A Closer Look at Watersheds

We attended a talk at the Yolo Audubon Society on Putah and Cache Creeks, twin watershed systems that flow either side the Blue Ridge on the west side of Yolo County. The speaker, Andrew Fulks, is the manager for the UC Davis riparian reserve along Putah Creek but is also the founder of yolohiker.org, introducing residents of this region to previously inaccessible and little-known areas: blue oak woodland, chamise chaparral, and grasslands, and how they are connected to the creeks that run through them.

This region is under serious population pressure: California is expected to grow by 600,000 inhabitants per year until 2010. Efforts to keep the open lands from development will no doubt increase. There are already at least ten agencies working to protect the waters and adjacent lands of these two watersheds.