The Middle Yuba River is one of the three main forks of the

Yuba River The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sacramento Valley, in the U.S. state of California. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into three major forks. The Yuba River ...

in Northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the United States. The river rises at the crest of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

, and flows generally west through canyons to join the

North Yuba River The North Yuba River (also called the North Fork Yuba River) is the main tributary of the Yuba River in northern California in the United States. The river is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowlin ...

near North San Juan. The confluence of the two rivers forms the main stem of the Yuba River, which then continues west to join the

Feather River The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather R ...

. The Middle Yuba forms much of the border between Nevada County and Sierra County and in its lower reaches a small segment of the Nevada–

Yuba County Yuba County (; Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 81,575. The county seat is Marysville. Yuba County is included in the Yuba City, California Metropolitan Statistical A ...

line. The Middle Yuba drains a remote, rugged portion of the

Tahoe National Forest Tahoe National Forest is a United States National Forest located in California, northwest of Lake Tahoe. It includes the peak of Sierra Buttes, near Sierra City, which has views of Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta. It is located in parts of six cou ...

, with elevations ranging from at English Mountain to at the confluence with the Yuba River. The river is dammed and diverted several times to provide

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

, greatly reducing the flow in all but the wettest years. Jackson Meadows Dam and Milton Diversion Dam near the headwaters are part of the Yuba-Bear Hydroelectric Project, which transport water to the South Yuba and

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

Rivers. Jackson Meadows Reservoir, stocked with 10,000 pounds of

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

annually, is also a popular recreation area. Further downstream, Our House Dam diverts water through a series of tunnels to

New Bullards Bar Reservoir New Bullards Bar Reservoir is a large reservoir in northeastern Yuba County, California, United States, at an elevation of in the Tahoe National Forest and about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Yuba City. The reservoir is formed by New Bullard ...

on the North Yuba River. Water is also taken from Oregon Creek, the main tributary of the Middle Yuba. This enables the generation of more power at the New Colgate Powerhouse, situated downstream from the confluence of the North and Middle Yuba Rivers. The Middle Yuba River was a major mining site during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

. It was one of the areas most heavily affected by

hydraulic mining Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...

, which washed large volumes of loose sediment into the river channel. In 1941 the

Englebright Dam Englebright Dam is a high variable radius concrete arch dam on the Yuba River in the Sacramento River Basin, located in Yuba and Nevada counties of California, United States. It was put into service in 1941 by the United States Army Corps of En ...

was constructed on the Yuba River below the Middle Fork to capture this debris before it could travel further downstream. In 2008 studies were carried out by the Nevada Irrigation District, which owns Jackson Meadows and Milton Dams, to determine optimum flows for

whitewater Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...

boating. This may ultimately result in the restoration of some of the natural flows to the Middle Yuba. The minimum required release from Milton Dam is , a tiny fraction of the pre-development flow.http://foothillswaternetwork.org/relicensing/Yuba-Bear/NID_%20Process_Plan_Schedule.pdf

References

* Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California Rivers of Nevada County, California Rivers of Sierra County, California Rivers of Yuba County, California Tahoe National Forest Rivers of Northern California Rivers of the Sierra Nevada (United States) {{California-river-stub

See also

References