The San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into San Francisco Bay in California, United States of America. Its headwaters are in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Menlo Park, around 667m (2000 feet) above the Bay. Its major tributaries are called Bear Creek and Corte Madera Creek (both common names for creeks in California). These merge at the Searsville Lake in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. The lake is formed by a dam built in 1892; below the lake the creek is known as the San Francisquito. The creek runs for a length described by different authorities as from 13 to 22 km (8 to 14 miles) before draining into the Bay. Its watershed is about 110 km² (42 square miles) in extent, including areas of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In one stretch it forms the boundary between the city of Palo Alto and the cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, and thus between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, reflecting the fact that it was originally used as the boundary between the lands of the Spanish Missions at San Francisco and Santa Clara. The tree from which Palo Alto takes its name, El Palo Alto, stands on the banks of the creek. Butchers Creek, Omeo, Victoria A stream, brook, beck, burn or creek, is a body of water with a detectable current, confined within a bed and banks. ... San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Golden Gate San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The headwaters of a river are small streams that create it. ... The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. ... Menlo Park is the name of some places in the United States of America: Menlo Park, California Menlo Park, New Jersey (See also Menlo. ... The Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 1200 acre (5 km²) plot of land owned by Stanford University, located on Sand Hill Rd near Interstate 280 in Palo Alto, California. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A square mile is an English unit of area equal to that of a square with sides each 1 statute mile (≈1,609 m) in length. ... Official website: http://www. ... Santa Clara County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. ... Location of Palo Alto within Santa Clara County, California. ... East Palo Alto (often called EPA) is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. ... Menlo Park is a city in San Mateo County, California in the United States of America. ... The Spanish Missions in California (more simply referred to as the California Missions) comprise a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans, to spread the Christian doctrine among the local Native Americans. ... A view of Mission Dolores on a rainy San Francisco day in December 2004. ... Mission Santa Clara de Asís circa 1910. ... El Palo Alto, circa 1910 El Palo Alto is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree located in El Palo Alto Park on the banks of San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto, California, United States. ...

In normal winters the creek runs sluggishly in a deep arroyo; in summer it is usually dry. However, it is capable of flooding, and the risk has become more severe as increased urbanisation along its course has increased the area of impermeable surfaces. In the 1998 El Niño storms, the creek burst its banks; the resulting flood damage in the cites of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto was estimated at $28 million. The creek's levees were also damaged. An arroyo is a dry creek bed or gulch that fills with water either seasonally, or after a heavy rain. ... Chart of ocean surface temperature anomaly [°C] during the last strong El Niño in December 1997 El Niño and La Niña (also written in English as El Nino and La Nina) are major temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. ... A levee, levée (from the feminine past participle of the French verb lever, to raise), floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial slope or wall, usually earthen and often parallels the course of a river. ...

The body responsible for the conservation and management of the Mid-Peninsula watersheds, of which the creek is one, is the Santa Clara Valley Water District. However, because of the significance of the creek in a densely populated area where environmental concerns and recent flooding are both salient in the public mind, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) has been formed to address community concerns about the management of the creek. The JPA is currently undertaking or scoping various projects for the improvement of the creek, for example the stabilisation and revegetation of its banks. The members of the JPA are the city councils of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, and the San Mateo County Flood Control District. Stanford University and the San Francisquito Watershed Council are associate members. The latter body is a nonprofit stewardship organization, which is dedicated to fostering the health and diversity of the San Francisquito watershed. This brings together the bodies represented on the JPA with watershed residents, neighborhood associations, environmental organizations, and government agencies at state and federal level, to discuss creek-related concerns and collaborate on creek and watershed stewardship projects. It also organises projects to conserve and study to creek, using the energies of volunteer local residents. The Santa Clara Valley Water District provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. ... A Joint Powers Authority (JPA) is an institution permitted under the laws of some states of the USA, whereby two or more public authorities (e. ... The Santa Clara Valley Water District provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. ... Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ...

The JPA had some questionable ethical behavior when its Executive Director Cynthia D'Agosta hired her nephew Kevin Murray several months after she was hired in August 2000. When the Board of Directors officially became aware of this in September 2005, they determined that no law had been broken and that this was outside their interpretation of nepotism.Akloak 04:49, 1 July 2007 (UTC) The two continue to lead the agency to this day.

External links

• Santa Clara Valley Water District web site
• San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority
• San Francisquito Watershed Council
• US Geological Service project on the creek
• Information about the conservation issues on the creek on the Save the Bay website
• Guide to the Creek prepared by the Oakland Museum of California

The two continue to lead the agency to this day. Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California. ...

References

Information from interpretative plaques along the creek course, and from web sites noted above