San Francisquito Watershed

San Francisquito Creek and its tributaries drain a funnel-shaped area covering 47.5 square miles on the northwestern Santa Clara and southeastern San Mateo counties.  The watershed is bounded to the southwest, along the longest edge, by the Santa Cruz Mountains.  The Creek itself flows 12.5 miles from Searsville Dam to the Lower South San Francisco Bay.  It defines the border between San Mateo and Santa clara counties.  The Creek traverses through, unincorporated land, the towsn of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, and Stanford University.

In the upper watershed, low-density residential neighborhoods exist.  On the valley floor, higher-density residential development exists along with commercial development focused on major surface streets.  Stanford University occupies a large portion of the valley portion of the watershed as does the downtown portion of the City of Palo Alto.

The watershed is famous for its reproducing steelhead population.  Besides steelhead, native fish found in the watershed are the California roach, Sacramento sucker,  hitch, speckled dace, threespined stickleback, and prickly sculpin.  Seven nonnative species also exist in the watershed.  The threatened California red-legged from lives along the Creek.

Watershed Facts

  • Drainage area:  42.8 square miles
  • Number of creeks: 25
  • Miles of creek:  90.6
  • Miles of Engineered Channel:  4.8
  • Miles of Underground Culvert or Stormdrain:  15.3
  • Local jurisdictions:  Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Woodside, Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Stanford University, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto.
  • Percent area by land use:
    • Residential 29.6%
    • Industrial/Commercial 5.2%
    • Forest 44.7%
    • Rangeland 15.0%
    • Other 5.5%
  • Percent Impervious Area:  20.8%
  • Beneficial Uses:  COLD, WARM, MIGR, SPWN, WILD

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