1.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
2.
Petaluma, California
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Petaluma /pɛtəˈluːmə/ is a small city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. Its population was 57,941 according to the 2010 Census, the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, located in Petaluma, is a National Historic Landmark. Its construction started in 1836 by order of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and it was the center of a 66,000 acre ranch stretching from Petaluma River to Sonoma Creek. The adobe is considered one of the best preserved buildings of its era in Northern California, Petaluma is a transliteration of the Coast Miwok phrase péta lúuma which means hill backside and probably refers to Petalumas proximity to Sonoma Mountain. Petaluma has a well-preserved, historic city center includes many buildings that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Coast Miwok resided in southern Sonoma County, and Péta Lúuma was originally the name of a Miwok village east of the Petaluma River. The Petaluma area was part of a 66,000 acre 1834 Mexican land grant by Governor Jose Figueroa to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo called Rancho Petaluma. In 1836, Vallejo ordered construction of his Rancho Petaluma Adobe a ranch house in Petaluma, Vallejos influence and Mexican control in the region began to decline after Vallejos arrest during the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846. Pioneers flocked into Petaluma from the eastern United States after Michael Celiberti found gold in the Sierra Nevadas in 1849, the towns position on the Petaluma River in the heart of productive farmland was critical to its growth during the 19th and early 20th centuries. There were brothels downtown along Petaluma Boulevard, which used to be the main thoroughfare until U. S. Highway 101 was constructed in the 1950s. The Sonoma County Bank Building, now the home of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, Petaluma soon became known for its grain milling and chicken processing industries, which continue to the present as a smaller fraction of its commerce. At one time, Petaluma was known as the Egg Capital of the World, Petaluma hosted the only known Poultry drugstore and is the place where the egg incubator was invented by Lyman Byce in 1879. Petaluma is also where Randall Smith founded Mesa/Boogie, maker of guitar amplifiers used by such musicians as Carlos Santana. Even though it is no known as the Egg Capital of the World, Petaluma maintains a strong agricultural base today with dairy farms, olive groves, vineyards. As one of the few communities in the left standing after the earthquake, Petaluma was the staging point for most Sonoma County rescue. Petaluma is today the location of many distinguished, well-preserved pre-1906 buildings, the downtown area has suffered many river floods over the years and during the Depression commerce declined. A lack of funds prevented the demolition of the old homes, in the 1960s there was a counter-culture migration out of San Francisco into Marin County and southern Sonoma County, looking for inexpensive housing in a less urban environment. The old Victorian, Queen Anne and Eastlake style houses were restored, Historic iron-front buildings in the downtown commercial district were also rescued
3.
Coast Miwok
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The Coast Miwok are an indigenous people that was the second largest group of Miwok people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point. The Coast Miwok included the Bodega Bay Miwok from authenticated Miwok villages around Bodega Bay, the Coast Miwok spoke their own Coast Miwok language in the Utian linguistic group. They lived by hunting and gathering, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority, in the springtime they would head to the coasts to hunt salmon and other seafood, including seaweed. When hunting deer, Miwok hunters traditionally used Brewers angelica, Angelica breweri to eliminate their own scent, Miwok did not typically hunt bears. Yerba buena tea leaf were used medicinally, tattooing was a traditional practice among Coast Miwok, and they burned poison-oak for a pigment. Their traditional houses, called kotcha were constructed with slabs of tule grass or redwood bark in a cone-shaped form, Miwok people are skilled at basketry. A recreated Coast Miwok village called Kule Loklo is located at the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Coast Miwok language is no longer natively spoken, but the Bodega dialect is documented in Callaghan. The original Coast Miwok people world view included animism, and one form of this took was the Kuksu religion that was evident in Central and Northern California. Kuksu was shared with other ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the Pomo, also Maidu, Ohlone, Esselen. However Kroeber observed less specialized cosmogony in the Miwok, which he termed one of the southern Kuksu-dancing groups, in comparison to the Maidu, Coast Miwok mythology and narratives were similar to those of other natives of Central and Northern California. The Coast Miwok believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors, coyote was seen as their ancestor and creator god. In their case the earth began with land formed out of the Pacific Ocean, in their myths, legends, tales, and histories, the Coast Miwok participated in the general cultural pattern of Central California. The authenticated Coast Miwok villages are, On Bodega Bay, Helapattai, Hime-takala, Ho-takala, Suwutenne, Tiwut-huya, also in this vicinity, Awachi, Amayelle, Kennekono. On Tomales Bay, Echa-kolum, Shotommo-wi, Sakloki, Utumia At the present-day City of Petaluma, Etem, also in this vicinity, Tuchayelin, Likatiut, Meleya, Susuli, Tulme, Wotoki. At the present-day City of San Rafael, Awani-wi, at the present-day City of Sonoma, Huchi. Also in this vicinity, Temblek, Tuli, Wugilwa, at the present-day City of Cotati, Kotati, Lumen-takala. At the present-day town of Nicasio, Echa-tamal, at the present-day town of Olema, Olema-loke
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
6.
Sonoma County, California
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Sonoma County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 483,878 and its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is located to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino County and it is west of Napa County and Lake County. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is the northwestern county in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region. Sonoma is the county and largest producer of California’s Wine Country region, which also includes Napa, Mendocino. It possesses thirteen approved American Viticultural Areas and over 250 wineries, in 2002, Sonoma County ranked as the 32nd county in the United States in agricultural production. More than 7.4 million tourists each year, spending more than $1 billion in 2006. Sonoma County is the home of Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma County is home to several Native American tribes. By the 1830s, European settlement had set a new direction that would prove to radically alter the course of land use, Sonoma County has rich agricultural land, albeit largely divided between two nearly monocultural uses as of 2007, grapes and pasturage. The voters have twice approved open space initiatives that have provided funding for public acquisition of natural areas, preserving forested areas, coastal habitat, and other open space. The Pomo, Coast Miwok and Wappo peoples were the earliest human settlers of Sonoma County, spaniards, Russians, and other Europeans claimed and settled in the county from the late 16th to mid-19th century, seeking timber, fur, and farmland. The Russians were the first newcomers to establish a permanent foothold in Sonoma County and this settlement and its outlying Russian settlements came to include a population of several hundred Russian and Aleut settlers and a stockaded fort with artillery. However, the Russians abandoned it in 1841 and sold the fort to John Sutter, settler and Mexican land grantee of Sacramento. The Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 as the last and northernmost of 21 California missions, is in the present City of Sonoma, El Presidio de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks, was established in 1836 by Comandante General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. The City of Sonoma was the site of the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846, Sonoma was one of the original counties formed when California became a state in 1850, with its county seat originally the town of Sonoma. However, by the early 1850s, the town of Sonoma had declined in importance in terms of commerce and population, its county buildings were crumbling, and it was relatively remote. As a result, elements in the newer, rapidly growing towns of Petaluma, Santa Rosa, the dispute ultimately was between the bigger, richer commercial town of Petaluma and the more centrally located, growing agricultural center of Santa Rosa. Allegedly, several Santa Rosans, not caring to wait, decided to take action and, one night, rode down the Sonoma Valley to Sonoma, took the county seals and records, some of the countys land was annexed from Mendocino County between 1850 and 1860
7.
Marin County, California
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Marin County /məˈrɪn/ is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 252,409 and its county seat is San Rafael. Marin County is included in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, Marin County is one of the wealthiest localities in the United States, known for its affluence. In May 2009, Marin County had the fifth highest income per capita in the United States at about $91,480, the county is governed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The county is well known for its natural beauty and liberal politics. San Quentin Prison is located in the county, as is George Lucas Skywalker Ranch, autodesk, the publisher of AutoCAD, is also located there, as well as numerous other high-tech companies. The Marin County Civic Center was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and draws thousands of visitors a year to guided tours of its arch, in 1994, a new county jail facility was embedded into the hillside nearby. Marin Countys natural sites include the Muir Woods redwood forest, the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, the Point Reyes National Seashore, the United States oldest cross country running event, the Dipsea Race, takes place annually in Marin County, attracting thousands of athletes. Mountain biking was invented on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin, According to General Mariano Vallejo, who headed an 1850 committee to name Californias counties, the county was named for Marin, great chief of the tribe Licatiut. Marin had been named Huicmuse until he was baptized as Marino at about age 20, Marin / Marino was born into the Huimen people, a Coast Miwok tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the San Rafael area. Vallejo believed that Chief Marin had waged several fierce battles against the Spanish, starting in 1817, he served as an alcalde at the San Rafael Mission, where he lived from 1817 off and on until his death. The Coast Miwok Indians were hunters and gatherers whose ancestors had occupied the area for thousands of years, about 600 village sites have been identified in the county. The Coast Miwok numbered in the thousands, today, there are few left and even fewer with any knowledge of their Coast Miwok lineage. Efforts are being made so that they are not forgotten, francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hind was thought to have landed on the Marin coast in 1579 claiming the land as Nova Albion. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drakes claim to the new lands and this so-called Drakes Plate of Brass was revealed as a hoax in 2003. In 1595, Sebastian Cermeno lost his ship, the San Agustin, the Spanish explorer Vizcaíno landed about twenty years after Drake in what is now called Drakes Bay. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 828 square miles. It is the fourth-smallest county in California by land area
8.
