Birch Creek is a northwesterly-flowing stream in
Beaver County, Utah
Beaver County is a county in west central Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 6,629. Its county seat and largest city is Beaver. The county was named for the abundance of beaver in the area.
History
Ex ...
.
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed April 10, 2021 It originates on the western slope of
Birch Creek Mountain in the
Tushar Mountains
The Tushar Mountains are the third-highest mountain range in Utah after the Uinta Mountains and the La Sal Range. Located in the Fishlake National Forest, Delano Peak, 12,174 ft (3,711 m) NAVD 88, is the highest point in both Beaver and P ...
in
Fishlake National Forest
Fishlake National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in south central Utah. The namesake for the forest is Fish Lake, the largest freshwater mountain lake in the state.
Wildlife
Animals that inhabit this forest are elk, shrews, deer, b ...
, and its waters flow west into
South Creek, then under
Interstate 15
Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border i ...
south of the town of
Beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
, and thence to the
Beaver River, and ultimately to the
Sevier River
The Sevier River (pronounced "severe") is a -long river in the Great Basin of southwestern Utah in the United States. Originating west of Bryce Canyon National Park, the river flows north through a chain of high farming valleys and steep canyons ...
and
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
.
Watershed and Course
Birch Creek begins as Middle Fork Birch Creek on the western slope of its namesake
Birch Creek Mountain at elevation in the Tushar Mountains. Minor tributaries on Birch Creek Mountain include North Fork Birch Creek and South Fork Birch Creek.
Ecology
Intensive grazing, historic extirpation of
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
(''Castor canadensis''), and conifer encroachment have all contributed to the degraded condition of Birch Creek. Birch Creek supports native
Bonneville cutthroat trout
The Bonneville cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii utah'') is a subspecies of cutthroat trout native to tributaries of the Great Salt Lake and Sevier Lake. Most of the fish's current and historic range is in Utah, but they are also found in ...
(''Oncorhynchus clarkii utah''), a
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of
cutthroat trout
The cutthroat trout is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus '' Oncorhynchus'', it is one of the Pacific tro ...
, a species of special concern in Utah and one of 14 or so recognized subspecies of cutthroat trout native to the western United States. It is the only native sport fish in southwestern Utah's
Bonneville Basin
Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperatur ...
. When prehistoric
Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperature ...
became desiccated 8,000 years ago, remnant populations of cutthroat trout persisted in coldwater streams on the western slope of the Tushar Mountains, in particular, Birch Creek and North Fork North Creek.
used
meristic Meristics is an area of ichthyology and herpetology which relates to counting quantitative features of fish and Reptile, reptiles, such as the number of fins or scales. A meristic (countable trait) can be used to describe a particular species of fi ...
analysis in 1976 to first describe Bonneville cutthroat trout in Birch Creek and this finding was later confirmed by several genetic analyses. Birch Creek acted as the source for the first restoration of Bonneville cutthroat trout in southern Utah when fish were transferred to Sam Stowe Creek in the Middle Sevier River drainage in 1977.
[
A restoration project using beaver dam analogues to restore riparian habitat and decrease channel incision was conducted by Professor Joe Wheaton and team from ]Utah State University
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...
in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
.
See also
* Beaver River (Utah)
The Beaver River is a river in western Utah, long, that drains to Sevier Lake via the Sevier River.
Description
The river starts in the Tushar Mountains, in eastern Beaver County near the town of Beaver, and flows for about west as a perennia ...
* Fishlake National Forest
Fishlake National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in south central Utah. The namesake for the forest is Fish Lake, the largest freshwater mountain lake in the state.
Wildlife
Animals that inhabit this forest are elk, shrews, deer, b ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Birch Creek Restoration website of Professor Joe Wheaton, Utah State University
*
Rivers of Utah