The Central Valley (also known as The Valley) is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of the U.S. ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language state A U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of commonwealth rather than state. State citizenship is of California California's geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. California is the most. It is home to many of California's most productive agricultural Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as efforts. The valley stretches approximately 500 miles (800 km) from north to south. Its northern half is referred to as the Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties, and its southern half as the San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Stockton. Although most of the valley is rural, it does contain urban cities and suburbs such as Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia, Stockton, Tulare, Porterville, Turlock, Hanford, Modesto, Madera, and Merced. The Sacramento valley receives about 20 inches of rain annually, but the San Joaquin is very dry, often semi-arid desert A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 250 millimetres per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen in many places. The two halves meet at the shared Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in northern California in the United States. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of where the rivers enter Suisun Bay . The city of Stockton is located on the of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, a large expanse of interconnected canals Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats, while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port , or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g.: Caledonian Canal, Panama Canal), streambeds A stream bed is the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek; the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins, during all but flood stage, are known as the stream banks or river banks. In fact, a flood occurs when a stream overflows its banks and flows onto its flood plain. As a general rule, the bed is, sloughs, marshes In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants and peat islands. The Central Valley is around 42,000 square miles (110,000 km2), making it roughly the same size as the state of Tennessee The State of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. In the.

Contents

Boundaries and population

Bounded by the Cascade Range The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is called the, Trinity Alps and Klamath Mountains to the north, the Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range located in California and Nevada, United States. The range is also known informally as "the Sierra," "the High Sierra," and "the Sierras." to the east, the Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains are a short transverse range in southern California in the United States, running SW-NE connecting the Coast Ranges on the west with the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains on the east. The range extends for approximately 40 mi (64 km) SW-NE in southern Kern County southeast of Bakersfield and vary in height from to the south, and the Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. Technically, both rivers flow into Suisun Bay, which flows through the Carquinez Strait to meet with the Napa to the west, the valley is a vast agricultural region drained by the Sacramento The Sacramento River is the longest river entirely within the state of California. Starting at the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork of the Sacramento River, near Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range mountains, the Sacramento flows south for 447 miles (various other sources list the river length from 320 to 450 miles (720 km)) through the and San Joaquin rivers.

Counties commonly associated with the valley:[1]

About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, and it is the fastest growing region in California.[citation needed] There are 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas In the United States, a metropolitan area refers to a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions like counties or states. As such the precise definition of any (MSA) in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by (MSA) population. The largest city is Fresno Fresno is a city in California, USA, the county seat of Fresno County. As of 2010, the population was estimated at 505,479, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 35th largest in the nation. Fresno is located in the center of the wide San Joaquin Valley of Central California, approximately 200, followed by the state capital Sacramento Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2008 estimated population of 463,794, it is the seventh-largest city in California. Sacramento is the core cultural and.

Geology

The flatness of the valley floor contrasts with the rugged hills or gentle mountains that are typical of most of California's terrain. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and subduction occurs. Rates of subduction are typically of the Farallon Plate The Farallon Plate was an ancient oceanic plate, which began subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate— then located in modern Utah— as Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic period. It is named for the Farallon Islands which are located just west of San Francisco, California into a trench further offshore. The San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley.

An example of the extreme differences between the geology of the valley floor and that of the rugged hills of the Coast Ranges (Between Tracy and Patterson, CA:Interstate 5)

The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges or Pacific Mountain System (United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the west coast of North America from Alaska south to northern and central Mexico. They are part of the Western Cordillera (sometimes known in Canada as the Pacific Cordillera and also as the Canadian Cordillera), which includes, with its original outlet into Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey. Faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. Technically, both rivers flow into Suisun Bay, which flows through the Carquinez Strait to meet with the Napa. Over the millennia, the valley was filled by the sediments of these same ranges, as well as the rising Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range located in California and Nevada, United States. The range is also known informally as "the Sierra," "the High Sierra," and "the Sierras." to the east; that filling eventually created an extraordinary flatness just barely above sea level; before California's massive flood control and aqueduct system was built, the annual snow melt turned much of the valley into an inland lake.

