page_title: Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County)
section_title: Habitat and wildlife
hierarchical_section_title: Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County) / Habitat and wildlife
caption_attribution_description: English: Adobe Creek (near Los Altos, California) This drop beneath the Hidden Villa bridge is one of several barriers to steelhead trout spawning runs on Adobe Creek
context_page_description: Adobe Creek is a 14.2-mile-long northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. Historically, Adobe Creek was perennial and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from southwestern San Francisco Bay.
context_section_description: The creek also flows through Redwood Grove, a 5.9-acre (24,000 m²) nature preserve off University Avenue in Los Altos purchased by the city in 1974. In October, 2009 Los Altos contracted with Acterra to remove non-native plants and revitalize the redwood, oak woodland, riparian and grassland ecosystems by installing native plants, improving soil conditions, and creating habitat for wildlife such as bird houses and native bee boxes. The coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) were transplanted by the Halsey family from a location on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains and replaced the native willows. At Manresa Bridge at the east edge of Redwood Grove one can see the native red willow (Salix laevigata) and arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis) trees. The historic Halsey House, built in the late 1920s by Theodore and Emma Halsey, is a good example of Spanish Revival architecture. The city designated Halsey House a local landmark in 1981 and until recently it housed the Florence Fava collection of Coastanoan or Ohlone Indian artifacts from a creekside archeological excavation in Los Altos Hills (now moved to the Los Altos History House). On June 16, 2010 the Los Altos City Council finalized the purchase of 10,000 square feet (930 m²) of creekside property from Delbert and Marlene Beumer, who wanted to provide a safe pathway connecting Shoup Park and Redwood Grove.
  Existing native riparian trees include willows (Salix species), California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) in Redwood Grove and near the ranch manager's house at Hidden Villa, white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) (one large specimen in Redwood Grove – see photo), cottonwood (Populus) at the top of the Moody Creek tributary, bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), California buckeye (Aesculus californica), California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) and California walnut (Juglans californica).
  Steelhead trout (coastal rainbow trout) (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) occurred historically in Adobe Creek based on a report touting the trout in the Sportsman's Gazetteer in 1877. This very early report makes rumors that Adobe Creek's trout were introduced extremely unlikely since the first trout hatcheries in California did not propagate any trout until the 1870s, and much of their production was shipped to hatcheries out of state. A physical specimen was collected in 1893 by Stanford Biology Professor W. W. Thoburn and is in the California Academy of Sciences collection. In 1898 John Otterbein Snyder collected steelhead trout specimens in San Antonio Creek (now Adobe Creek). A 1909 land office brochure promoted Los Altos for its "never-failing mountain trout stream, trout caught a few feet from kitchen doors". The reaches upstream from Hidden Villa have been judged excellent trout spawning habitat. Josephine Duveneck wrote, "Before the era of concrete, fish used to swim up to spawn and native trout lured many a small boy to seek out the deeper pools carrying his home-made fishing pole and can of worms." Local historian Florence Fava also reported that "the creeks which lace the (Hidden Villa) property and join Adobe Creek were originally full of fish". Steelhead often were caught using large wet flies with 2x tippet during the early 1970s.  Locations that held spawning steelhead included the large cement pieces downstream from the Foothill Junior College paint shop outflow and cut banks just below Interstate 280.  According to the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), steelhead were caught by local fishermen during 1985, 1986 and 1987 in Mayfield Slough at the confluence of Matadero and Adobe Creeks. At least six steelhead were noted passing the tidal gates at Mayfield Slough in the Palo Alto Flood Basin in April 1987. There are many formidable obstacles to fish passage on Adobe Creek, including whether the fish ladder below El Camino Real is cluttered with debris, and drop structures above culverts under Interstate 280 and Foothill Expressway. The long concrete trapezoidal channel structure from El Camino Real northward to Highway 101 challenges fish with thin sheets of rap
caption: This drop under the Hidden Villa bridge is one of several barriers to steelhead trout spawning runs on Adobe Creek 2010
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