Lichau Creek
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Lichau Creek is an 8. 9-mile-long southwest-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which flows through the town of Penngrove and discharges into the Petaluma River. The original name of the creek is OHara Creek and is named after the settler, John OHara, OHara was born in 1833 in County Sligo, Ireland and settled in Penngrove sometime between 1852 and 1857 and died in 1911 at the age of 78 years. The October 26th,1904 Santa Rosa Republican refers to this creek as OHara Creek, the creek springs from the western side of Sonoma Mountain between Copeland Creek and Lynch Creek. Descending initially to the west, it crosses under Sonoma Mountain Road, after crossing East Railroad Avenue and Petaluma Hill Road, it flows under the Northwestern Pacific Railroad tracks. It immediately bends southward and parallels the tracks through Penngrove, crossing Adobe Road, a 1968 survey of Lichau Creek found algae, duckweed, cattails, dragonflies, dipterous insects, caddisflies, frogs, steelhead trout, and sticklebacks living in the creek. At least three bridges span the creek, Petaluma Hill Road crosses 0.1 miles north of Old Redwood Highway on a 49-foot concrete continuous tee beam built in 1920 and reconstructed in 1976. East Railroad Avenue crosses 0.1 miles east of Petaluma Hill Road on a 42-foot concrete culvert built in 1970, Adobe Road crosses 0.08 miles east of Old Redwood Highway on a 24-foot concrete tee beam built in 1929. List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
9.
Lynch Creek
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Lynch Creek is a 7. 1-mile-long stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which discharges into the Petaluma River. Lynch Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain and descends initially to the west and it flows under Sonoma Mountain Road, then turns southward and roughly parallels Lynch Road for about a mile. Just north of Adobe Road, it crosses under Sonoma Mountain Road again, after crossing Adobe Road, it flows through Rooster Run Golf Club and enters suburban Petaluma, where it flows southwestward. It crosses Sonoma Mountain Parkway and Maria Drive and follows the edge of Lucchesi Park to North McDowell Boulevard. From the south side of the Boulevard, it continues southward, list of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
10.
Washington Creek
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Washington Creek is a southward-flowing stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which enters the city of Petaluma and discharges to the Petaluma River. Washington Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain and descends to the southwest, after East Washington Creek enters from the east the creek continues southwestward, passing under North McDowell Parkway and U. S.101. Emerging from the U. S.101 interchange, the creek flows westward, crossing under Madison Street and Holly Lane to enter the Petaluma River just north of the Payran Street bridge. On March 7,2000, a Sonoma Mountain dairy rancher pleaded no contest to charges that in 1999 he dumped 732,000 US gal of manure and urine into Washington Creek. This was reportedly the first time a Sonoma County dairy farmer had faced fines stemming from criminal charges in a creek pollution case, list of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area Lynch Creek bicycle routes
11.
Adobe Creek (Sonoma County, California)
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It has also been called Casa Grande Creek. Adobe Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain and it descends initially to the south, passing west of Petaluma Reservoir and flowing under Manor Lane. Just east of Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park, it bends toward the southwest and crosses Adobe Road. From there, the creek follows Casa Grande Road, crossing under the road twice as it winds in and out of Adobe Creek Golf Club, crosses Ely Boulevard, and runs along the eastern edge of Del Oro Park. It flows under Lakeville Highway at milepost 36.19, crosses South McDowell Boulevard, Adobe Creek drains an area of about 10 square miles. Its headwaters lie in Lafferty Ranch, a 270-acre parcel of land owned by the City of Petaluma since 1995, Lafferty Ranch has been proposed for a wilderness park, but is not accessible to the public. Petaluma Reservoir is located in the Adobe Creek watershed, at that time Adobe Creek was considered a dead stream and was a dry, littered riverbed most of the year, although tiny steelhead trout could be found in occasional shallow, drying pools. The students hauled truckloads of trash out of the creek and planted thousands of Coast Douglas-fir and Willow trees to shade and they successfully lobbied Petaluma City Hall officials to re-open Lawler Dam, which was hardly used and kept water from the creek much of the year. In October 1992 Adobe Creek was restored as a stream for the first time in eight decades. The next year, hundreds of steelhead fingerlings were counted in Adobe Creek, genetic analysis has proved that the Steelhead trout that spawn and rear in the Petaluma River watershed are wild, not hatchery, stock. In 1990, five Chinook salmon returned to spawn in Adobe Creek, in 1993 the organization constructed a salmon hatchery at the high school. In 1996, the creek was the subject of a restoration project which built a step pool near Adobe Road for the benefit of migratory fish. In 2002, a record 74 Chinook salmon return to spawn along with native Steelhead trout who continue to use the creek annually, at least six bridges span Adobe Creek, Manor Lane crosses 0.77 miles north of Adobe Road on a 32-foot concrete slab built in 1960. Casa Grande Avenue crosses the creek twice, first on a 30-foot concrete culvert built in 1970 and again on a 45-foot concrete culvert built in 1970, Ely Boulevard crosses 0.1 miles southeast of Casa Grande Avenue on a 54-foot concrete continuous slab built in 1984. Sartori Drive crosses 0.2 miles southeast of Casa Grande Avenue on a 54-foot concrete continuous slab built in 1976, State Route 116 crosses at milepost 36.19 on a 33-foot concrete continuous slab built in 1954 and reconstructed in 1997. List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area United Anglers of Casa Grande High School Lafferty Ranch photo gallery Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District
12.
San Antonio Creek (Marin County, California)
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San Antonio Creek is a northward then eastward-flowing stream in the California, United States, counties of Marin and Sonoma that forms part of the boundary between those counties. It empties into the portion of the Petaluma River. Two permanent Coast Miwok villages were located on San Antonio Creek, Meleya, San Antonio Creek is one of many California places named by the early Spanish colonists after Saint Anthony of Padua, a patron of the Franciscan Order. The creek traverses the Rancho Laguna de San Antonio land grant, dated May 6,1839 and November 25,1845, San Antonio Creek springs from the southwest flank of Antonio Mountain in Marin County. Historically, a natural laguna or shallow lake existed at the headwaters of San Antonio Creek, different from the Laguna de San Antonio, the San Antonio Creek headwaters laguna was drained for agricultural purposes sometime between 1860 and 1885. From the headwaters the creek runs north 2 mi into Chileno Valley, turning east-southeast, it begins to define the county line. It passes under Chileno Valley Road and Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, then parallels San Antonio Road eastward to U. S.101 and it crosses under U. S.101 where it was diverted around 1930 to the Schultz Slough and the Petaluma River. This diversion is 5.2 miles upstream from its connection to the San Antonio Slough just west of Hog Island in the wetlands south of Petaluma. The diversion upstream lowered the creeks gradient, contributing to aggradation of sediments in the lower reaches, San Antonio Creek was historically perennial in its lower reaches and perhaps for most of its length. Up until the mid-1900s, steelhead trout were common in the watershed. A newspaper article in 1909 mentions Charles Bond as catching a 55 pound striper in the San Antone Slough, the U. S.101 bridges are each two lanes wide and 120 ft long. The northbound bridge was built in 1929 and reconstructed in 1979, the southbound bridge was built in 1947. There is also a bridge at San Antonio Road 0.6 mi north of U. S.101, built in 1917, marshall Petaluma Road crosses the creek on a 25 ft concrete tee beam built in 1929. Point Reyes Petaluma Road crosses on a 102 ft concrete continuous slab built in 1964, estero de San Antonio List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area San Antonio Creek Watershed page of Marin County Watershed Program
13.
Cotati, California
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Cotati /koʊˈtɑːtiː/ is an incorporated city in Sonoma County, California, U. S. located about 45 mi north of San Francisco in the 101 corridor between Rohnert Park and Petaluma. Cotatis population as of the 2010 Census was 7,265, like all of Sonoma County, Cotati is included in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the Redwood Empire. Located in the Sonoma Coast AVA, Cotati can also be considered part of the Wine Country, E & J Gallo Winery operates a 400-acre vineyard called Two Rock Vineyard in the hills west of town. Cotatis hexagonal downtown plaza, one of two hexagonal town layouts in the United States, is California Historical Landmark number 879. The other U. S. city with a layout is Detroit. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 1.89 sq mi,0. 53% of which is water. The city is about 17 mi from the Pacific Ocean and it lies entirely in the drainage basin of the Laguna de Santa Rosa. The Petaluma River watershed begins just south of town, to the west is the Stemple Creek watershed. The sources of all three lie in the hilly area between Stony Point Road and U. S.101, just west of town. Cotati averages fewer than 800 hours per growing season in the 70–90 °F range, the soils of the Cotati area are characterized by recent alluvial materials, explicitly those areas bordering the Laguna de Santa Rosa and its tributary Washoe Creek. These materials are largely stream and valley alluvium, with fill in some areas. Active faults near Cotati include the Rodgers Creek Fault and the Tolay Fault, to the west of Cotati are wetland habitat for Sebastopol meadowfoam, Pitkin Marsh lily, Showy Indian clover and several other endangered species. The 2010 United States Census reported that Cotati had a population of 7,265, the population density was 3,857.8 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Cotati was 5,929 White,122 African American,75 Native American,283 Asian,30 Pacific Islander,427 from other races, and 399 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,255 persons,13. 2% Mexican,0. 7% Puerto Rican,0. 6% Salvadoran,0. 3% Peruvian,0. 2% Nicaraguan, and 0. 2% Guatemalan. The Census reported that 99. 9% of the lived in households and 0. 1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters. There were 259 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 35 same-sex married couples or partnerships,812 households were made up of individuals and 215 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44, there were 1,774 families, the average family size was 2.97
14.
