Deer Creek, the jewel at the heart of Nevada City, begins as a trickle in the Sierra Nevada foothills, high above Scotts Flat Reservoir at 4000' elevation. A ribbon of nature, it winds its way through pine forests and alpine meadows, forging canyons and shaping the landscape on its journey downhill. As it rushes through downtown Nevada City, it hosts spawning rainbow and brown trout. Downstream, little known but beautiful, Deer Creek Falls hurries the water towards Lake Wildwood, where residents enjoy swimming and boating. Below the lake, pine forest gives way to willow and oak, and the creek teems with beaver, river otter, eagles and great blue herons. At 600' elevation and 34 miles from its source, Deer Creek joins the Yuba River, where it greets the native salmon spawn each fall.
Deer Creek has been threatened since the days of the Gold Rush. Prospectors turned over every section of the river, diverted its waters, logged its forests, and filled it with gravel and toxic mercury in their quest for riches. This legacy is still with us. Abandoned mines and mercury hotspots haunt the creek, and the native vegetation has been crowded out by invasive non-natives that create tinder-dry conditions in our hot summers. Over the past 150 years, trails to the creek have become overgrown, fish habitat has disappeared, and the remaining fish are tainted with mercury. And now, with the gold mining long ended, the creek faces new threats as our community experiences rapid growth. Land development, sewage disposal, agriculture, even car maintenance all require special care if we are to avoid further harm to the life of the creek.
Deer Creek's health is important to our quality of life. Hundreds of creeks in California have already been lost forever to development. Restoring Deer Creek offers a unique opportunity to work together to keep our homes and businesses in harmony with the wilderness. When our work succeeds, residents and visitors alike will be able to hike on trails by sparkling silver waterfalls, eat fish from pollution-free pools, and swim with their children in the riffles of a crystal clear stream.
Friends of Deer Creek was formed in 1996 by a group of concerned local citizens and property owners, when Nevada City was replacing the historic Pine Street Bridge. Working closely with the city, we successfully protected the creek during construction. Since this project, we have continued to be valued partners of the city in our shared goal of protecting and restoring the creek.
With a focus on scientific investigation and methods, we have been working for the past ten years to find solutions to Deer Creek's problems and to return our creek to its place as a fully restored gem at the heart of the community. Our highly-trained group of staff and volunteers is now recognized throughout the state as a model for how individual citizens can join together to protect their watershed.
Our current work and past successes include: