| Pajaro River | |
| Rio de San Antonio, Rio del Pajaro | |
| stream | |
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Aerial view of the Pajaro River at Watsonville, California. The river empties into the Pacific Ocean about 2.5 miles (4 km) west of this photograph. View is to the east.
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Region | Sonoma and Napa counties |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | San Benito River |
| - right | Llagas Creek, Uvas Creek/Carnaderas Creek, Corralitos Creek |
| Source | San Felipe Lake |
| - location | 7 mi (11 km) east of Gilroy |
| - elevation | 146 ft (45 m) |
| - coordinates | [1] |
| Mouth | Monterey Bay |
| - location | 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Watsonville |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| - coordinates | [1] |
| Length | 30 mi (48 km) |
| Basin | 1,300 sq mi (3,367 km2) |
| Discharge | for Chittenden%2C California |
| - average | 163 cu ft/s (5 m3/s) |
| - max | 25,100 cu ft/s (711 m3/s) |
| - min | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
The Pajaro River (pájaro is bird in Spanish) is a river in Northern California, forming part of the border between Santa Cruz County and Monterey County and between San Benito County and Santa Clara County.
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The Pajaro River has had many names. Early Spanish maps had the name Rio de San Antonio and Rio del Pajaro.[2] Soldiers on the Portola expedition of 1769 called it "Pajaro" (meaning "bird" in Spanish) because the natives they saw there had a huge stuffed bird. Alternate names included Pigeon River, Rio de La Senora La Santa Ana, Rio del Paxaro, Rio de Santa Ana, San Antonio River and Sanjon del Tequesquite.[2]
The watershed is approximately 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2) and covers portions of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey Counties.[3] The Pajaro River mainstem begins just west of San Felipe Lake, also called Upper Soap Lake, which is a permanent lake formed by the confluence of Pacheco Creek and Arroyo dos Picachos. Pacheco Creek's headwaters are in the Diablo Range at about 400 feet (120 m) elevation. The Pajaro River mainstem flows west for 30 miles (50 km), passing the city of Watsonville and emptying into Monterey Bay. San Felipe Lake, on the upper reaches of the river, upstream of its meeting with the San Benito River. Lower Soap Lake, also called Soap Lake, is an intermittent body of water a few miles downstream of the upper lake. This type of water body forms when the channel below is unable to keep up with the flow coming from upstream.
The Pajaro River's largest tributary is the San Benito River which is much longer than the Pajaro, flowing northwest from its source at an elevation of 4760 feet on San Benito Mountain on its course between the Diablo Range and the Gabilan Range, traveling for about 65 miles (105 km) before its confluence with the Pajaro River, about 15 miles (24 km) upstream from the ocean.
A residential development, agricultural fields, and Zmudowski State Beach border the Pajaro River mouth and the connecting Watsonville Slough. The river mouth is often open to tidal action for extended periods, especially during the winter months. Should the mouth fill with sediment, it must be physically reopened to prevent nearby agricultural fields from flooding.[4]
In 2006, the Pajaro River was designated as America's most endangered river by the American Rivers organization, due to levees constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers along its lower 22 miles (35 km) and severe runoff into the river from agricultural fields.[5]
San Felipe Lake, which is the central feature of the “Bolsa de San Felipe”, is designated as a “California Important Bird Area” by the National Audubon Society. The Bolsa is a crossroads for birds migrating between San Francisco Bay to the north, Monterey Bay to the west and the Central Valley to the east. The Bolsa is also identified by the National Audubon Society as a “bird vagrant trap”, a site where bird species far outside of their normal range appear.[3]
The Pajaro River serves as a migration pathway for adult Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) migrating to spawning and nursery habitat in the upper watershed creeks (Uvas, Llagas and Corralitos), although the Pajaro River mainstem provides poor spawning and rearing habitat due to low summer flows and high sedimentation loads. Coho salmon (Oncorhyncus kisutch) have not been present in the river since at least the late 1960s.[3]
Historically it is interesting as one of two Northern California coastal rivers mentioned in 1829 by Russian explorer K. T. Khlebnikov as hosting sturgeon, presumably White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), along with the Russian River.[6]
In 2010 the City of Watsonville was awarded a $424,000 grant to create a public access point for canoes and kayaks, including a parking lot, trail and public restroom.[7][8]