San Pablo Bay
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San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. San Pablo Bay was named after Rancho San Pablo, a Spanish land grant given to colonial Alta California settlers in 1815, the bay is approximately 10 mi across and has an area of approximately 90 sq mi. The bay is heavily silted from the contributions of the two rivers, which drain most of the Central Valley of California. All tributaries except for Sonoma Creek are commercially navigable and maintained by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, two peninsulas separate San Pablo Bay from San Francisco Bay. The eastern is in the City of Richmond and the western in the City of San Rafael, the bay is shared between Contra Costa county on the southern and eastern shore, and Solano, Sonoma and Marin counties on the northern and western shores. The county boundaries meet near the center of the bay, communities on the shores of San Pablo Bay include, Richmond, San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo in Contra Costa County, Vallejo in Solano County, along with Novato and San Rafael in Marin County. Because the Bay is close to major and local airports. Because of its size but shallow waters, San Pablo Bay frequently has difficult boating conditions. There are many undeveloped shore lands with salt marshes and mudflats, the Bay is a primary wintering stop for the canvasback duck population on the Pacific Flyway, as well as a migratory staging ground for numerous species of waterfowl. Much of the shore of the bay is protected as part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Endangered species that are found in the bay include the California brown pelican, California clapper rail and this is a popular destination for recreation fishing, with Saltwater species including, striped bass, surfperch, sturgeon, starry flounder, leopard shark, topsmelt, and anchovy. In the 1880s there was a village, where some 500 Chinese people lived. The location is now part of China Camp State Park, San Pablo Bay is the setting of alternative rock band Primuss four-part song series Fishermans Chronicles, and is also referenced in The Toys Go Winding Down and Harold of the Rocks. It is also mentioned in The Minus 5 song John Barleycorn Must Live, provides a brief history of the marshes of San Pablo Bay
15.
Novato, California
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Novato is a city in northern Marin County, in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 51,904, Novato is located about 10 miles northwest of San Rafael and about 30 miles north of San Francisco on U. S.101. What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok villages, Chokecherry, near downtown Novato, Puyuku, near Ignacio, in 1839 the Mexican government granted the 8, 876-acre Rancho Novato to Fernando Feliz. The rancho was named after a local Miwok leader who had probably given the name of Saint Novatus at his baptism. R. Novato, along with the rest of California, became part of the United States on February 2,1848, early pioneers included Joseph Sweetser and Francis De Long who bought 15,000 acres in the mid-1850s and planted orchards and vineyards. The first post office at Novato opened in 1856, it closed in 1860, the first school was built in 1859 at the corner of Grant Avenue at what is today Redwood Boulevard. The original town was located around Novato Creek at what is now South Novato Boulevard, a railroad was built in 1879, connecting Novato to Sonoma County and San Rafael. The area around the depot became known as New Town. The current depot was built in 1917, but closed in 1959 and is largely derelict, the depot consisted of two buildings, a warehouse and a station. The warehouse burned twice in the intervening years, behind the rail station/warehouse complex was a grain and feed mill complex. A Presbyterian church, still a landmark in Novato today, was built in 1896, until 2006 it housed a number of city offices, but was vacated that year due to safety concerns and condemned. The church has since been renovated, a new city center complex has been erected adjacent to the old City Hall The Great Depression of the 1930s had a marked effect on the area as many farmers lost their land. After World War II, Novato grew quickly with the construction of tract homes, as the area was unincorporated much of the growth was unplanned and uncontrolled. Novato was finally incorporated as a city in 1960, one of the most important venues of the time was Western Weekend. Beard growing contests sponsored by Bobs Barber Shop and many other odd activities helped to bring community together. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 28.0 square miles. 27.4 square miles of it is land and 0.5 square miles of it is water, major geographical features nearby include Mount Burdell and Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve to the north and Big Rock Ridge to the southwest. Stafford Lake to the west is a water supply for Novato
16.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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River delta
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A river delta is a landform that forms from deposition of sediment carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or standing water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, River deltas are ecologically important as they provide coastline defense, are home to many species, and can impact drinking water supply. The tidal currents also cannot be too strong, as sediment would wash out into the body faster than the river deposits it. Of course, the river must carry enough sediment to layer into deltas over time, the rivers velocity decreases rapidly, causing it to deposit the majority, if not all, of its load. This alluvium builds up to form the river delta, when the flow enters the standing water, it is no longer confined to its channel and expands in width. This flow expansion results in a decrease in the flow velocity, as a result, sediment drops out of the flow and deposits. Over time, this single channel builds a deltaic lobe, pushing its mouth into the standing water, as the deltaic lobe advances, the gradient of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation. As the slope of the channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, gravity makes the flow in the most direct course down slope. If the river breaches its natural levees, it out onto a new course with a shorter route to the ocean. Second, as its slope gets lower, the amount of stress on the bed decreases, which results in deposition of sediment within the channel. This makes it easier for the river to breach its levees, often when the channel does this, some of its flow remains in the abandoned channel. When these channel-switching events occur, a mature delta develops a distributary network, another way these distributary networks form is from deposition of mouth bars. When this mid-channel bar is deposited at the mouth of a river and this results in additional deposition on the upstream end of the mouth-bar, which splits the river into two distributary channels. A good example of the result of this process is the Wax Lake Delta, in both of these cases, depositional processes force redistribution of deposition from areas of high deposition to areas of low deposition. This results in the smoothing of the shape of the delta as the channels move across its surface. Because the sediment is laid down in fashion, the shape of these deltas approximates a fan. The more often the flow changes course, the shape develops as closer to an ideal fan, the Mississippi and Ural River deltas, with their birds-feet, are examples of rivers that do not avulse often enough to form a symmetrical fan shape
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Tidal marsh
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A tidal marsh is a type of marsh that is found along coasts and estuaries of which the flooding characteristics are determined by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. According to the salinity of the water, freshwater, brackish. Respectively, they may be classified into coastal marshes and estuarine marshes and they are also commonly zoned into lower marshes and upper or high marshes, based on their elevation with respect to the sea level. In addition they may also be classified into back-barrier marshes, estuarine brackish marshes and tidal freshwater marshes, tidal Marshes can contain island off their shore called barrier islands. These cigar shaped islands form parallel and close to the shoreline of a tidal marsh, the islands fully exposed during low tide look like a hill, and during a high tide being fully surrounded by water look like an island
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Miwok
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The Miwok are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word Miwok means people in their native language, anthropologists commonly divide the Miwok into four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups. These distinctions were unknown among the Miwok before European contact, plains and Sierra Miwok, from the western slope and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Coast Miwok, from present day location of Marin County and southern Sonoma County, Lake Miwok, from Clear Lake basin of Lake County. Bay Miwok, from location of Contra Costa County. The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok descent in California, the Miwok lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had domesticated dogs and cultivated tobacco, but were otherwise hunter-gatherers, the Sierra Miwok harvested acorns from the California Black Oak. In fact, the extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of Yosemite National Park is partially due to cultivation by Miwok tribes. They burned understory vegetation to reduce the fraction of Ponderosa Pine, nearly every other kind of edible vegetable matter was used as a food source, including bulbs, seeds, and fungi. Animals were hunted with arrows, clubs or snares, depending on the species, grasshoppers were a highly prized food source, as were mussels for those groups adjacent to the Stanislaus River. The Miwok ate meals according to rather than at regular times. They stored food for consumption, primarily in flat-bottomed baskets. Miwok mythology and narratives tend to be similar to those of other natives of Northern California, Miwok had totem animals, identified with one of two moieties, which were in turn associated respectively with land and water. These totem animals were not thought of as literal ancestors of humans, Miwok people played athletic games on a 110-yard playing field called poscoi a we’a. A unique game was played with men and women. Similarly to soccer, the object was to put an elk hide ball through the goalpost, the girls were allowed to do anything, including kicking the ball and picking it up and running with it. The boys were allowed to use their feet, but if a girl was holding it he could pick her up. The 1910 Census reported only 671 Miwok total, and the 1930 Census,491, see history of each Miwok group for more information
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Presidio of San Francisco
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It had been a fortified location since September 17,1776, when New Spain established it to gain a foothold on Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848. As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment, on October 1,1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use. In 1996, the United States Congress created the Presidio Trust to oversee and manage the interior 80% of the parks lands, with the National Park Service managing the coastal 20%. In a first-of-its-kind structure, Congress mandated that the Presidio Trust make the Presidio financially self-sufficient by 2013, the park is characterized by many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1933 and as a National Historic Landmark in 1962, battery Chamberlin, seacoast defense museum and artillery display at Baker Beach built in 1904. Fort Point,1861 brick and granite fortification located under the Golden Gate Bridge, the visitor center, open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, offers video orientations, guided tours, self-guiding materials, exhibits, and a bookstore. Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center, This center offers hands-on marine-life exhibits, the building was used by the Coast Guard from 1890 to 1990. Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, opened May 2012 for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and it is located just east of the southern end of the bridge. Crissy Field Center is an environmental education center with programs for schools, public workshops, after-school programs, summer camps. The Center is operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the facilities include interactive environmental exhibits, a media lab, resource library, arts workshop, science lab, gathering room, teaching kitchen, café and bookstore. The landscape of Crissy Field was designed by George Hargreaves, the project restored a naturally functioning and sustaining tidal wetland as a habitat for flora and fauna, which were previously not in evidence on the site. It also restored a historic grass airfield that functioned as a significant military airfield between 1919 and 1936. The park at Crissy Field expanded and widened the recreational opportunities of the existing 1 1⁄2-mile San Francisco shore to a number of Presidio residents. 1776, Spanish Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led 193 soldiers, women,1794, Castillo de San Joaquin, an artillery emplacement was built above present-day Fort Point, San Francisco, complete with iron or bronze cannon. Six cannons may be seen in the Presidio today, 1776–1821, The Presidio was a simple fort made of adobe, brush and wood. It often was damaged by earthquakes or heavy rains, in 1783, its company was only 33 men. Presidio soldiers duties were to support Mission Dolores by controlling Indian workers in the Mission, and also farming, ranching, support from Spanish authorities in Mexico was very limited
21.
