Scott River

Scott River
Beaver River
Scott River is located in California
Scott River
Location of the mouth of Scott River in California
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSiskiyou County
Physical characteristics
SourceConfluence of South Fork Scott River and East Fork Scott River
 • locationCallahan, California
 • coordinates41°18′45″N 122°48′12″W / 41.31250°N 122.80333°W / 41.31250; -122.80333
 • elevation3,120 ft (950 m)
MouthConfluence with the Klamath River
 • coordinates
41°46′44″N 123°02′06″W / 41.77889°N 123.03500°W / 41.77889; -123.03500
 • elevation
1,460 ft (450 m)
Length60 mi (97 km)
Basin size
804 sq mi (2,080 km2)
Discharge 
 • locationnear Fort Jones
 • average627 cu ft/s (17.8 m3/s)
 • minimum3.4 cu ft/s (0.096 m3/s)
 • maximum54,600 cu ft/s (1,550 m3/s)
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • leftSouth Fork Scott River
 • rightEast Fork Scott River
DesignatedJanuary 19, 1981

The Scott River is a north by northwest-flowing 60-mile-long (97 km) river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the largest rivers in California.

Watershed

The Scott River's watershed covers about 800 square miles (2,100 km2). The 55 miles (89 km)-long Scott River mainstem is formed by the confluence of the 16 miles (26 km)-long East Fork Scott River and the 11 miles (18 km)-long South Fork Scott River at the town of Callahan.

About two-thirds of the land is privately owned and about one-third is publicly owned. About 45 percent of the land is used for forestry, grazing for 40 percent, 13 percent for cropland and the remaining 2 percent of land is used for various purposes. The Scott River enters the Klamath River above Hamburg, California where its waters flow to the Pacific Ocean.

History

Historically, fur trappers called the river the Beaver River, before the Hudson's Bay Company nearly extirpated beaver from the area in the early 19th century. Scott Valley was first entered ( first Europeans) Stephen Meek, Thomas McKay, George Adolphus Duzel and 16 other Hudson's Bay trappers in 1836. In 1850 alone, Meek reportedly trapped 1,800 beaver in Scott Valley, which was then known as Beaver Valley. Meek, who had hunted all over the West, declared the Beaver Valley one of the best places he had ever seen to trap beaver and hunt game, and returned to retire there at the Josiah Doll ranch from 1871 until his death in 1889 at the age of 90. The 1850 discovery of gold during the California Gold Rush by pioneer John W. Scott at Scott Bar, downriver from Scott Valley, brought many prospectors into the area; Scott's discovery led to the naming of the valley and the river in his honor.

Dredges that operated in the Scott Valley between 1934 and 1950 did some of the most visible damage done during the mining era. Large Yuba dredges, which also used mercury to process sand and gravel, excavated material 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) below the river channel and flood plains and created piles of tailings more than 25 feet (7.6 m) high downstream of Callahan,

In Sugar Creek, a Scott River tributary that is usually ephemeral, local landowner Betsy Stapleton worked with Michael Pollock of NOAA to create beaver dam analogues (BDAs) by driving posts into the creek bed to attract beavers to build dams. Now, Stapleton's reach on Sugar Creek has perennial beaver ponds while the neighboring creeks run dry in summer and fall. Pollock's method had been used successfully in Bridge Creek, Oregon where the subsequent increase in beaver dams led to a dramatic 175% increase in steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) abundance. In 2026 Pollock et al. published the similarly dramatic impact of installing BDAs on coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in the Sugar Creek and French Creek tributaries of the mainstem Scott River: juvenile coho salmon survival rose from 8% to 60% and in two years became the dominant source of coho in four nearby Klamath River tributaries.

The Beaver Valley Headwaters Preserve has been protected by The Wildlands Conservancy along the East Fork Scott River. In August 2026 the Wildlands Conservancy announced that it was acquiring the AP Ranch, adding an adjacent 8.0 miles (12.9 km) of East Fork Scott River and adding 14,177 acres (57.37 km2) to the existing 6,000 acres (24 km2) property.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Scott River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ↑ "USGS Gage #11519500 on the Scott River near Scott Bar, CA". National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1911–1913. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ "USGS Gage #11519500 on the Scott River near Fort Jones, CA" (PDF). National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1941–2012. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  4. ↑ "USGS Gage #11519500 on the Scott River near Fort Jones, CA" (PDF). National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1941–2012. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed March 9, 2011
  6. ↑ "East Fork Scott River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  7. ↑ "South Fork Scott River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  8. 1 2 Erwin G. Gudde, William Bright (2004). California Place Names:The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. University of California Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-520-24217-3. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  9. 1 2 Harry Laurenz Wells (1881). History of Siskiyou County, California - Illustrated with Views of Residences, Business Buildings and Natural Scenery, and Containing Portraits and Biographies of Its Leading Citizens and Pioneers. Oakland, California: D. J. Stewart & Co. p. 44.
  10. ↑ Will Harling (November 16, 2010). "Restoring Coho Salmon in the Klamath River, One Beaver At A Time". Forest and River News. Archived from the original on November 16, 2010. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
  11. ↑ Gail L. Fiorini-Jenner; Monica Jae Hall (2002). Western Siskiyou County: Gold and Dreams. Arcadia Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-7385-2397-2. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  12. ↑ Sabrina Litton (Spring 2003). "A Review of the History of Water Use throughout the Klamath River Basin" (PDF). Center for Watershed Sciences. University of California Davis. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Sugar Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  14. ↑ Mcgregor Campbell (October 22, 2016). "How beavers could help save the western US from a dry future". New Scientist. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  15. ↑ Nicolaas Bouwes, Nicholas Weber, Chris E. Jordan, W. Carl Saunders, Ian A. Tattam, Carol Volk, Joseph M. Wheaton, Michael M. Pollock (2016). "Ecosystem experiment reveals benefits of natural and simulated beaver dams to a threatened population of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss)". Scientific Reports. 6 (1). Retrieved September 3, 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ↑ Pollock, M.M.; J.M. Wheaton; N. Bouwes; C. Volk; N. Weber; C.E. Jordan (2012). Working with beaver to restore salmon habitat in the Bridge Creek intensively monitored watershed: Design rationale and hypotheses, NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-NWFSC-120 (PDF) (Report). U.S. Dept. Commererce. p. 47. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  17. ↑ "French Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  18. ↑ Michael M. Pollock, Stuart H. Munsch, Erich Yokel (2026). "Riparian wetland creation using beaver dam analogues improves threatened salmon populations amidst severe drought". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 14. Retrieved September 3, 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ↑ Kurtis Alexander (August 27, 2026). "Huge, historic Northern California cattle ranch to become preserve with trails". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 30, 2026.