The one notable exception to the flat valley floor is Sutter Buttes, the remnants of an extinct volcano just to the northwest of Yuba City which is 44 miles north of Sacramento Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2010 estimated population of 486,189, it is the seventh-largest city in California. Sacramento is the core cultural and.

Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta. The Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments which extends southwest to northeast across the valley.

Physiographically, the Central Valley lies within the California Trough physiographic section, which is part of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the Pacific Mountain System.[2][3]

Flora

The 'Central Valley Grassland' is an important 'Nearctic temperate and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands' ecoregion An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna in the Biome Biome are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Biomes are defined by factors such as plant structures , leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna), and (ecosystem An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving factors with which they interact; a biological community and its) of the earth. The Great Valley Grasslands State Park preserves this native grass habitat A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.[citation needed] example in the valley.

Climate

Tule fog in Stanislaus County in December

The northern Central Valley has a hot Mediterranean climate (Koppen climate classification Csa); the more southerly parts in rainshadow zones are dry enough to be Mediterranean steppe (BShs, as around Fresno) or even low-latitude desert (BWh, as in areas southeast of Bakersfield). It is hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter, when frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Summer daytime temperatures reach 90 °F (32 °C), and occasional heat waves might bring temperatures exceeding 115 °F (46 °C). Mid Autumn to mid spring comprises the rainy season — although during the late summer, southeasterly winds aloft can bring thunderstorms of tropical origin, mainly in the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley but occasionally to the Sacramento Valley. The northern half of the Central Valley receives greater precipitation than the semidesert southern half. Frost occurs at times in the winter months, but snow is extremely rare.[4]

Tule fog

Main article: Tule fog

Tule fog (pronounced /ˈtuːliː/) is a thick ground fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of California's Great Central Valley. Tule fog forms during the late fall and winter (California's rainy season) after the first significant rainfall. The official time frame for tule fog to form is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the tule grass wetlands (tulares) of the Central Valley. Accidents caused by the tule fog are the leading cause of weather-related casualties in California.

Rivers

The Chowchilla River. a tributary of the San Joaquin River

Two major river systems drain and define the two parts of the Central Valley. The Sacramento River, along with its tributaries the Feather River and American River, flows southwards through the Sacramento Valley for about 447 miles (719 km).[5] In the San Joaquin Valley, the San Joaquin River flows roughly northwest for 330 miles (530 km), picking up tributaries such as the Merced River, Tuolumne River, and Stanislaus River.[6] A third, smaller river system, the Mokelumne River, drains a small area between the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds. In the south part of the valley, the alluvial fan of the Kings River has created a divide and resultantly the dry Tulare basin of the Central Valley, into which flow four Sierra Nevada rivers including the Kings. This basin, usually endorheic, formerly filled during heavy snowmelt and spilled out into the San Joaquin River. Called Tulare Lake, it is usually dry nowadays because the rivers feeding it have been diverted for agricultural purposes.[7]

The rivers of the Central Valley converge in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a complex network of marshy channels, distributaries and sloughs that wind around islands mainly used for agriculture. Here the freshwater of the rivers merge with tidewater, and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean after passing through Suisun Bay, San Pablo Bay, upper San Francisco Bay and finally the Golden Gate. Many of the islands now lie below sea level because of intensive agriculture, and have a high risk of flooding, which would cause salt water to rush back into the delta especially when there is too little fresh water flowing in from the Valley.[8] The Sacramento River carries the vast majority of the runoff, about 30,215 cubic feet per second (855.6 m3/s), while the San Joaquin averages 10,397 cubic feet per second (294.4 m3/s) and the Mokelumne 644 cubic feet per second (18.2 m3/s). The water contributed by the rivers are relied on by over 25 million people.[9]

Engineering

The runoff from the Sierra Nevada and the resulting rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay provide some of the largest water resources of California. The Sacramento River is the second largest river to empty into the Pacific from the Continental United States, behind only the Columbia River and greater than the Colorado River.[10] Combined with the fertile and expansive area of the Central Valley’s floor, the Central Valley is ideal for agriculture. [11] Today, the Central Valley is one of the most productive farming regions of the United States, but water control was desperately needed to prevent rivers from overflowing during the spring and summer while drying to a trickle in the autumn and winter.[12] As a result, many large dams, including Shasta Dam, Oroville Dam, Folsom Dam, New Melones Dam, Don Pedro Dam, Friant Dam, Pine Flat Dam and Isabella Dam were constructed on rivers entering the Central Valley, many part of the Central Valley Project.[12] These dams have had a profound impact on the physical and ecological state of Central Valley rivers, including the loss of the chinook salmon.[13]

