Bear Creek

 

NEW Bear Creek Regional Information.

Location: Jackson County in southwest Oregon, just north of the California border.

Size: Approximately 400 square miles or 253,440 acres. Formed by a ridge line which travels along the Cascade Mountains to the north and east, and the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains to the south and west.

Elevation: From 1,075 feet where it meets the Rogue,
to just over 7,500 feet high atop Mt. Ashland.

Watershed description: The Bear Creek Valley is a narrow, elongated watershed, about twice as long as it is wide. The Bear Creek Watershed is located in a transitional area between four very different climate zones: Pacific Maritime to the west, Oregon High Desert to the east, California Mediterranean to the south, and Northern Temperate to the north.

Weather: The fluctuating boundary between the four climate zones results in the Middle Rogue subbasin’s weather being highly variable and unpredictable, experiencing large annual fluctuations within longer climatic cycles.

Subwatersheds: There are about 83 streams identified within the watershed which are grouped into 21 subwatersheds. The 21 subwatersheds are: Upton, Whetstone, Jackson, Mingus, Lone Pine, Larson, Griffin, Coleman, Payne, Anderson, Wagner, Ashland, Neil, Emigrant, Walker, Gaerky, Butler, Myer, Jeffery and Kenutchen Creeks.

Main cities within watershed: Ashland, Central Point, Jacksonville, Medford, Phoenix, and Talent. Together the five urban population centers along Bear Creek make up over half of the total county population of 178,000.

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New Bear Creek Watershed Base Map created by the University of Oregon’s Infographics lab.