The Goleta Slough is an area of

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

, tidal creeks,

tidal marsh A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes are commonly zoned into lower marshes ( ...

, and wetlands near Goleta,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. It primarily consists of the filled and unfilled remnants of the historic inner Goleta Bay about 8 miles (13 km) west of Santa Barbara. The slough empties into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

through an intermittently closed mouth at Goleta Beach County Park just east of the

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

campus and

Isla Vista Isla Vista is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Barbara County, California in the United States. As of 2020 census, the community had a population of 15,500. The majority of residents are college students at t ...

. The slough drains the

Goleta Valley Goleta (; ; Spanish for " Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 c ...

and watershed, and receives the water of all of the major creeks in the Goleta area including the southern face of the

Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age create ...

. The

Santa Barbara Airport Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is west of downtown Santa Barbara, California, United States. SBA covers 948 acres (384 ha) of land and has three runways. It is near the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the city of Goleta. The ai ...

has the largest border on the slough and contains the largest part of the slough. UCSB, Isla Vista, the City of Goleta and other unincorporated areas of the county, including the landward bluffs of More Mesa, surround and encompass the rest of the slough. The Goleta Slough as it exists today is the result of two major historical events of the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The first was the heavy grazing by cattle on the surrounding

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogr ...

and mountainsides followed by wide-ranging grassfires, heavy rains in 1861/62, and flooding which caused so much

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

and deposition of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

in the mouths of the creeks emptying into Goleta Bay that most of the bay became

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

-filled salt marsh in just a couple of years. The second event was the conversion of the marsh and remaining bay into a military airbase during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The fill material was obtained by reducing the rest of Mescalitan Island which provided the material to fill the airport and the surrounding area. The former location of Mescalitan Island now contains a sewage treatment plant. While no longer having a regularly navigable mouth, nor depths in most places suitable for anything except

canoes A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the ter ...

kayaks A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word '' qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each s ...

, and very small boats, the slough remains a very important area of vital wetlands, salt marsh, and estuarian creeks. "The Goleta Slough wetlands ... are fragmented along the coast from More Mesa to UCSB Storke Campus". The Goleta Slough Ecological Reserve is administered by the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game. The Slough contains approximately 430 acres (1.7 km²) of wetland habitat (including the 360 acre (1.5 km²) ecological reserve and at Storke Campus). The approximate historic area was 1,150 acres (4.7 km²). "The primary function of the Ecological Reserve is to provide habitat for wildlife and a setting for educational and research activities. Public utility and transportation corridors traverse the wetlands while airport runways, a

sewage treatment plant Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding en ...

, a power generation station, and light industrial facilities are constructed on filled portions of the marsh."

Historic use

Overhead MCAS Santa Barbara in April of 1944

"It is estimated that Native American peoples began inhabiting the area some 9,000 years ago. Early European explorers used the

embayment A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

as an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

age for large ships until the 1860s. The severe winter storms of 1861/62 filled the embayment with sediment. Agricultural development in the slough began in the 1870s and the following decades saw the construction of

berms A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/ separation ...

, levees and

roads A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

to further facilitate agricultural development. In 1928 a landing strip was established in the northeastern portion of the slough, which was expanded in 1942-43 for construction of the

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...

Air Station, now the Municipal Airport." The Marine station, known as Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara, became inactive in 1946.

Adjacent use

Goleta Slough is almost entirely surrounded by urban development, some of which extends into the wetlands. This includes the municipal airport to the north, the sewage treatment plant and the Southern California Gas Company's La Goleta Gas Field to the east, a public beach between the ocean and the slough, the campus of UC Santa Barbara to the south and west, and residential and light industrial operations to the north and west.

Adjacent historic use

Cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

ranching began in 1846 followed by agricultural development on the uplands around the slough. A

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

station was established in about 1870,

asphaltum Asphaltite (also known as uintahite, asphaltum, gilsonite or oil sands) is a naturally occurring soluble solid hydrocarbon, a form of asphalt (or bitumen) with a relatively high melting temperature. Its large-scale production occurs in the Uintah ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

commenced in the 1890s, development of small farms expanded to cover the entire

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

in the 1920s, and rapid

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

began in the 1940s.

Tidal influence

Extensive areas of the historic marsh below the

high tide line Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...

are isolated from tidal influence by

and

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

. Tidal flooding is limited to the south-central portion of the slough, extending into several of the major

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

. Tidal amplitude in the upper reaches of the slough is diminished. During the summer months the tidal amplitude may become attenuated and eventually eliminated by progressive berming of the mouth. The beach berm is mechanically breached to maintain water quality in the slough. The Slough is fed by a watershed area of 45 square miles (117 km²).

Tributaries and flow

The major tributaries of the Slough are Tecolotito Creek, Carneros Creek, and Atascadero Creek. Tecolotito Creek's highest flows are during winter storms; during the summer flows are intermittent. Carneros Creek's major flows are of the flash flood type, with intermittent flows in the summer months. Atascadero Creek is a stream that generally has perennial freshwater flow that is augmented by seepage and landscape watering. Highest flows are during winter storms. Other flow sources are runoff from the north-facing bluffs of UC Santa Barbara campus and More Mesa.

Habitat

Habitat area has been surveyed for the City of Santa Barbara property, the largest portion of the wetlands. It is: *101 acres (409,000 m²) of coastal salt marsh *15 acres (61,000 m²) of mudflats *4 acres (16,000 m²) of saltflats *28 acres (113,000 m²) of creek and channels *8+ acres (32,000 m²) of riverine (

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

) *198 acres (801,000 m²) of

Palustrine Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that contains ocean-derived salts in concentrations of less than 0.5 parts per thousand, and is non- tidal. The word ''palustrine'' comes from the Latin word ''palus'' or marsh. Wetlands within this ...

