| San Tomas Aquinas Creek | |
| Arroyo de San Tomás Aquinas, San Tomas Aquino Creek | |
| stream | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Region | Santa Clara County |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Wildcat Creek, Saratoga Creek |
| - right | Mistletoe Creek, Smith Creek |
| Cities | Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Campbell, Santa Clara, San Jose |
| Source | El Sereno Summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains[1] |
| - location | Saratoga, California |
| - elevation | 2,400 ft (732 m) |
| - coordinates | [2] |
| Mouth | Guadalupe Slough in South San Francisco Bay |
| - location | Sunnyvale, California |
| - elevation | 13 ft (4 m) [2] |
| - coordinates | [2] |
San Tomas Aquinas Creek, known locally as San Tomas Aquino Creek, is a 16.5-mile-long (26.6 km) stream[3] that heads on El Sereno mountain in El Sereno Open Space Preserve in Saratoga, California in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It flows north through the cities of Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Campbell, Santa Clara and San Jose before its confluence with the Guadalupe Slough in south San Francisco Bay.
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In the 1850's the creek appeared on several land grant maps as San Tomas Aquinas Creek and Arroyo de San Tomás Aquinas.[4][5] Historically, San Tomas Aquino Creek formed the eastern boundary of the 1841 Rancho Quito and the western boundary of the 1840 Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos land grants.[6]
The San Tomas Aquinas Creek watershed drains 44.8 square miles.[7] The major tributaries of San Tomas Aquino Creek include (heading downstream) Mistletoe, Wildcat (and its Vasona sub-tributary), Smith and Saratoga Creeks.[8] Of these, Saratoga Creek is the largest tributary and joins San Tomas Aquino Creek north of Highway 101. Due to its relatively large size, the Saratoga Creek subwatershed is often viewed as a distinct watershed even though it does not directly discharge to the Lower South San Francisco Bay. In fact, San Tomas Aquino Creek used to be a tributary of Saratoga Creek and thence to the Guadalupe River, but when the latter was redirected from Guadalupe Slough to Alviso Slough to facilitate navigation, San Tomas Aquino Creek was extended directly to Guadalupe Slough at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale and Saratoga Creek became tributary to San Tomas Aquino Creek.[9][10]
In 1898 John Otterbein Snyder collected steelhead trout (then Salmo irideus Gibbons) specimens in Campbell Creek (now Saratoga Creek, a tributary of San Tomas Aquino Creek).[11] A 1985 California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) survey of Saratoga Creek noted “a major steelhead and king salmon spawning area” on San Tomas Aquino Creek located approximately 200 yards downstream of the Saratoga and San Tomas Aquino creeks confluence. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), the landlocked form of steelhead trout persist in the Saratoga Creek watershed but anadromous steelhead cannot run up from the Bay because of a barrier at the confluence of San Tomas Aquino Creek and Saratoga Creek that prevents their passage upstream.[12] Recent genetic analysis has shown that the San Tomas Aquino watershed trout are of native origin and not hatchery stock.[13]
Leidy (2007) identified the native fishes in San Tomas Aquino Creek as Hitch (Lavinia exilicauda), California roach (Lavinia symmetricus), Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis), Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), Rainbow trout (Oncohrynchus mykiss) and possibly Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Although the latter had been considered now absent from the watershed, in mid-October, 1996, Roger Castillo, the founder of the Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Group, recovered a giant Chinook salmon from San Tomas Aquino Creek beneath Highway 237 (see photo). Rainbow trout are the landlocked form of steelhead trout. Non-native fishes include Common carp (Cyprinus carpio), Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus), Golden shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas), and Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).[14]
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