Your Watershed

Cottonwood Creek is located in northern California and is a westside tributary to the upper Sacramento River . It lies within Shasta and Tehama counties; Cottonwood , the main town in the watershed, lies along Interstate 5 halfway between the cities of Red Bluff and Redding . Approximately one third of the watershed is comprised of public lands, predominantly U.S. Forest Service land but also including lands managed by U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Forest Service lands also include the Yolla Bolly Wilderness Area, which lies within both Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino National Forests , and the Chancelulla Wilderness (Shasta Trinity National Forests). The balance of acreage within the watershed is predominantly comprised of private land, including timberland, small rural subdivisions and agriculture; both irrigated and grazing range land. A wide variety of habitats occurs within the watershed, including mixed conifer forest, chaparral, blue oak woodlands, valley grassland, and riparian forest, to name several.

Cottonwood Creek and the main tributaries, which flow over 100 miles through the watershed, provide important spawning and nursery areas for listed species including, Spring-run chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha , federal and state listing as Threatened); Central Valley steelhead ( Oncorhynchus mykiss , federally listed as Threatened), as well as fall and late fall run chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ). It also contains several other federally listed species (either known to occur, or, at minimum, has habitat for the species), including northern spotted owl ( Strix occidentalis caurina , Federally threatened), California red-legged frog ( Rana aurora draytonii , Federally Threatened), Valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Desmocarpus californicus dimorphus , Federally Threatened), and bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus , Federally Threatened). Cottonwood Creek is the primary source of spawning gravel for the Sacramento River , providing almost 85% of the gravel introduced between Redding and Red Bluff.

View Cottonwood Creek Watershed Group's Monthy Calendar by clicking here.