Rapid development and growth of California’s two major urban areas, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles/Inland Empire/San Diego metropolitan areas, meant that an enormous new demand was placed on local water resources that were not enough to support the population alone. The Central Valley was looked to as a water source, leading to the creation of the California State Water Project which was contrived to transport water to parched, thirsty Southern California. [14] Runoff from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are intercepted in the delta by a series of massive pumps and canals, which divert water into the California Aqueduct that runs south along the entire length of the San Joaquin Valley. [15] The flow of the Sacramento River is further supplemented by a tunnel from the Trinity River (a tributary of the Klamath River, northwest of the Sacramento Valley) near Redding. [16] Cities of the San Francisco Bay Area, also needing great amounts of water, built aqueducts from the Mokelumne River and Tuolumne River that run east to west across the middle part of the Central Valley.[17][18]

Flooding

Most lowlands of the Central Valley are prone to flooding, especially in the old Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Kern Lake beds. The Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern rivers originally flowed into these seasonal lakes, which would expand each spring to flood large parts of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Due to the construction of farms, towns and infrastructure in these lakebeds while preventing them from flooding with levee systems, the risk of floods damaging properties increased greatly. Major public works projects beginning in the 1930s sought to reduce the amount of snowmelt flooding by the building of large dams. In 2003 it was determined that Sacramento had both the least protection against and nearly the highest risk of flooding. Congress then granted a $220 million loan for upgrades in Sacramento County.[19] Other counties in the valley that face flooding often are Yuba, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin.

Economy

A typical Central Valley scene at ground level with almond trees on both sides

Agriculture is the primary industry in most of the Central Valley. A notable exception to the predominance of agriculture has been the Sacramento area, where the large and stable workforce of government employees helped steer the economy away from agriculture. Despite state hiring cutbacks and the closure of several military bases, Sacramento's economy has continued to expand and diversify and now more closely resembles that of the nearby San Francisco Bay Area. Primary sources of population growth are people migrating from the San Francisco Bay Area seeking lower housing costs, as well as immigration from Asia, Central America, Mexico, Ukraine and the rest of the former Soviet Union.[1]

Agriculture

The Central Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation’s agricultural output by value: 17 billion USD in 2002. Its agricultural productivity relies on irrigation from both surface water diversions and groundwater pumping from wells. About one-sixth of the irrigated land in the U.S. is in the Central Valley.[20]

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for a number of food products throughout the United States, including tomatoes, almonds,[21][22] grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus.

Four of the top five counties in agricultural sales in the U.S. are in the Central Valley (2002 Data). They are Fresno County (#1 with $2.759 billion in sales), Tulare County (#2 with $2.338 billion), Kern County (#4 with $2.058), and Merced County (#5 with $2.058 billion).[1] 2002 Data Sets

Early farming was concentrated close to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where the water table was high year round and water transport more readily available, but subsequent irrigation projects have brought many more parts of the valley into productive use. For example, the Central Valley Project was formed in 1935 to redistribute and store water for agricultural and municipal purposes with dams and canals. The even larger California State Water Project was formed in the 1950s and construction continued throughout the following decade.

National Farmworkers Association (NFWA)

It was in the Central Valley, especially in and around Delano, that farm labor leader Cesar Chavez organized Mexican American grape pickers into a union in the 1960s, the National Farmworkers Association (NFWA), in order to improve their working conditions.

Social issues

San Joaquin Valley congestion

Since the 1980s, Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia, Tracy and Modesto have exploded in both area and population, as housing values along the coast increased. Many people from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area relocated to growing San Joaquin Valley suburbs in search of more affordable housing while retaining employment outside the Valley. This has led to traffic congestion between their Valley residences and their Bay Area employment with accompanying air pollution. Air pollution became a principal environmental and health concern as long ago as the 1960s, and resulted in the establishment of the California Air Resources Board in 1967. The San Joaquin Valley now has the worst air quality in California, along with the highest asthma rates.[citation needed]

Highways and infrastructure

The valley in late August.

