Los Gatos Creek (Santa Clara County, California) - Habitat and Wildlife

Habitat and Wildlife

Fish were plentiful for the first settlers of Los Gatos Creek. Newspaper stories in the 1880s describe catches of 100 to 200 trout a day. One pioneer wrote that "speckled trout were so plentiful, they could be caught with your hands." Based on the locations of fish collections made in 1895 and historical habitat condition suitable for salmonids, Los Gatos Creek likely supported heavy steelhead use throughout. A 1952 California Department of Fish and Game document stated that substantial steelhead runs had not been seen in Los Gatos Creek since 1937, when agricultural pumps lowered the water table throughout the Santa Clara Valley and dewatered the lower reach. However, resident trout populations had remained in the portions of the creek maintaining permanent flow, just below and above of Lexington Reservoir. Between Lake Elsman and Lexington Reservoir, the creek is pristine and closed to the public. Here, along with rainbow trout (the landlocked form of steelhead trout), beaver, bobcats, wild boar and mountain lions are now extant. The beaver were restocked to the portion of Los Gatos Creek where it enters Lexington Reservoir sometime before Spring 1992, and recently, a beaver reportedly served as "a hearty meal" for a local mountain lion. Historical evidence of beaver in the area includes reference by Captain John Sutter who around 1840 recorded that 1,500 beaver pelts were sold "at a trifling value" by the Indians to Mission San José, the latter only 25 miles from the town of Los Gatos. Physical proof of Golden beaver in south San Francisco Bay tributaries is a Castor canadensis subauratus skull in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History collected by zoologist James Graham Cooper in Santa Clara, California on Dec. 31, 1855. Cooper lived in Mountain View, California from October to December, 1855 and collected most of his specimens on Saratoga Creek (then "Quito Creek").

The Santa Clara Valley Water District now manages lower Los Gatos Creek so that it once again supports steelhead trout and Chinook salmon that migrate up the Guadalupe River from San Francisco Bay. Both species have been spotted as far up the creek as Hamilton Avenue.