The Fall River is a river
tributary to the
Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S. that cross the Cascade Range.
The longest tributary of the Sacr ...
in north-eastern
Shasta County
Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding.
Shasta ...
in
northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
. It is a designated Heritage and Wild Trout stream.
History
The river was named Fall River by
John Frémont
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
in 1848 because of its historic cascades and falls at the terminus of the river.
Ecology and conservation
The Fall River Conservancy and the Fall River Resource Conservation District both work to restore the river. The former has worked with the
University of California Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
to study the trout and identified two distinct sub-populations, one adapted to the colder winter flows of Bear Creek and one adapted to the more constant temperature spring-fed waters of Spring Creek and the Fall River mainstem. The large volume of spring water inflow maintains Fall River water temperature at near optimum ranges for trout production, even during mid-summer.
[
The upper river has historically been characterized by abundant aquatic macrophytes, including extensive meadows of ]horned pondweed
''Zannichellia palustris'', the horned pondweed, is a plant found in fresh to brackish waters in the United States (especially in the Chesapeake Bay), Europe, Asia, Australasia, and South America. It is recognizable by its long, thread like leave ...
(''Zannichellia palustris''), however these have dramatically declined due to excessive sediment deposition due to fires in the watershed and channelization of a tributary stream.
Watershed and course
The Fall River watershed drains a area that originates from Thousand Springs, and is largely spring-fed, with Bear Creek providing the only significant precipitation-related surface flow to the river. Bear Creek rises at a source elevation over and flows east to join Fall River at Thousand Springs at an elevation of .[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed July 26, 2015Tule River
The Tule River, also called Rio de San Pedro or Rio San Pedro, is a river in Tulare County in the U.S. state of California. The river originates in the Sierra Nevada east of Porterville and consists of three forks, North, Middle and South. The N ...
, are also spring-fed, with the latter originating in the Ahjumawi Lava Springs system. Fall River is a moderate sized, slow moving, meandering meadow stream with a mean gradient of less than 1 ft./mile. Spring Creek joins Fall River 5.2 miles below Thousand Springs, and seven miles below Spring Creek, Fall River is joined by Tule River. Since 1922 the river has been dammed before its confluence with the Pit River and diverted through a tunnel under Saddle Mountain to the Pit No. 1 Intake powerhouse, one of many hydroelectric dams on the Pit River.[
]
See also
* Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S. that cross the Cascade Range.
The longest tributary of the Sacr ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Fall River Conservancy website
Fall River Resource Conservation District website
Pit River
Rivers of Shasta County, California
Tributaries of the Sacramento River
Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Rivers of Northern California