Sonoma Mountain
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Sonoma Mountain is a prominent landform within the Sonoma Mountains of southern Sonoma County, California. At elevation of 2,463 ft, Sonoma Mountain offers expansive views of the Pacific Ocean to the west, in fact, the viticultural area extends in isolated patches up the eastern slopes of Sonoma Mountain to almost 1,700 feet in elevation. The eastern and northern slopes are protected from heat and hence are more densely forested in oak woodlands. The western and southern slopes, on the hand, are drier and warmer, leading to fewer dense woodlands and more chaparral, grassland. Up until about twelve years ago, this location was part of the seabed of the Pacific Ocean. This uplift formed the volcanically based Sonoma Mountains as well as the Mayacamas Mountains to the east, residual evidence of these ancient geological features appears in the form of local hot springs such as nearby Mortons Hot Springs and Agua Caliente Hot Springs. The presence of the active Rodgers Creek Fault also attests to this prehistoric tectonic movement, the eastern slopes of Sonoma Mountain drain to Sonoma Creek, the northern flanks drain to Matanzas Creek and the southwestern flanks are in the Petaluma River watershed. The most readily accessed eastern slopes have a predominant occurrence of Goulding clay loam soils and these are generally areas of 15 to 30 percent slopes that support dense mixed oak woodland, with large percentages of California laurel and bigleaf maple. Higher on the slopes is a large occurrence of Goulding clay loam on 30 to 50 percent slope, still with a dense forest cover. Soil depths are rarely over a few feet deep before bedrock is reached, outcrops of basaltic rock are common among this soil type, betraying the volcanic origin of Sonoma Mountain. The upper western reaches of Sonoma Mountain have some amounts of the Raynor clay association, lower on the western exposures, along the Lichau Creek immediate drainage area, there is a broad occurrence of Goulding clay loam on slopes of about 15 to 25 percent. The verdant forests on eastern exposures are fed by the year round Graham Creek, the most common eastern slope plant community is the oak woodland, which has a canopy of coast live oak, Garry oak, black oak, Pacific madrone, bigleaf maple and California laurel. In some of the steeper, cooler riparian zones there are small groves of coast redwood. In these oak woodlands, the dominant understory plants are toyon, blackberry, western poison-oak, common animals observed include California mule deer, gray squirrel, raccoon, skunk and opossum. Less frequently bobcat and mountain lion are seen, there is abundant birdlife including the scrub jay, Stellers jay, acorn woodpecker and junco. Jack London State Historic Park, near Glen Ellen, California, is situated on the slope of Sonoma Mountain. The namesake of this California State Park is author Jack London whose home, the building, a sizable stone structure, was destroyed by fire and its picturesque ruins are protected within the state park. Sonoma Mountain had a significant influence on Jack London and his writings, in 1910 Jack London purchased this 1,000 acre property, known as the Beauty Ranch, for $26,000
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Lakeville, California
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Lakeville is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States. It is located near the Petaluma River about 4 mi southeast of Petaluma, the main thoroughfare is Lakeville Road, which passes north-south through Lakeville on its way from State Route 116 to State Route 37. The rear gate of Sonoma Raceway empties onto Lakeville Road and can cause delays on race days. Lakevilles name refers to Tolay Lake, about 2 mi east of the town, Lakeville has a fire department with one station, established in 1973. It is located east of the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Stage Gulch Road, the Lakeville area was part of the Rancho Petaluma grant to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo by the Governor José Figueroa of Alta California in 1834. In 1859, an emigrant named William Bihler purchased 8,000 acres in the Lakeville area, in 1859 Bihler dynamited the natural dam of the historic Tolay Lake to drain the lake in order to raise potatoes and corn. Settled by C. H. Bodwell, Lakeville became the terminus for a route connecting San Francisco with Sonoma County. In the 1870s, Lakeville was a stop on the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad
23.
California State Route 37
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State Route 37 is a state highway in the northern part of California that runs 21 miles along the northern shore of San Pablo Bay. It serves as a connection between the four counties of the North Bay Area, north of San Francisco, Sonoma Raceway. Route 37 has been proposed to be built to freeway standards since the early 1950s, however, the proposal was met with many economic and environmental obstacles, making the task all but impossible for much of the route. The route passes over the Petaluma River into Sonoma County before meeting the terminus of State Route 121 at a signal-controlled intersection near Sears Point. Before the construction of the barrier in 1995, this portion of SR37 was three lanes with the middle lane alternately serving as a lane for each direction. This stretch of highway was given the nickname of Blood Alley for its high-rate of fatal accidents, with the middle lane removed, accidents dropped dramatically. SR37 becomes a freeway on Mare Island, approaching northern Vallejo. After it crosses over the Napa River Bridge, it continues as a freeway, overlapping the old highway alignment and passing north of the old road known as Marine World Parkway. SR37 travels in a northeasterly direction along the White Slough before turning east as it crosses over State Route 29, in the early 1990s, the stretch between Fairgrounds Drive, which serves as the entrance to Discovery Kingdom, and Mini Drive was upgraded to a freeway. In 2004 and 2005, following fifty years of complications. Route 37 is also known as William Randy Bolt Memorial Highway from Route 29 to Skaggs Road, and Sears Point Toll Road and this route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System. However, it is not designated as a highway by Caltrans. The stretch of road east of Sears Point was once part of the historical El Camino Real, as a result of the State Highways Acts of the early 20th century, the Black Point Cut-off was built over it and opened to traffic in 1917. This highway followed the current alignment east of Sears Point, before diverting northeast along present-day Route 121 and it was first designated Legislative Route 8, later being signed as State Route 37. When it was purchased by the State in 1938, tolls were removed, Route 37 was redefined in the 1964 state highway renumbering as a route starting at SR251, then SR17, near Nicasio and ending at I-80 near Lake Chabot. The whole of SR37 has been proposed to be built to freeway standards since the early 1950s, however, the proposal was met with many economic and environmental obstacles, making the task all but impossible for much of the route. The paved toll road was to be built on top of an ancient Native American trail along the San Pablo Bay shore between the Sacramento Highway and the Black Point cut-off near Sears Point. It was expected to cost $775, 000USD, with a toll not exceeding $0.35, the road opened for traffic in 1928
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Sea level
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Mean sea level is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earths oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a low and mean high tide at a particular location. Sea levels can be affected by factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change, the term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level. Precise determination of a sea level is a difficult problem because of the many factors that affect sea level. Sea level varies quite a lot on several scales of time and this is because the sea is in constant motion, affected by the tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, local gravitational differences, temperature, salinity and so forth. The easiest way this may be calculated is by selecting a location and calculating the mean sea level at that point, for example, a period of 19 years of hourly level observations may be averaged and used to determine the mean sea level at some measurement point. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land, hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates. In the UK, the Ordnance Datum is the sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall between 1915 and 1921. Prior to 1921, the datum was MSL at the Victoria Dock, in Hong Kong, mPD is a surveying term meaning metres above Principal Datum and refers to height of 1. 230m below the average sea level. In France, the Marégraphe in Marseilles measures continuously the sea level since 1883 and it is used for a part of continental Europe and main part of Africa as official sea level. Elsewhere in Europe vertical elevation references are made to the Amsterdam Peil elevation, satellite altimeters have been making precise measurements of sea level since the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992. A joint mission of NASA and CNES, TOPEX/Poseidon was followed by Jason-1 in 2001, height above mean sea level is the elevation or altitude of an object, relative to the average sea level datum. It is also used in aviation, where some heights are recorded and reported with respect to sea level, and in the atmospheric sciences. An alternative is to base height measurements on an ellipsoid of the entire Earth, in aviation, the ellipsoid known as World Geodetic System 84 is increasingly used to define heights, however, differences up to 100 metres exist between this ellipsoid height and mean tidal height. The alternative is to use a vertical datum such as NAVD88. When referring to geographic features such as mountains on a topographic map, the elevation of a mountain denotes the highest point or summit and is typically illustrated as a small circle on a topographic map with the AMSL height shown in metres, feet or both. In the rare case that a location is below sea level, for one such case, see Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
25.