Highways Interstate 5 and State Route 99 run, roughly parallel, north-south through the valley, meeting at its north and south ends. Interstate 80 crosses it northeast-southwest from Rocklin to Vacaville.

In addition to highways, the California Aqueduct follows I-5 from Tracy on southwards to Southern California across the Transverse Ranges and the federal Central Valley Project includes numerous facilities between Shasta Dam and the Grapevine. PG&E's and Western Area Power Administration's system of three 500 kV wires (Path 15 and Path 66) run through the valley. Path 26 also runs in the southernmost part of the San Joaquin Valley and is used to transfer power from PG&E service territory to Southern California Edison territory on hot summer days.

BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway) and Union Pacific Railroad both have railway lines in the Central Valley. The BNSF Bakersfield Subdivision runs from Bakersfield to Calwa, four miles south of Fresno. From Calwa the BNSF Stockton Subdivision continues to Port Chicago, west of Antioch. The Union Pacific Railroad Martinez Subdivision runs from Port Chicago through Martinez, Richmond and Emeryville to Oakland. The UP's Fresno Subdivision runs from Stockton to Sacramento. Amtrak operates six daily San Joaquins trains over these lines.

References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be and removed. (December 2007)
  1. ^ a b c "A Statistical Tour of California's Great Central Valley". California Research Bureau. California State LIbrary. http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/97/09/. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  2. ^ "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S.". U.S. Geological Survey. http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/physio.xml. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  3. ^ Benke, Arthur C.; Cushing, Colbert E. (2005). Rivers of North America. Academic Press. pp. 554. ISBN 0120882531.
  4. ^ "Climate of California". Western Regional Climate Center. .www.wrcc.dri.edu. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/narratives/CALIFORNIA.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  5. ^ "Sacramento River Basin National Water Quality Assessment Program: Study Unit Description". United States Geological Survey. ca.water.usgs.gov. http://ca.water.usgs.gov/sac_nawqa/study_description.html. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  6. ^ "Restoring the San Joaquin River: Following an 18-year legal battle, a great California river once given up for dead is on the verge of a comeback". Natural Resources Defense Council. www.nrdc.org. 17 September 2007. http://www.nrdc.org/water/conservation/sanjoaquin.asp. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  7. ^ Gorelick, Ellen. "Tulare Lake". Tulare Historical Museum. www.tularehistoricalmueseum.org. http://www.tularehistoricalmuseum.org/articles/tularelake.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  8. ^ "Delta Subsidence in California: The sinking heart of the State". United States Geological Survey. ca.water.usgs.gov. http://ca.water.usgs.gov/archive/reports/fs00500/fs00500.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  9. ^ "Sacramento-San Joaquin River System, California". American Rivers. America's Most Endangered Rivers Report: 2009 Edition. http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/protecting-rivers/endangered-rivers/sac-san-joaquin.html. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  10. ^ The Columbia is the largest, with an average discharge of 265,000 cfs. The Sacramento comes next with a flow of 30,215 cfs, and even though the Colorado is much longer, its discharge is only about 10,000-22,000 cfs (that is before diversions started; the river is currently dry at the mouth). Other significant rivers include the Klamath (17,010 cfs), Skagit (16,598 cfs), Snohomish (13,900 cfs), and San Joaquin (10,397 cfs).
  11. ^ "California’s Central Valley". National Public Radio. 2002-11-11 to 14. http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/nov/central_valley/. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  12. ^ a b Stene, Eric A.. "The Central Valley Project: Introduction". U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. http://www.usbr.gov/history/cvpintro.html. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  13. ^ "Ecosystem Restoration: Systemwide Central Valley Chinook Salmon". CALFED Bay-Delta Program. http://science.calwater.ca.gov/pdf/eco_restor_all_salmon.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  14. ^ "California State Water Project Overview". California State Water Project. California Department of Water Resources. 2009-04-15. http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  15. ^ "California State Water Project Today". California State Water Project. California Department of Water Resources. 2008-07-18. http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/swptoday.cfm. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  16. ^ Anderson, David (1999-07-04). "A temporary diversion". Times-Standard. http://sunnyfortuna.com/explore/trinity_diversion.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  17. ^ "The Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct". Aquafornia. 2008-08-19. http://aquafornia.com/where-does-californias-water-come-from/the-hetch-hetchy-aqueduct. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  18. ^ "Mokelumne Aqueduct". Aquafornia. 2008-08-19. http://aquafornia.com/where-does-californias-water-come-from/the-mokelumne-east-bay-aqueduct. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
  19. ^ "Sacramento Flood Protection". http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-705251_ITM.
  20. ^ Reilly, Thomas E. (2008). Ground-Water Availability in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1323. Denver, CO: U.S. Geological Survey. p. 84. 978-1-4113-2183-0.
  21. ^ Purdum, Todd S. (2000-09-06). "NATIONAL ORIGINS: CALIFORNIA'S CENTRAL VALLEY; Where the Mountains Are Almonds". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7DD1639F935A3575AC0A9669C8B63&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FC%2FCooking%20and%20Cookbooks. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
  22. ^ Michael Pollan

