Watershed Descriptions

Watsonville – Back to Study Area

Area¹: 321,969 km²

Planning Watersheds¹: 7

Description: The Watsonville watershed is located in southern Santa Cruz County along the Pacific Coast. The watershed contains the communities of Corralitos, Watsonville, La Selva Beach, Freedom, Aromas, and Pajaro. Sunset and Manressa State Beaches, Seascape and Pinto Lake County Parks, and the Long Toed Salamander Ecological Reserve are located in the Watsonville watershed. To interactively explore features of this watershed, visit the Interactive Mapping section of this Web site.

Streams²:

Salmonids³:

• steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Watershed Groups: Corralitos Creek Watershed Committee, Pajaro Watershed Council

Watershed Plans:

Ownership⁴: Local, State, Federal, and Private

Landcover and Landuse⁵:

Source Information:

¹California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Watersheds (CALWATER 2.2) for Hydrologic Sub-Area Name and Planning Watershed Name (see metadata for srp_calw22)
²U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Stream Reach File 3 (see metadata for srp_rf3)
³Personal communication: Jerry Smith (San Jose), Don Alley (Brookdale), Kristen Schroeder (Santa Cruz County), 2004.
  County of Santa Cruz Map of Steelhead and Coho Salmon Distribution in Santa Cruz County, May 2004.
⁴California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Conservation and Public Lands (Legacy Project) (see metadata spr_govtowna)
⁵California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Multi Source Landcover Data (2002) (see metadata srp_fveg)

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