Grade (slope)
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The grade of a physical feature, landform or constructed line refers to the tangent of the angle of that surface to the horizontal. It is a case of the slope, where zero indicates horizontality. A larger number indicates higher or steeper degree of tilt, often slope is calculated as a ratio of rise to run, or as a fraction in which run is the horizontal distance and rise is the vertical distance. The grades or slopes of existing physical features such as canyons and hillsides, stream and river banks, grades are typically specified for new linear constructions. The grade may refer to the slope or the perpendicular cross slope. There are several ways to express slope, as an angle of inclination to the horizontal, as a percentage, the formula for which is 100 rise run which could also be expressed as the tangent of the angle of inclination times 100. In the U. S. this percentage grade is the most commonly used unit for communicating slopes in transportation, surveying, construction, and civil engineering. As a per mille figure, the formula for which is 1000 rise run which could also be expressed as the tangent of the angle of inclination times 1000 and this is commonly used in Europe to denote the incline of a railway. As a ratio of one part rise to so many parts run, for example, a slope that has a rise of 5 feet for every 100 feet of run would have a slope ratio of 1 in 20. This is generally the method used to describe railway grades in Australia, any of these may be used. Grade is usually expressed as a percentage, but this is converted to the angle α from horizontal or the other expressions. Slope may still be expressed when the run is not known. This is not the way to specify slope, it follows the sine function rather than the tangent function. But in practice the way to calculate slope is to measure the distance along the slope and the vertical rise. When the angle of inclination is small, using the slope length rather than the horizontal displacement makes only an insignificant difference, Railway gradients are usually expressed in terms of the rise in relation to the distance along the track as a practical measure. In cases where the difference between sin and tan is significant, the tangent is used. In any case, the identity holds for all inclinations up to 90 degrees, tan α = sin α1 − sin 2 α In Europe. Grades are related using the equations with symbols from the figure at top
26.
United States Army Corps of Engineers
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The United States Army Corps of Engineers, also sometimes shortened to CoE is a U. S. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, the Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U. S. hydropower capacity. The corps mission is to Deliver vital public and military engineering services, partnering in peace and war to strengthen our Nations security, energize the economy and their most visible missions include, Planning, designing, building, and operating locks and dams. Other civil engineering projects include flood control, beach nourishment, design and construction of flood protection systems through various federal mandates. Design and construction management of military facilities for the Army, Air Force, Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve and other Defense and Federal agencies. The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to 16 June 1775, colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washingtons first chief engineer, however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. One of its first tasks was to build fortifications near Boston at Bunker Hill, the first Corps of Engineers was mostly composed of French subjects who had been hired by General Washington from the service of Louis XVI. that the said Corps. Shall be stationed at West Point in the State of New York, until 1866, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy was always an officer of engineer. During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and, for a while, the General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use of Army engineers to survey road and canal routes. Separately authorized on 4 July 1838, the U. S and it was merged with the Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey District mission for the Great Lakes. In 1841, Congress created the Lake Survey, the survey, based in Detroit, Mich. was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids. The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852, in the mid-19th century, Corps of Engineers officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U. S. Naval officers. The Army Corps of Engineers played a significant role in the American Civil War, many of the men who would serve in the top leadership in this institution were West Point graduates who rose to military fame and power during the Civil War. Some of these men were Union Generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, the versatility of officers in the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to the success of numerous missions throughout the Civil War. They were responsible for building pontoon and railroad bridges, forts and batteries, the destruction of supply lines. The Army Corps of Engineers served as a function in making the war effort logistically feasible. This method of building trenches was known as the zigzag pattern, from the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps of Engineers to contribute to both military construction and works of a civil nature. During World War II the mission grew to more than 27,000 military, included were aircraft, tank assembly, and ammunition plants, camps for 5.3 million soldiers, depots, ports, and hospitals, as well as the Manhattan Project, and the Pentagon
27.
Dredging
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Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in shallow seas or freshwater areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location. This technique is used to keep waterways navigable. It is also used as a way to replenish sand on some public beaches, fishing dredges are used as a technique for catching certain species of edible clams and crabs. Capital, dredging carried out to create a new harbor, berth or waterway, preparatory, work and excavation for future bridges, piers or docks/wharves, often connected with foundation work. This is often carried out with a trailing suction hopper dredge, most dredging is for this purpose, and it may also be done to maintain the holding capacity of reservoirs or lakes. Land reclamation, dredging to mine sand, clay or rock from the seabed and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. The material may also be used for flood or erosion control, beach nourishment, mining sand offshore and placing on a beach to replace sand eroded by storms or wave action. This is done to enhance the recreational and protective function of the beaches and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. Harvesting materials, dredging sediment for elements like gold, diamonds or other valuable trace substances, seabed mining, a possible future use, recovering natural metal ore nodules from the seas abyssal plains. Construction materials, dredging sand and gravels from offshore licensed areas for use in construction industry, very specialist industry focused in NW Europe using specialized trailing suction hopper dredgers self discharging dry cargo ashore. Anti-eutrophication, Dredging is an option for the remediation of eutrophied water bodies. Contaminant remediation, to areas affected by chemical spills, storm water surges. Disposal becomes a large factor in these operations. Removing trash and debris, often done in combination with maintenance dredging, flood prevention, this can help to increase channel depth and therefore increase a channels capacity for carrying water. This tradition has now more or less obsolete and the tools used to do this have also changed significantly. Oyster dredging or harvesting, in Louisiana and other states with salt water estuaries that can sustain bottom oyster beds. A heavy metal rectangular scoop device is towed astern of a boat with a chain bridle attached to a cable. The device is periodically hauled aboard and the oysters in it are sorted and bagged for shipment to a processing facility
28.
Navigability
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A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass or walk. Preferably there are few such as rocks or trees to avoid. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable, waters may be unnavigable because of ice, particularly in winter. Navigability depends on context, A small river may be navigable by craft, such as a motor boat or a kayak. Shallow rivers may be navigable by the installation of locks that increase and regulate water depth. Inland Water Transport Systems have been used for centuries in countries including India, China, Egypt, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, China, and Bangladesh. In the Netherlands, IWT handles 46% of the nations inland freight, 32% in Bangladesh, 14% in the United States, what constitutes navigable waters can not be separated from the context in which the question is asked. Numerous federal agencies define jurisdiction based on navigable waters, including admiralty jurisdiction, pollution control, to the licensing of dams, the numerous definitions and jurisdictional statutes have created an array of case law specific to which context the question of navigability arises. Some of the most commonly discussed definitions are listed here, section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, approved 3 March 1899, prohibits the unauthorized obstruction of a navigable water of the U. S. For the purpose of establishing which river is public and therefore state-owned, if a river was considered navigable at the time of statehood, the land below the navigable water was conveyed to the state as part of the transportation network in order to facilitate commerce. Most states retained title to these rivers in trust for the public. Some states divested themselves of title to the land below navigable rivers, title to the lands submerged by smaller streams are considered part of the property through which the water flows and there is no public right to use private property. The scope of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority was granted under the Federal Power Act,1941, such authority is based on congressional authority to regulate commerce, it is not based exclusively on title to the riverbed or even navigability. Therefore, FERCs permitting authority extends to the flow from non-navigable tributaries in order to protect commerce downstream, also, the Clean Water Act has introduced the terms traditional navigable waters, and waters of the United States to define the scope of Federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act expands a more limited jurisdiction beyond navigable waters sometimes extending limited federal jurisdiction under the Act over private property. S, Supreme Court decisions, Carabell v. United States and Rapanos v. United States. Finally, a water-body is presumed non-navigable with the burden of proof on the party claiming it is navigable, the U. S. Forest Service considers a waterbody not navigable until is adjudicated otherwise. See Whitewater v. Tidwell 770 F. 3d 1108, therefore, and public rights associated with navigability cannot be presumed to exist without a finding of navigability. Navigability is a term of art, which can lead to considerable confusion
29.
Barge
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A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and must be towed or pushed by towboats, Barge is attested from 1300, from Old French barge, from Vulgar Latin barga. The word originally could refer to any small boat, the modern meaning arose around 1480, bark small ship is attested from 1420, from Old French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca. The more precise meaning three-masted ship arose in the 17th century, both are probably derived from the Latin barica, from Greek, βάρις, translit. Egyptian boat, from Coptic, ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ bāri small boat, hieroglyphic Egyptian, by extension, the term embark literally means to board the kind of boat called a barque. The long pole used to maneuver or propel a barge has given rise to the saying I wouldnt touch that with a barge pole. On the British canal system, the barge is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat. In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate, the captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called the tow. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the river system or the intracoastal waterways. These towboats travel between ports and are also called line-haul boats, poles are used on barges to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf. These are often called pike poles, barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for heavy or bulky items, a typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet. The most common European barge measures 76.5 by 11.4 metres, as an example, on June 26,2006, a 565-short-ton catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled onsite, of the reactors 700-mile journey, only about 40 miles were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery. Canal barges are made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Many barges, primarily Dutch barges, which were designed for carrying cargo along the canals of Europe, are no longer large enough to compete in this industry with larger newer vessels. Many of these barges have been renovated and are now used as hotel barges carrying holidaymakers along the same canals on which they once carried grain or coal. This holds true today, for areas of the world
30.
