The Big River is a river in Mendocino County, California. The river drains an area of about 181 square miles. The river's headwaters are in the Mendicino Range, part of the California Coast Range. From there, the rivers flows roughly west to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean, just south of the town of Mendocino, California. The Murray River in Australia. ... Mendocino County is a county located on Californias north coast, north of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma County and west of the Central Valley. ... View of Mendocino from the Northwest. ...

The precipitation, 90 percent of which falls between October and April, averages 40 inches per year at Fort Bragg near the coast and 51 inches at Willits inland. Winter weather is characterized by low intensity rain. The summer are dry and cool, with coastal fog. Fort Bragg is a city located in coastal Mendocino County, California. ... Willits is a city located in Mendocino County, California. ... Rain falling For other uses see Rain (disambiguation). ... Sunlight filters through a thin layer of fog on a crisp winter morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ...

The Big River has an estuary at its mouth that provide habitat for a wide variety of organisms. Salt water from the ocean reaches 8.3 miles upstream in the summer and 3 miles in the winter, when flows are larger. The mouth, which closes in the summer on some rivers, stays open all year. Estuaries and coastal waters are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, providing numerous ecological, economic, cultural, and aesthetic benefits and services. ... Habitat (from the Latin for it inhabits) is the place where a particular species lives and grows. ... Brackish redirects here. ...

Timber production is the primary land use in the area. Like most watershed's on the northern coast of California, the primary problem is increased erosion caused by logging, leading to excessive sedimentation in the river and is tributaries. Jackson State Demonstration Forest makes up about a third of the land in the watershed. The lumber companies Mendocino Redwood Company, Pioneer Resources, Hawthorne Timber Company and Weger Holdings own most of the rest. Combined with the state forest, they make up 83 percent of the land. A couple of dozen property owners, mostly ranches and smaller timberland parcels, own our-fifths of the remaining land. About 3 percent is private residences. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Lumber. ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (yellow outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (blue lines) of a contiguous area. ... Loggers on break, c. ... Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. ... Lumber is the name used, generally in North America, for wood that has been cut into boards or other shapes for the purpose of woodworking or construction. ... A Ranch is an area of land, including buildings and structures, given primarily to the grazing of livestock on rangeland. ...

References

• State Water Resources Control Board - Big River Watershed (PDF)
• State Water Resources Control Board - Critical Coastal Areas (PDF)