Blackwood Creek (California)


Blackwood Creek, is a eastward-flowing stream originating on the southwest flank of Ellis Peak in the Sierra Nevada. The creek flows into Lake Tahoe south of Tahoe City, California, between the unincorporated communities of Idlewild and Tahoe Pines in Placer County, California, United States.

History

Blackwood Creek was named for early settler, miner and fisherman Hampton Craig Blackwood, who settled at the creek's mouth in 1866. The area was heavily grazed and logged into the 1970s. "Blackwood Pass" at the head of the creek is named on the Wheeler Survey Report of 1876-1877.

Watershed

Blackwood Creek is the third largest stream of the 63 Tahoe Basin watersheds flowing into Lake Tahoe. The Blackwood Creek watershed drains an area of and the creek mainstem has Middle Fork and North Fork tributaries. The creek mainstem is paralleled by Barker Pass Road.

Ecology

Historically, Blackwood Creek once hosted native Lahontan cutthroat trout and other native fishes and was almost as important as the Upper Truckee River to the Washoe as a fishery. It is now a critical spawning stream for Lake Tahoe's non-native rainbow trout.
Recent evidence has shown that beaver are native to the Sierra Nevada. Their dams do not appear to pose barriers to trout passage.