Salt marsh harvest mouse
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There are two distinct subspecies, both endangered and listed together on federal and state endangered species lists. The northern subspecies is lighter in color and inhabits the marshes of the bay. They are both similar in appearance to their congener species, the, to which they are not closely related. Genetic studies of the subspecies have revealed that the salt marsh harvest mouse is most closely related to the plains harvest mouse, R. montanus. Its endangered designation is due to its range, historic decline in population. The southern population of the salt marsh harvest mouse tends to have brown fur above and a pinkish cinnamon or tawny belly, moreover. An adults length is five to seven centimeters and a length of six to ten centimeters. The height is between 1.5 and 2.1 centimeters, weight of a mature mouse is approximately 10 to 20 grams. The northern subspecies is also dorsally brown or reddish brown, but the venters tend to be white or cream and this species is nocturnal, with particularly noted activity on moonlit nights. This mouse is particularly resourceful, making use of runways of other rodents, moreover. It occupies marsh habitats where pickleweed and marsh plants abound and its many predators feature hawk, snake and owl species, as well as shorebirds and larger mammals. Predation by domestic cats is a due to encroachment of the limited habitat by humans at the perimeter of the San Francisco Bay. As would be expected of a native to salt marshes. It eats seeds and plants, especially pickleweed and glasswort, one of the most common salt marsh plant species, similar species are the Plains Harvest Mouse, and the Fulvous Harvest Mouse, which has a longer tail. Survey data from Suisun Marsh found that the salt marsh harvest mouse can live up to 18 months, females commonly have two litters per year. In the summer, when salinity of water and vegetation increases, the northern species can survive purely on salt water, but prefers fresh water to salt water. The southern species can survive on either, and does not display a preference, the mice depend heavily on vegetation cover, particularly pickleweed and tules. Pickleweed is their primary and preferred habitat as well their main food source and they can also survive tidal or seasonal flooding due to their superior ability to swim, float and climb
31.
Ridgway's rail
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Ridgways rail is a near-threatened species of bird. It is found principally in Californias San Francisco Bay to southern Baja California, a member of the rail family, Rallidae, it is a chicken-sized bird that rarely flies. This species is related to the clapper rail, and until recently was considered a subspecies. It has a long, downward curving bill and is brown with a pale chestnut breast. The population levels of Ridgways rail are precariously low due to destruction of its coastal and estuarine marshland habitat by prior land development and it has year-long, circadian activity and is most vocal nocturnally and crepuscularly. Ridgways rail forages at the end of, along the ecotone between mudflat and higher vegetated zones, and in tidal sloughs. Mussels, clams, arthropods, snails, worms and small fish are its preferred foods, the bird will only forage on mudflats or very shallow water where there is taller plant material nearby to provide protection at high tide. At such high tides it may also prey upon mice, and has known to scavenge dead fish. One of the largest population of Ridgways rails is in San Francisco Bay, for cover, Ridgways rail seeks out emergent wetland dominated by pickleweed and cordgrass, or brackish emergent wetland with those two plants plus bulrush. It is not clear whether it requires any source of fresh water, although not migratory in coastal wetlands, this species disperses juveniles into freshwater wetlands in late August through October. Ridgways rail breeds in the San Francisco Bay from mid-March through August, during this breeding season the bird density was approximately 0.1 to 0.6 individuals per acre, outside of breeding season densities decline to 0.04 to 0.40 individuals per acre. The twig nest is placed low sometimes among plant roots, eggs are produced in clutches of four to fourteen, with an average yield of 7.6. The incubation period is 18 to 29 days, and the success is 38%. Rallus o. yumanensis, Yuma rail, southeastern California and southern Arizona, to northwestern Mexico Rallus o. beldingi, Beldings rail, southern Baja California
32.
Lasthenia burkei
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Lasthenia burkei is a rare species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common names Burkes goldfields and Burkes baeria. The plant is endemic to California, where it is known from three counties north of the San Francisco Bay Area and it grows in moist spring meadows and vernal pools. This is a endangered species on the federal level in the United States. It is listed as Critically Imperiled—Critically endangered by NatureServe, there are probably fewer than ten occurrences in Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties. It is threatened by the destruction and degradation of its wetland habitat. Lasthenia burkei is an annual herb producing hairy stems with sparse linear or deeply divided, narrow. Atop the stem is an inflorescence, which is a head with a base of hairy phyllaries. The head contains yellow disc florets surrounded by a fringe of several short ray florets. The fruit is a hairy, club-shaped achene less than 2 millimeters long, jepson Manual Treatment, Lasthenia burkei USDA Plants Profile Center for Plant Conservation Profile Lasthenia burkei — U. C
33.
Trifolium amoenum
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This wildflower has an erect growth habit and is typically found on heavy soils at elevations less than 100 meters. The flower head is spherical with a diameter of about 2.5 centimeters. The petals are purple gradating to white tips, edward Lee Greene collected the first recorded specimen of this plant in 1890 in Vacaville, California. From further expansion of the population, Trifolium amoenum had become a rare species by the mid 1900s. Through the latter 1900s the number of distinct populations dwindled to about 20 in number, from pressure of a human population. The seeds from this single plant organism were used to more specimens. The Sonoma County location has developed and any plants remaining there have been extirpated. Presently there is only a single extant population, subsequently discovered in 1996 in northern Marin County, Trifolium amoenum became a federally listed endangered species in 1997. Recent conservation research on Trifolium amoenum has been conducted by the Bodega Marine Laboratory
34.
Limnanthes vinculans
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The name vinculans derives from the Latin root vinculum, meaning a bond, a cord. The specific epithet vinculans means linking or bonding, in reference to the sharing of some characters of L. vinculans with L. douglasii and L. bakeri. Like the other meadowfoams, Limnanthes vinculans is an annual herb, with multiple stems growing up to 30 centimetres in height. This plant bears flowers singly at the termini of its stems. L. vinculans is unique in its genus for having leaves with three to five leaflets, each leaflet is entire, with a narrow-obovate shape. The flowers are small, white, generally bowl-shaped, and bloom in April, although the young leaves are narrow and undivided, leaves on the mature plant have their undivided leaflets along each side of a long stalk. The shape of the leaves distinguishes Sebastopol meadowfoam from other members of the Limnanthes genus, the fruit consists of three to four millimeter long nutlets. Sites range from Graton, around the northern and western perimeters of Sebastopol, Sebastopol meadowfoam is endemic to a narrow region within Sonoma County, occurring only at elevations less than 300 meters above mean sea level. The occurrences are limited to the upper and central reaches of the Laguna de Santa Rosa and parts of the Americano Creek and Washoe Creek watersheds, L. vinculans is found primarily in vernal pools associated with the generally level to slightly sloping terrain. Sebastopol meadowfoam was placed on the State of California list of endangered plants in 1979, L. Vinculans was listed as a U. S. federally endangered species on December 2,1991. The state of California and U. S, the primary proactive form of protection is through the regional vernal pool conservation and restoration program. Sebastopol meadowfoam habitat is threatened by a number of activities, particularly urbanization spreading out from nearby cities Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park. State wildlife officials concluded that the meadowfoam had been transplanted from elsewhere, presumably to block the development project. Opponents of the project disagreed and have presented testimony from experts who argue that the state used incomplete analysis to arrive at its finding, in spring 2006, the plants reappeared, although officials said they had likely sprouted from seeds scattered the previous year. Sebastopols city council has yet to make a decision regarding the Laguna Vista project. Hardpan Rare species Golden Bear Biostudies, Sebastopol meadowfoam
35.
Rainbow trout
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The rainbow trout is a trout and species of salmonid native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout that usually returns to fresh water to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been introduced into the Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead, adult freshwater stream rainbow trout average between 1 and 5 lb, while lake-dwelling and anadromous forms may reach 20 lb. Coloration varies widely based on subspecies, forms and habitat, adult fish are distinguished by a broad reddish stripe along the lateral line, from gills to the tail, which is most vivid in breeding males. Wild-caught and hatchery-reared forms of species have been transplanted and introduced for food or sport in at least 45 countries. Introductions to locations outside their range in the United States, Southern Europe, Australia, New Zealand. Some local populations of subspecies, or in the case of steelhead. The steelhead is the state fish of Washington. The scientific name of the trout is Oncorhynchus mykiss. The species was named by German naturalist and taxonomist Johann Julius Walbaum in 1792 based on type specimens from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia. Walbaums original species name, mykiss, was derived from the local Kamchatkan name used for the fish, the name of the genus is from the Greek onkos and rynchos, in reference to the hooked jaws of males in the mating season. In 1855, William P. Gibbons, the curator of Geology and Mineralogy at the California Academy of Sciences, found a population and named it Salmo iridia and these names faded once it was determined that Walbaums description of type specimens was conspecific and therefore had precedence. Thus, in 1989, taxonomic authorities moved the rainbow, cutthroat, Walbaums name had precedence, so the species name Oncorhynchus mykiss became the scientific name of the rainbow trout. The previous species names irideus and gairdneri were adopted as subspecies names for the rainbow and Columbia River redband trout. Anadromous forms of the rainbow trout or redband trout are commonly known as steelhead. Subspecies of Oncorhynchus mykiss are listed below as described by fisheries biologist Robert J. Behnke, resident freshwater rainbow trout adults average between 1 and 5 lb in riverine environments, while lake-dwelling and anadromous forms may reach 20 lb. Coloration varies widely between regions and subspecies, adult freshwater forms are generally blue-green or olive green with heavy black spotting over the length of the body. Adult fish have a reddish stripe along the lateral line, from gills to the tail
36.
