Cache Creek (Yolo County, California)

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Cache Creek is a large stream in Lake County, California, Colusa County, California and Yolo County, California. The South Fork begins at Clear Lake in Lake County, roughly parallels California State Route 20, and turns south at the junction with California State Route 16 in Colusa County. The North Fork presently begins at Indian Valley Dam and Reservoir in Lake County, joining the South Fork near the highway junction at Wilbur Springs. The creek's main tributary travels along a scenic canyon from Wilbur Springs to Woodside, paralleling State Highway 16.

[edit] History

The name of the waterbody comes from Hudson Bay Company trappers who cached their furs along the Sacramento River and smaller tributaries, one of which became known to them as Cache Creek. One of their camps, recognized by early settlers as French Camp, was situated in a grove of oaks on the north bank of Cache Creek one mile east of the present town of Yolo, California. Cache Creek was originally known to the Hudson Bay Company trappers as Rivière la Cache [1].

[edit] Hydrology

The Cache Creek Dam on the South Fork of Cache Creek, five miles downstream from Clear Lake, was built to increase Clear Lake's capacity and to regulate outflow for downstream users of Cache Creek water. The dam was later modified to include a 3-MW hydroelectric plant. The stream has a relatively small capacity, less than a quarter of the amount the dam is able to release. There is a rock ledge a mile and a half downstream of Clear Lake, called the Grigsby Riffle, near the bridge on Highway 53. This sill restricts the amount of water that can flow through at that point. The limited capacity of the stream means that it takes a very long time to drain excess flow from Clear Lake, increasing the chance of flooding around the lake. The bottleneck is seen as a backup to prevent flooding downstream and Yolo County is prohibited from increasing the capacity of the channel by the Bemmerly Decree. The Capay Diversion Dam, 49 miles downstream from the Cache Creek Dam, diverts water for distribution throughout Yolo County using a 175-mile network of canals.

Water rights and flooding protection have been in dispute between Yolo and Lake Counties since the late 19th Century. Yolo County continues to own all the water in Clear Lake, despite the simple fact that none of the lake is actually within Yolo County. Current treaties attempt to insure a balance between the needs of the two counties, although high-water conditions can cause temporary disagreements.

A large part of the creek within Lake County is designated a Wildlife Area by the state of California and the federal Bureau of Land Management, and the wildlife within the area enjoys protection from hunting or other interference. The South Fork presently hosts a growing population of the rare tule elk, plus winter populations of bald eagles. The ruggedness of the area tends to insure its isolation from human activity.

The Indian Valley Dam on the North Fork of Cache Creek forms Indian Valley Reservoir. The dam's primary purpose is water storage for irrigation, but a 3.3-MW hydroelectric plant was built to take advantage of the falling water.

Nominally a tributary of the Sacramento River, Cache Creek now only reaches it during extremely wet years due to damming and diversion of the stream's water. Degradation of the channel caused by invasive plants, such as Arundo donax and Tamarix spp., as well as gravel mining has left no suitable habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead to spawn, even if there is enough water. Consequently, there are no longer any anadromous fish species in Cache Creek.