Coyote Watershed

The Coyote Creek Watershed is the largest in the Santa Clara Basin, and drains approximately 320 square miles of area from the Diablo Range on the east side of the Basin.  The Creek originates in the mountains northeast of the City of Morgan Hill and flows northwest for approximately 42 miles before entering the Lower South San Francisco Bay.  At the base of the Diablo Range, the Creek is impounded by two dams, which form Coyote and Anderson Reservoirs. 

Nine major tributaries lie within the area that drains to these two reservoirs:  Canada de los Osos, Hunting Hollow, Dexter Canyon, and Larios Canyon Creeks drain to Coyote Reservoir; Otis Canyon, Packwood, San Felipe, Las Animas, and Shingle Valley Creeks drain to Anderson Reservoir.  Runoff upstream of Coyote Reservoir accounts for about 75 percent of the total runoff for the entire watershed.  The boundary between the Diablo Range and the alluvial plain that forms the Santa Clara Valley floor is sharply defined.  At least four major tributaries flow from the mountains across this alluvial plain to Coyote Creek.

Coyote Creek flows through unincorporated, predominately agricultural but rapidly urbanizing land between Morgan Hill and San Jose.  It then flows through the urbanized areas of San Jose and the lower edge of Milpitas, finally reaching the Bay. The urbanized area of Coyote Creek watershed has dramatically increased since the 1960’s.   During this time, population has increased greatly, and agricultural and grazing land have been converted to residential communities in the southern region of the Santa Clara Valley, and along the base of the Western Diablo range. 

Coyote Creek has historically, and still does support the most diverse fish fauna among the Basin watersheds.  It supports 10 to 11 native fish species out of the original 18 (EOA 1999). Species known to occur currently include Pacific lamprey, steelhead/resident rainbow trout, chinook salmon, California roach, hitch, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento pikeminnow, Sacramento sucker, threespine stickleback, prickly sculpin, riffle sculpin, staghorn sculpin, and tule perch (EOA 1999).  Three species, the thicktail chub, splittail, and Sacramento perch have been extirpated from the drainage; the thicktail chub is extinct.

Watershed Facts

  • Drainage area:  320.5
  • Number of creeks:  53 (from wmi); 84 (querying creeks.shp in gis)
  • Miles of creek:  670.4
  • Miles of Engineered Channel:  36.4
  • Miles of Underground Culvert or Stormdrain:  145.8
  • Local jurisdictions: Santa Clara County, Morgan Hill, San Jose, Milpitas
  • Percent area by land use:
    • Residential 8.6%
    • Industrial/Commercial 3.7%
    • Forest 49.9%
    • Rangeland 29.6%
    • Other 8.2%
  • Percent Impervious Area:  11.1%
  • Beneficial Uses:  COLD, WARM, WILD, MIGR, SPWN, RARE, REC-1, REC-2, AGR, MUN, GWR, COMM  (see Table 3)

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