemed not feasible because at {{convert|290|ft}}, it would be the tallest fish ladder in the country, and would cost $40 million. Steelhead have not had access to spawning streams above Calaveras Dam since it was built in 1925.{{cite news|title=Calaveras Dam Project Revised, Future Operations Could Help Restore Alameda Creek |date=2011-01-25 |publisher=Alameda Creek Alliance |url=http://www.alamedacreek.org/Press_Releases/Calaveras%20Dam%20Revisions%201-25-11.pdf |access-date=2011-02-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722205802/http://www.alamedacreek.org/Press_Releases/Calaveras%20Dam%20Revisions%201-25-11.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-22 }} However, environmentalists won concessions from the SFPUC to assure adequate water releases from the new dam to improve summer flows as well as a smaller fish ladder around a diversion dam blocking access to upper Alameda Creek, which is regarded as prime trout habitat.{{cite news |title=Calaveras Dam rebuilding projected approved |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=2011-01-28 |author =Kelly Zito |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/28/BASP1HF8J9.DTL |access-date=2011-02-02 }} The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission removed two disused dams in the Niles Canyon reach of Alameda Creek to improve fish passage following assessing impacts in an Environmental Impact Report under CEQA.SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

SUNOL/NILES DAM REMOVAL PROJECT, State Clearinghouse No. 2004072049, February 24, 2006. EIR Certification Date: March 16, 2006. http://sfwater.org/Files/Reports/1_53_SunolNilesDamRmvl_RTC201591a.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629122530/http://sfwater.org/Files/Reports/1_53_SunolNilesDamRmvl_RTC201591a.pdf |date=2011-06-29 }}

Downstream of San Francisco's dams, the Alameda Creek Alliance has helped to initiate the removal of 11 barriers to fish passage since 2001. In 2019, Alameda County Water District (ACWD) completed a fish ladder at an inflatable rubber dam one mile upstream of the BART weir in the flood control channel. This left one remaining barrier to spawning runs of steelhead trout and Chinook salmon into the watershed at the BART weir and a second inflatable rubber dam. In April 2022, the AWCD and Alameda County Flood Control District finished construction of the Alameda Creek Flood Control Drop Structure Fish Ladder, enabling salmonids to surmount the 12-foot cement drop structure at the BART weir and eliminating the final barrier to their in-migration into the watershed after half a century.{{cite news |title=A historic win for spawning salmon, trout in Alameda Creek |author=Joseph Geha, Dai Sugano |date=April 25, 2022 |newspaper=Mercury News |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/25/a-historic-win-for-spawning-salmon-trout-in-alameda-creek/ |accessdate=February 28, 2025}}

The Alameda Creek Regional Trail runs along Alameda Creek for {{convert|12|mi|km|0}}. The trail starts in the Niles neighborhood of Fremont and continues westward to the San Francisco Bay through the cities of Union City and Newark. The trail consists of two parallel paths, one on each side of Alameda Creek. The path on the south side of the creek is paved, and can be used by pedestrians and bicyclists. The path on the north side of the creek is unpaved, and can be used by pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians. The trail provides direct access to Coyote Hills Regional Park and Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area. A connection to the Bay Area Ridge Trail is planned.{{cite web | url=https://www.ebparks.org/projects/bay-area-ridge-trail-garin-regional-park-niles-canyon | title=Bay Area Ridge Trail: Garin Regional Park to Niles Canyon | East Bay Parks }}

{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}

• California Fur Rush
• List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Niles Cone

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://museumca.org/creeks/133A-RescLwrAlameda.html Lower Alameda Creek Watershed Map]
• [http://museumca.org/creeks/133C-RescUprAlameda.html Upper Alameda Creek Watershed Map]
• [http://www.ebparks.org/parks/trails/alameda_creek Alameda Creek Regional trail information at East Bay Parks]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110105160602/http://www.berkwiki.org/Hiking Hiking Trails in Alameda County - Berkeley Wiki]
• [http://www.alamedacreek.org/ Alameda Creek Alliance]
• [http://www.cemar.org/alamedacreek/alamedacreekindex.html Alameda Creek Restoration Fisheries Workgroup]

{{East Bay Regional Parks}}

{{San Francisco Bay watershed}}

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