Chinook salmon
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The Chinook salmon /ʃɪˈnʊk/ is the largest species in the Pacific salmon genus Oncorhynchus. The common name refers to the Chinookan peoples, other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, Quinnat salmon, spring salmon, and Tyee salmon. The scientific species name is based on the Russian common name chavycha and they have been introduced to other parts of the world, including New Zealand, the Great Lakes of North America and Patagonia. A large Chinook is a prized and sought-after catch for a sporting angler, the flesh of the salmon is also highly valued for its dietary nutritional content, which includes high levels of important omega-3 fatty acids. Some populations are endangered, however many are healthy, the Chinook salmon has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List. Historically, the distribution of Chinook salmon in North America ranged from the Ventura River in California in the south to Kotzebue Sound in Alaska in the north. Populations have disappeared from large areas where they flourished, however. In certain areas like Californias Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, it was revealed that the low populations of juvenile Chinook salmon were surviving. In the western Pacific, the ranges from northern Japan in the south to the Arctic Ocean as far as the East Siberian Sea. Nevertheless, they are present and the distribution is well known only in Kamchatka. Elsewhere, information is scarce, but they have a presence in the Anadyr River basin. Also in parts of the northern Magadan Oblast near the Shelikhov Gulf and Penzhina Bay stocks might persist, in 1967, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources planted Chinook in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to control the alewife, an invasive species of nuisance fish from the Atlantic Ocean. Alewives then constituted 90% of the biota in these lakes, Coho salmon had been planted the year before and the program was a success. Chinook and Coho salmon thrived on the alewives and spawned in the lakes tributaries, after this success, Chinook were planted in the other Great Lakes, where sport fishermen prize them for their aggressive behavior on the hook. The species has established itself in Patagonian waters in South America. Chinook salmon have been spawning in headwater reaches of the Rio Santa Cruz. The population is thought to be derived from a single stocking of juveniles in the river around 1930. Sporadic efforts to introduce the fish to New Zealand waters in the late 1800s were largely failures, early ova were imported from the Baird hatchery of the McCloud River in California
37.
Marsh
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A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams and they are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flooded conditions. The plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels, many of these plants therefore have aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves into the rooting zone. Marsh plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction, familiar examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus and sawgrass. Aquatic animals, from fish to salamanders, are able to live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some can obtain oxygen from the air instead, while others can live indefinitely in conditions of low oxygen, Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. Marshes have extremely high levels of production, some of the highest in the world. Marshes also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants, Marshes are able to absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and slowly release it into waterways and therefore reduce the magnitude of flooding. The pH in marshes tends to be neutral to alkaline, as opposed to bogs, Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and freshwater marshes. These three can be found worldwide and each contains a different set of organisms, saltwater marshes are found around the world in mid to high latitudes, wherever there are sections of protected coastline. They are located close enough to the shoreline that the motion of the tides affects them and they flourish where the rate of sediment buildup is greater than the rate at which the land level is sinking. Salt marshes are dominated by specially adapted rooted vegetation, primarily salt-tolerant grasses, salt marshes are most commonly found in lagoons, estuaries, and on the sheltered side of shingle or sandspit. The currents there carry the fine particles around to the side of the spit. These locations allow the marshes to absorb the nutrients from the water running through them before they reach the oceans. Coastal development and urban sprawl has caused significant loss of these essential habitats, although considered a freshwater marsh, this form of marsh is affected by the ocean tides
38.
Hatchery
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A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for conservation purposes, i. e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled conditions, alternatively. Fish hatcheries are used to cultivate and breed a number of fish in an enclosed environment. They raise the fish until they are ready to be eaten or sold to aquarium stores, researchers have raised concerns about hatchery fish potentially breeding with wild fish. Hatchery fish may in some cases compete with wild fish, in the United States and Canada, there have been several salmon and steelhead hatchery reform projects intended to reduce the possibility of negative impacts from hatchery programs. Most salmon and steelhead hatcheries are managed better and follow up to date management practices to ensure any risks are, poultry hatcheries produce a majority of the birds consumed in the developed world including chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and some other minor bird species. A few poultry hatcheries specialize in producing birds for sale to backyard poultry keepers, hobby farmers and these hatcheries produce chicks of several different breeds and varieties, often including some heritage or endangered breeds. Larger poultry hatcheries are related to industrial poultry meat or egg production and this is a multibillion dollar industry, with highly regimented production systems used to maximize bird size or egg production versus feed consumed. Generally large numbers are produced at one time so the birds are uniform in size. A large hatchery produces 15 million chicks annually, poultry generally start with naturally or artificially inseminated hens that lay eggs, the eggs are cleaned and shells are checked for soundness before being put into the incubators. Incubators control temperature and humidity, and turn the eggs until just before they hatch, once the eggs hatch and the chicks are a few days old, they are often vaccinated. - Links to hatchery reform projects
39.
Water quality
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Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and it is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance can be assessed. The most common used to assess water quality relate to health of ecosystems, safety of human contact. In the setting of standards, agencies make political and technical/scientific decisions about how the water will be used, in the case of natural water bodies, they also make some reasonable estimate of pristine conditions. Natural water bodies will vary in response to environmental conditions, Environmental scientists work to understand how these systems function, which in turn helps to identify the sources and fates of contaminants. Environmental lawyers and policymakers work to define legislation with the intention that water is maintained at a quality for its identified use. The vast majority of water on the Earth is neither potable nor toxic. This remains true when seawater in the oceans is not counted, another general perception of water quality is that of a simple property that tells whether water is polluted or not. In fact, water quality is a subject, in part because water is a complex medium intrinsically tied to the ecology of the Earth. Industrial and commercial activities are a cause of water pollution as are runoff from agricultural areas, urban runoff. The parameters for water quality are determined by the intended use, work in the area of water quality tends to be focused on water that is treated for human consumption, industrial use, or in the environment. Water quality depends on the geology and ecosystem, as well as human uses such as sewage dispersion, industrial pollution, use of water bodies as a heat sink. The United States Environmental Protection Agency limits the amounts of contaminants in tap water provided by US public water systems. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water that must provide the protection for public health. Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants, the presence of these contaminants does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk. Water drawn directly from a stream, lake, or aquifer, dissolved minerals may affect suitability of water for a range of industrial and domestic purposes. Hard water may be softened to remove these ions, the softening process often substitutes sodium cations. Hard water may be preferable to soft water for consumption, since health problems have been associated with excess sodium
40.
Overgrazing
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Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves and it can also be caused by immobile, travel restricted populations of native or non-native wild animals. The only thing to stop overgrazing is to limit the space to roam around. Cows are the things that causes overgrazing and overgrazing can lead to desertification. It reduces the usefulness, productivity, and biodiversity of the land and is one cause of desertification and erosion, Overgrazing is also seen as a cause of the spread of invasive species of non-native plants and of weeds. Sustainable grassland production is based on grass and grassland management, land management, animal management, grazing management, with sustainable agriculture and agroecology practices, is the foundation of grassland-based livestock production since it affects both animal and plant health and productivity. In some regions of the United States under continuous grazing, overgrazed pastures are predominated by short-grass species such as bluegrass, in all cases, palatable tall grasses such as orchard grass are sparse or non-existent. Under rotational grazing, overgrazed plants do not have time to recover to the proper height between grazing events. The animals resume grazing before the plants have restored carbohydrate reserves, another indicator of overgrazing in some parts of North America is that livestock run out of pasture, and hay needs to be fed early in the fall. In contrast, most areas of the world do not experience the climatic regime as the continental United States. Overgrazing is also indicated in livestock performance and condition, cows having inadequate pasture immediately following their calfs weaning may have poor body condition the following season. This may reduce the health and vigor of cows and calves at calving, also, cows in poor body condition do not cycle as soon after calving, which can result in delayed breeding. This can result in a long calving season, with good cow genetics, nutrition, ideal seasons and controlled breeding 55% to 75% of the calves should come in the first 21 days of the calving season. Poor weaning weights of calves can be caused by insufficient pasture, when cows give less milk, reduction in soil depth, soil organic matter and soil fertility impair the lands future natural and agricultural productivity. Soil fertility can sometimes be mitigated by applying the appropriate lime, however, the loss of soil depth and organic matter takes centuries to correct. Their loss is critical in determining the soils water-holding capacity and how well pasture plants do during dry weather, native plant grass species, both individual bunch grasses and in grasslands, are especially vulnerable. In the continental United States, to prevent overgrazing, match the forage supplement to the herds requirement and this means that a buffer needs to be in the system to adjust for the fastest growth of forages. Another potential buffer is to plant warm-season perennial grasses such as switchgrass and this reduces the area that the livestock can use early in the season, making it easier for them to keep up with the cool-season grasses
41.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
42.
