Costanoan Shell Mounds date back to 3,500 BC

Burial mounds with artifacts and middens dating back to an estimated 3,500 BC exist in the greater Bay Area. The people of these mounds may have been the ancestors of the Costanoans, as the Spanish named the coast people.

The Costanoan linguistic group, comprised of eight separate languages spoken by 50 autonomous tribes (each with its own dialect), has been traced to 500 A.D.

Image: Bancroft Library (brk00001577_24a) by
Louis Choris, 1816
From FoundSF

Early Spanish map

Early Spanish map of the Bay Area from the Presidio in Monterrey (sic) to Bodega Bay in the north. Note the Carmelo River flows into the Bahia de Monterrey.

"Exploration of the California coastline resumed after the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in 1565. Starting in 1566, Spanish vessels known as Manila Galleons carried trade between Mexico and the Philippines.
The voyage to the Philippines was a fairly direct one, while the journey back required the Manila Galleons to take advantage of currents across the north Pacific which ended in northern California."

From: FoundSF

Pinus radiata: Monterey Pine

"The closed-cone Monterey Pine spread northward into California about 15 million years ago. By this time, Pinus radiata had already evolved into a distinct species that flourished throughout the Pleistocene. Not until a warm, dry period 4,000 to 8,000 years ago was driven to near extinction, surviving in the form of five small populations"

From: Understanding Evolution
Photo by Roger Gilbert

Carmel River Fishery Report for February 2013

During February 2013, Carmel River streamflow conditions were in decline the entire month, but were adequate for migration of juvenile and smolt stages of steelhead.
Adult steelhead migration conditions were impaired the entire month, with mean daily flows less than 61 cubic-feet per second.
At San Clemente Dam the first steelhead recorded over the counter was on December 5, 2012. Through the end of February there have been a total of 111 fish recorded passing the counter, 18 in December, 46 in January and 47 in February.

From: CRWC
Picture from: Trout Unlimited

San Clemente Dam has deprived the lower river of sediments and for almost 100 years

The San Clemente Dam has retained 2.5 million cubic yards of bedload and  large woody debris since its construction, depriving the lower river of  sediments and for almost 100 years. Rivers that have been deprived of natural sediment inputs from upstream of dam sites often compensate by eroding sediments from the lower floodplain below the dam. 

Armoring along the river has been, and still is, used to combat the sediment starved reaches of the river from eroding banks and widening the river valley. Up to 40% of the river’s banks from the mouth to Rosie’s Bridge have been artificially hardened to protect infrastructure from erosion. Hardened banks  have prevented sufficient compensational erosion from taking place in the lower floodplain, causing the river to degrade and narrow.

From:  The Watershed Institute