Oregon & Northern California Coastal
Oregon & Northern California Coastal is a freshwater ecoregion in western North America. It includes the coastal rivers of Oregon and Northern California, from the Columbia River mouth in northwestern Oregon to northern Monterey Bay in Central California. It includes the Umpqua, Rogue, Smith River, Klamath, Mad, Eel, and lower Russian rivers, and many smaller coastal rivers and streams, including those on the coast side of the Marin and San Francisco peninsulas.
Geography
The ecoregion has an area of. 55% of the ecoregion is in Oregon, and the remaining 45% in California.The ecoregion is generally west of the crest of the Oregon Coast Range and northern California Coast Ranges. The upper Klamath River lies east of the Coast Ranges, draining part of the plateau country between the Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range.
The predominant vegetation is temperate coniferous forest. It overlaps portions of the Northern California coastal forests, Klamath–Siskiyou forests, and Central Pacific coastal forests terrestrial ecoregions.
It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River basin lies to the northeast, and includes Oregon's Willamette River on the eastern side of the Oregon Coast Range. The upper Klamath basin borders on the Oregon Lakes ecoregion to the east. To the southeast the Sacramento–San Joaquin freshwater ecoregion includes the Sacramento River basin on the eastern side of the California Coast Ranges, as well as the rivers and streams that empty into San Francisco Bay.
Fauna
About a quarter of fish species are endemic to the ecoregion, including the Umpqua pikeminnow, Klamath smallscale sucker, Klamath largescale sucker, Klamath Lake sculpin, slender sculpin, Modoc brook lamprey, Klamath River lamprey, Miller Lake lamprey, shortnose sucker, Lost River sucker, blue chub, Umpqua chub, and Umpqua dace.The rivers and creeks of the ecoregion are home to several species of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout, including pink salmon, coho salmon, king salmon or chinook salmon, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout.
Other native fishes include the white sturgeon and northern tidewater goby.
Other native animals include the California red-legged frog, foothill yellow-legged frog, and western pond turtle.