(vernal wetlands) *4.5 acres (18,000 m²) of scrub/shrub and forested wetlands.

Vegetation

Vegetation includes pickleweed, alkali-heath, salt grass, '' Jaumea'', salt bush, ditch-grass,

pondweed Pondweed refers to many species and genera of aquatic plants and green algae: *''Potamogeton'', a diverse and worldwide genus *''Elodea'', found in North America *''Aponogeton'', in Africa, Asia and Australasia *''Groenlandia ''Groenlandia'' is ...

tule ''Schoenoplectus acutus'' ( syn. ''Scirpus acutus, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Scirpus lacustris'' subsp. ''acutus''), called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the pl ...

, and

cattails ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

. The shrubs include

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

s and

coyote brush ''Baccharis pilularis'', called coyote brush (or bush), chaparral broom, and bush baccharis, is a shrub in the family Asteraceae native to California, Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. There are reports of isolated populations in New Mexi ...

. The trees are primarily southern coastal oak.

Animals

Animals using the wetlands include birds,

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, benthic

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

, and other wildlife. 279 species of birds have been observed at Goleta Slough; of these 121 were water-associated, including 20 species of special status. 10 species of fish were identified in a 1993 sampling, dominated by

Killifish A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish (including families Aplocheilidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Profundulidae and Valenciidae). All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish, the biggest family ...

Topsmelt The topsmelt silverside (''Atherinops affinis''), also known as the topsmelt, is a species of Neotropical silverside native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Description The topsmelt silverside is a small, slim fish with a dorsally flattened body ...

, Arrow goby (''Clevelandia ios''), and Western mosquitofish (''Gambusia affinis'')*. A gravid

Steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') was collected in Tecolotito creek in 1995. Benthic invertebrates species composition is characterized by low diversity and densities. Three species of

polychaetes Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

and bivalves are identified. The epifaunal invertebrates that are abundant included the lined shore crab, yellow shore crab, and California horn snail. November 1993 insect surveys conducted with a fine mesh seine or aquarium dip nets at the mouth and the back portion of the slough yielded 11 species; major taxonomic groups were bugs, damselflies,

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order ...

, beetles,

caddisflies The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

, butterflies and

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...

. 1986/87 trapping and visual surveys at the Storke Campus Wetlands identified two species of mice, one

vole Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a longer, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller eyes and ears; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of lo ...

, one amphibian, and two species of reptiles. 1996 report identified the

Western pond turtle The Western pond turtle (''Actinemys marmorata''), also known commonly as the Pacific pond turtle is a species of small to medium-sized turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is endemic to the western coast of the United States and Mexico, r ...

(''Actinemys marmorata'') in Atascadero Creek from surveys in 1982 and 1994. The 1996 report also identified three special status species from a 1983 survey of the Ecological Reserve: Pallid bat (''Antrozous pallidus''),

American badger The American badger (''Taxidea taxus'') is a North American badger similar in appearance to the European badger, although not closely related. It is found in the western, central, and northeastern United States, northern Mexico, and south-cent ...

(''Taxidea taxus''), and San Diego black-tailed jackrabbit (''L. californicus bennettii''). Ten species of mammals were identified in 1970 survey of the main portion of the slough.

Special Status Species

A 1996 report identified 20 special status species from various surveys (dates not specified):

California brown pelican The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mou ...

, southern bald eagle, peregrine falcon,

snowy plover The snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecie ...

common loon The common loon or great northern diver (''Gavia immer'') is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish ...

, American white pelican,

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes, and in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Al ...

, white-faced ibis,

fulvous whistling duck The fulvous whistling duck or fulvous tree duck (''Dendrocygna bicolor'') is a species of whistling duck that breeds across the world's tropical regions in much of Mexico and South America, the West Indies, the southern United States, sub-Sah ...

harlequin duck The harlequin duck (''Histrionicus histrionicus'') is a small sea duck. It takes its name from Harlequin (French ''Arlequin'', Italian ''Arlecchino''), a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte. The species name comes from the Latin ...

northern harrier The northern harrier (''Circus hudsonius''), or ring-tailed hawk, is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA. The northern harrier migrates to more southerly areas ...

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

long-billed curlew The long-billed curlew (''Numenius americanus'') is a large North American shorebird of the family Scolopacidae. This species was also called "sicklebird" and the "candlestick bird". The species breeds in central and western North America, migr ...

California gull The California gull (''Larus californicus'') is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull but larger on average than the ring-billed gull, though it may overlap in size greatly with both. Description Adults are similar in ap ...

elegant tern The elegant tern (''Thalasseus elegans'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It breeds on the Pacific coasts of the southern United States and Mexico and winters south to Peru, Ecuador and Chile. This species breeds in very dense colonies on coa ...

, and black skimmer. Those with specified dates included Belding's Savannah sparrow (1994), and California horned lark (1995). The 1996 report identified the following

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...

from a 1983 survey; pallid bat,

, and the San Diego black-tailed jackrabbit.

References

:''This article incorporates text from a US Government website, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

.''

External links

{{commons category, Goleta Slough
Goleta Slough Management Committee

Goleta Beach

City of Goleta

Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment

Shoreline Preservation Fund

California Coastal Records Project
(aerial photography) - by Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, CaliforniaCoastline.org, October 23, 2004

- by Arthur Gibbs Sylvester, UCSB Geological Sciences Department, updated January 11, 2006

- by Janet Martorana, UCSB Library Services, updated January 30, 2006

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120204065821/http://ceres.ca.gov/wetlands/geo_info/so_cal/goleta_slough.html California Wetlands Information System
Santa Barbara airport

Landforms of Santa Barbara County, California Goleta, California Rivers of Santa Barbara County, California Wetlands of California Estuaries of California Marshes of California Rivers of Southern California