Pacific Southwest Research Station

Pacific Southwest Research Station
800 Buchanan Street
West Annex Building
Albany, CA 94710-0011

(510) 559-6300

Research Topics

Water & Watersheds: Caspar Creek Watershed Study

The Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed Study, located on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest near Fort Bragg, California, is a cooperative venture of the Pacific Southwest Research Station at Arcata and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection that has been operating continuously since 1962.

Caspar Creek Data:

• Plot current streamflow, sediment, rainfall, and temperature
• Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds Hydrologic and Climatic Data

  Note: due to technical problems, data downloaded before 8/16/02 contained errors that have now been corrected. Details.

  • 1962 - 1997
  • 1986 - 2004 (1986 - 2004 for Rainfall, 1989 - 2003 for Temperature, 1996-2003 for Streamflow)
    Complete data sets are available on CDs released in May 1998 and in June 2001. For a copy, contact our Data Manager, Jayme Seehafer.
    These data files now include:
    • Streamflow
    • Sediment
    • Rainfall
    • Solar
    • Air and water temperature
    • Channel cross-sections
    • Subsurface hydrology
    • Detailed streamflow and sediment data for 13 tributary stations that were installed in the North Fork in August 1985.
• Fish surveys
  • 2004-2005 adult salmonid estimates from redd surveys
  • 1987-2005 juvenile salmonid counts from downstream migrant traps
• Maps of Caspar Creek
  • Entire Caspar Creek watershed
  • Topography of North and South Forks Caspar Creek
  • North Fork Caspar Creek
  • South Fork Caspar Creek

  Information about the names of the South Fork Tributaries.

  • Longitudinal profile of North Fork stream channels
  • Geologic and Geomorphic Features Related to Landsliding, North and South Forks of Caspar Creek, Mendocino County, California. California Division of Mines and Geology Open File Report OFR 95-08.
• Table of annual precipitation, streamflow, and sediment (1963-2006). [Updated May 21, 2007].
• Thornthwaite Potential Evapotranspiration (1990-1995)

About the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds:

• A brief history of the Caspar Creek study
>
• A brief description of 26 gaged watersheds in North and South Forks.
• Description of long-term cooperative research at Caspar Creek.
• The Caspar Creek Watershed Study Completes 40 Years of Research (June, 2003)
• 100-year Caspar Creek Memorandum of Understanding between California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Pacific Southwest Research Station was signed on September 27, 2010.
• Caspar Creek Phase II: Discovering How Watersheds Respond to Logging
• North Fork tributary treatment variables
• Information about the community of Caspar, California

Caspar Creek Publications & Presentations:

• Proceedings, Conference on Coastal Watersheds -- the Caspar Creek Story. May 6-7, 1998.

  (To request a hard-copy of the Proceedings)

• Bibliography of Caspar Creek Publications, including those available on-line
• Photo Gallery of Caspar Creek.
• Caspar Creek Road Sedimentation Model. A road sedimentation model, SEDMODL, was applied by the Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) to the Caspar Creek watershed. The model was developed by Boise Cascade for forest lands in Idaho and Washington, but the structure of the model is flexible enough to be adapted for use in northern California.

Other Caspar Creek Links:

• Turbidity and suspended sediment monitoring
• California Watershed Projects Inventory - Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed Project

Research contact:

• Leslie Reid