The Amazon Creek system originates in the hills south of Eugene and flows through the southeastern and western portion of the City, draining over 21 square miles of the City. From the foot of Spencer Butte at Martin Street, Amazon Creek has been altered. It flows northward from Martin Street though Amazon Park in an altered channel. At 24 th Avenue it enters a concrete-lined channel for 1.75 miles until it enters a trapezoidal levee channel at Jefferson street near the Lane County Fairgrounds. The Amazon Creek system west of Garfield Street is contiguous with a remnant wetland system throughout west Eugene.
Amazon Creek is a vastly different waterway today than it was near the turn of the century.
In 1946, after repeated flooding, Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to widen, deepen, and realign the creek from Hilyard Street to Fern Ridge Reservoir. Restoration and enhancement includes widening of the creek and planting of native plant species. Willow Creek lies within the southern portion of the Plan area flowing generally in a northerly direction until it converges with Amazon Creek near West 11th Avenue. In the Willow Creek drainage basin most of the low-land drainage system has been modified to some extent, but overall it remains in an open rather than a piped system with almost 16 miles of open channel and only 1.2 miles of public stormwater pipe. In the relatively undisturbed reaches, such those flowing through The Nature Conservancy's Willow Creek Natural Area, native riparian vegetation is dominant with high species diversity and abundance.