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Coyote Creek Still Dry 12/21/23 by Ronald Horii
Recently, I've been seeing salmon runs in the local creeks, including Los Gatos Creek, the Guadalupe River, and Alamitos Creek. I wondered if there were salmon in Coyote Creek. For that to happen, there has to be enough water flowing in the creek, all the way to the Bay. On 12/21/23, after we had over an inch of rain, I went to check out Coyote Creek, starting at Silver Creek Valley Road. Then I went to Shady Oaks Park. The pictures below show what I saw. The creek wasn't flowing. It was a series of isolated ponds, which may have been filled by the recent rains. Ironically, only 11 days ago, there was a BioBlitz near the start of Coyote Creek below Anderson Dam. There was lots of water flowing in the creek at that time: https://tinyurl.com/bdd8emth. It's a long way from Anderson Dam to Silver Creek Valley Road. The creek has to pass through the Ogier Ponds, the Coyote Valley, and the Coyote Percolation Ponds. The water may be soaking into the ground along the way. It will be interesting to see what happens to the creek this coming rainy season. At the moment, it's way too low to support fish migration.
The water situation in Coyote Creek is complicated. What happened last year was that there was so much rain that Anderson Reservoir filled halfway. It's supposed to stay completely drained so the dam can be rebuilt. Water was released from the reservoir at its maximum flow rate to drain it as fast as possible, but it still took until June to do that. That meant water in the creek was so high that it caused flooding of the Coyote Creek Trail in several places. After the reservoir was drained, the creek dried up until imported water was released into the creek.
Here are more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway: http://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway. Here's Coyote Creek Parkway info and maps: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/coyote-creek-parkway
Recently, I've been seeing salmon runs in the local creeks, including Los Gatos Creek, the Guadalupe River, and Alamitos Creek. I wondered if there were salmon in Coyote Creek. For that to happen, there has to be enough water flowing in the creek, all the way to the Bay. On 12/21/23, after we had over an inch of rain, I went to check out Coyote Creek, starting at Silver Creek Valley Road. Then I went to Shady Oaks Park. The pictures below show what I saw. The creek wasn't flowing. It was a series of isolated ponds, which may have been filled by the recent rains. Ironically, only 11 days ago, there was a BioBlitz near the start of Coyote Creek below Anderson Dam. There was lots of water flowing in the creek at that time: https://tinyurl.com/bdd8emth. It's a long way from Anderson Dam to Silver Creek Valley Road. The creek has to pass through the Ogier Ponds, the Coyote Valley, and the Coyote Percolation Ponds. The water may be soaking into the ground along the way. It will be interesting to see what happens to the creek this coming rainy season. At the moment, it's way too low to support fish migration.
The water situation in Coyote Creek is complicated. What happened last year was that there was so much rain that Anderson Reservoir filled halfway. It's supposed to stay completely drained so the dam can be rebuilt. Water was released from the reservoir at its maximum flow rate to drain it as fast as possible, but it still took until June to do that. That meant water in the creek was so high that it caused flooding of the Coyote Creek Trail in several places. After the reservoir was drained, the creek dried up until imported water was released into the creek.
Here are more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway: http://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway. Here's Coyote Creek Parkway info and maps: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/coyote-creek-parkway
