The Fall River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map , accessed March 10, 2011 tributary to the Pit River in north-eastern Shasta County in northern California. The Fall River complex, including the Fall River from its origin at Thousand Springs to its confluence with the Pitt River, is designated a Heritage and Wild Trout water.
History The river was named Fall River by John Frémont in 1848 because of its historic cascades and falls at the terminus of the river.
Ecology and conservation The Fall River Conservancy and the Fall River Resource Conservation District both work to restore the river. The former has worked with the University of California Davis to study the trout and identified two distinct sub-populations, one adapted to the colder winter flows of Bear Creek and one adapted to the more constant temperature spring-fed waters of Spring Creek and the Fall River mainstem. The large volume of spring water inflow maintains Fall River water temperature at near optimum ranges for trout production, even during mid-summer.
The upper river has historically been characterized by abundant aquatic macrophytes, including extensive meadows of horned pondweed (Zannichellia palustris); however, these have dramatically declined due to excessive sediment deposition from fires in the watershed and channelization of a tributary stream.
Watershed and course The Fall River watershed drains a area that originates from Thousand Springs and is largely spring-fed, with Bear Creek providing the only significant precipitation-related surface flow to the river. Bear Creek rises at a source elevation over and flows east to join Fall River at Thousand Springs at an elevation of .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map , accessed July 26, 2015 Its other two main tributaries, Spring Creek and the Tule River, are also spring-fed, with the latter originating in the Ahjumawi Lava Springs system. Fall River is a moderate-sized, slow-moving, meandering meadow stream with a mean gradient of less than 1 ft./mile. Spring Creek joins Fall River 5.2 miles below Thousand Springs, and seven miles below Spring Creek, Fall River is joined by Tule River. Since 1922, the river has been dammed before its confluence with the Pit River and diverted through a tunnel under Saddle Mountain to the Pit No. 1 Intake powerhouse, one of many hydroelectric dams on the Pit River.
Fall River course. description coordinates confluence, Bear Creek 41.114441,-121.556253 road, Metzger 41.097594,-121.548185 road, Island 41.08857,-121.493297 confluence, from Horr Pond 41.072363,-121.463814 road, MacArthur 41.062398,-121.481667 dam, Fall River Lake 41.008338,-121.44742 road, CA 299 41.003091,-121.441412 mouth, @ Pit River 41.0015521 -121.4383139
See also Pit River
References
External links Fall River Conservancy website Fall River Resource Conservation District website