Water pollution
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Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies. This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds, Water pollution affects the entire biosphere – plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and population, Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels. It has been suggested that pollution is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases. An estimated 580 people in India die of water related illness every day. About 90 percent of the water in the cities of China is polluted, as of 2007, half a billion Chinese had no access to safe drinking water. In addition to the problems of water pollution in developing countries. The head of Chinas national development agency said in 2007 that one quarter the length of Chinas seven main rivers were so poisoned the water harmed the skin. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms, and earthquakes also cause changes in water quality. Although interrelated, surface water and groundwater have often studied and managed as separate resources. Surface water seeps through the soil and becomes groundwater, conversely, groundwater can also feed surface water sources. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two based on their origin. Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single, identifiable source, examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U. S. Clean Water Act defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes, the CWA definition of point source was amended in 1987 to include municipal storm sewer systems, as well as industrial storm water, such as from construction sites. Nonpoint source pollution refers to contamination that does not originate from a single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area, a common example is the leaching out of nitrogen compounds from fertilized agricultural lands. Nutrient runoff in storm water from sheet flow over a field or a forest are also cited as examples of NPS pollution. Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, however, because this runoff is typically channeled into storm drain systems and discharged through pipes to local surface waters, it becomes a point source
43.
Nitrate
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Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO−3 and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. Nitrates also describe the functional group RONO2. These nitrate esters are a class of explosives. The anion is the base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a charge of −1. This arrangement is used as an example of resonance. Like the isoelectronic carbonate ion, the ion can be represented by resonance structures. A common example of a nitrate salt is potassium nitrate. A rich source of nitrate in the human body comes from diets rich in leafy green foods, such as spinach. NO3- is the active component within beetroot juice and other vegetables. Nitrite and water are converted in the body to nitric oxide, nitrate salts are found naturally on earth as large deposits, particularly of nitratine, a major source of sodium nitrate. Nitrates are found in man-made fertilizers, as a byproduct of lightning strikes in earths nitrogen-oxygen rich atmosphere, nitric acid is produced when nitrogen dioxide reacts with water vapor. Nitrates are mainly produced for use as fertilizers in agriculture because of their solubility and biodegradability. The main nitrate fertilizers are ammonium, sodium, potassium, several million kilograms are produced annually for this purpose. The second major application of nitrates is as oxidizing agents, most notably in explosives where the oxidation of carbon compounds liberates large volumes of gases. Sodium nitrate is used to air bubbles from molten glass. Mixtures of the salt are used to harden some metals. Explosives and table tennis balls are made from celluloid, although nitrites are the nitrogen compound chiefly used in meat curing, nitrates are used in certain specialty curing processes where a long release of nitrite from parent nitrate stores is needed
44.
Hydrocarbon
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In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon, and thus are group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons from which one atom has been removed are functional groups. Aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes and alkyne-based compounds are different types of hydrocarbons, the classifications for hydrocarbons, defined by IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry are as follows, Saturated hydrocarbons are the simplest of the hydrocarbon species. They are composed entirely of single bonds and are saturated with hydrogen, the formula for acyclic saturated hydrocarbons is CnH2n+2. The most general form of saturated hydrocarbons is CnH2n+2, where r is the number of rings and those with exactly one ring are the cycloalkanes. Saturated hydrocarbons are the basis of petroleum fuels and are found as linear or branched species. Substitution reaction is their characteristics property, hydrocarbons with the same molecular formula but different structural formulae are called structural isomers. As given in the example of 3-methylhexane and its higher homologues, chiral saturated hydrocarbons constitute the side chains of biomolecules such as chlorophyll and tocopherol. Unsaturated hydrocarbons have one or more double or triple bonds between carbon atoms and those with double bond are called alkenes. Those with one double bond have the formula CnH2n and those containing triple bonds are called alkyne. Those with one triple bond have the formula CnH2n−2, aromatic hydrocarbons, also known as arenes, are hydrocarbons that have at least one aromatic ring. Hydrocarbons can be gases, liquids, waxes or low melting solids or polymers, in terms of shells, carbon consists of an incomplete outer shell, which comprises 4 electrons, and thus has 4 electrons available for covalent or dative bonding. Some hydrocarbons also are abundant in the solar system, lakes of liquid methane and ethane have been found on Titan, Saturns largest moon, confirmed by the Cassini-Huygens Mission. Hydrocarbons are also abundant in nebulae forming polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds, hydrocarbons are a primary energy source for current civilizations. The predominant use of hydrocarbons is as a fuel source. In their solid form, hydrocarbons take the form of asphalt, mixtures of volatile hydrocarbons are now used in preference to the chlorofluorocarbons as a propellant for aerosol sprays, due to chlorofluorocarbons impact on the ozone layer. Methane and ethane are gaseous at ambient temperatures and cannot be liquefied by pressure alone. Propane is however easily liquefied, and exists in propane bottles mostly as a liquid, butane is so easily liquefied that it provides a safe, volatile fuel for small pocket lighters
45.
Pesticide
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Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The most common of these are herbicides which account for approximately 80% of all pesticide use, most pesticides are intended to serve as plant protection products, which in general, protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes, although pesticides have benefits, some also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,9 of the 12 most dangerous, the term includes substances intended for use as a plant growth regulator, defoliant, desiccant, or agent for thinning fruit or preventing the premature fall of fruit. Also used as substances applied to either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage. Pesticides can be classified by target organism, chemical structure, biopesticides include microbial pesticides and biochemical pesticides. Plant-derived pesticides, or botanicals, have been developing quickly and these include the pyrethroids, rotenoids, nicotinoids, and a fourth group that includes strychnine and scilliroside. Many pesticides can be grouped into chemical families, prominent insecticide families include organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates. Organochlorine hydrocarbons could be separated into dichlorodiphenylethanes, cyclodiene compounds, and they operate by disrupting the sodium/potassium balance of the nerve fiber, forcing the nerve to transmit continuously. Their toxicities vary greatly, but they have phased out because of their persistence. Organophosphate and carbamates largely replaced organochlorines, both operate through inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, allowing acetylcholine to transfer nerve impulses indefinitely and causing a variety of symptoms such as weakness or paralysis. Organophosphates are quite toxic to vertebrates, and have in some cases replaced by less toxic carbamates. Thiocarbamate and dithiocarbamates are subclasses of carbamates, prominent families of herbicides include phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides, triazines, ureas, and Chloroacetanilides. Phenoxy compounds tend to selectively kill broad-leaf weeds rather than grasses, the phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides function similar to plant growth hormones, and grow cells without normal cell division, crushing the plants nutrient transport system. Many commonly used pesticides are not included in these families, including glyphosate, Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests, a systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward and outward, increased efficiency may be a result
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Sediment
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For sediment in beverages, see dregs. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in water and on reaching the sea be deposited by sedimentation. Sediments are most often transported by water, but also wind, beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments, sediment can be classified based on its grain size and/or its composition. Sediment size is measured on a log base 2 scale, called the Phi scale, composition of sediment can be measured in terms of, parent rock lithology mineral composition chemical make-up. This leads to an ambiguity in which clay can be used as both a size-range and a composition, sediment is transported based on the strength of the flow that carries it and its own size, volume, density, and shape. Stronger flows will increase the lift and drag on the particle, causing it to rise, rivers and streams carry sediment in their flows. This sediment can be in a variety of locations within the flow and these relationships are shown in the following table for the Rouse number, which is a ratio of sediment fall velocity to upwards velocity. If the upwards velocity is less than the settling velocity, but still high enough for the sediment to move, it will move along the bed as bed load by rolling, sliding. If the upwards velocity is higher than the velocity, the sediment will be transported high in the flow as wash load. As there are generally a range of different particle sizes in the flow, sediment motion can create self-organized structures such as ripples, dunes, antidunes on the river or stream bed. These bedforms are often preserved in rocks and can be used to estimate the direction. Overland flow can erode soil particles and transport them downslope, the erosion associated with overland flow may occur through different methods depending on meteorological and flow conditions. If the initial impact of rain droplets dislodges soil, the phenomenon is called rainsplash erosion, if overland flow is directly responsible for sediment entrainment but does not form gullies, it is called sheet erosion. If the flow and the substrate permit channelization, gullies may form, glaciers carry a wide range of sediment sizes, and deposit it in moraines. The overall balance between sediment in transport and sediment being deposited on the bed is given by the Exner equation and this expression states that the rate of increase in bed elevation due to deposition is proportional to the amount of sediment that falls out of the flow. This can be localized, and simply due to obstacles, examples are scour holes behind boulders, where flow accelerates