External links

Nearctic Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
California Central Valley grasslands United States
Canadian aspen forests and parklands Canada, United States
Central and Southern mixed grasslands United States
Central forest-grasslands transition United States
Central tall grasslands United States
Columbia Plateau United States
Edwards Plateau savanna United States
Flint Hills tall grasslands United States
Montana valley and foothill grasslands United States
Nebraska Sand Hills mixed grasslands United States
Northern mixed grasslands Canada, United States
Northern Short Grasslands Canada, United States
Northern tall grasslands Canada, United States
Palouse grasslands United States
Texas blackland prairies United States
Western short grasslands United States
Rivers of California's Central Valley
Sacramento Valley Sacramento River • Pit River • McCloud River • Mill Creek • Deer Creek • Butte Creek • Feather River • Yuba River • Bear River • American River • Putah Creek • Cache Creek
San Joaquin Valley San Joaquin River • Mokelumne River • Cosumnes River • Calaveras River • Stanislaus River • Tuolumne River • Clavey River • Merced River • Chowchilla River • Fresno River
Tulare Basin Kings River • Kaweah River • Tule River • Kern River
State of California
Sacramento (capital)
Topics

Californians · Climate · Culture · Demographics · Deserts · Districts · Ecology · Economy · Elections · Geography · Government · History · Politics · Protected areas · Sports · Symbols · Transportation · Visitor attractions · Index of California-related articles
Regions

Antelope Valley · Big Sur · Cascade Range · Central Coast · Central Valley · Channel Islands · Coachella Valley · Conejo Valley · Cucamonga Valley · Death Valley · East Bay (SF) · Eastern California · Emerald Triangle · Gold Country · Great Basin · Greater Los Angeles · Inland Empire · Lake Tahoe · Los Angeles Basin · Lost Coast · Mojave · North Bay (SF) · North Coast · Northern California · Owens Valley · Oxnard Plain · San Francisco Peninsula · Pomona Valley · Sacramento Valley · San Bernardino Valley · San Fernando Valley · San Francisco Bay Area · San Gabriel Valley · San Joaquin Valley · Santa Clara Valley · Santa Clara River Valley · Santa Clarita Valley · Shasta Cascade · Sierra Nevada · Silicon Valley · South Bay (LA) · South Bay (SF) · South Bay (SD) · San Diego–Imperial · Southern California · Southern Coast · Tri-Valley · Upstate California · Victor Valley · Wine Country · Yosemite
Metro areas

Bakersfield · Chico · El Centro · Fresno · Hanford–Corcoran · Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale · Madera · Modesto · Merced · Napa · Oakland–Fremont–Hayward · Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura · Redding · Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario · Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville · Salinas · San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos · San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City · San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara · San Luis Obispo–Paso Robles · Santa Ana–Anaheim–Irvine · Santa Barbara–Santa Maria–Goleta · Santa Cruz–Watsonville· Santa Rosa–Petaluma · Stockton · Vallejo–Fairfield · Visalia–Porterville · Yuba City
Micro areas

Bishop · Clearlake · Crescent City · Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna · Phoenix Lake-Cedar Ridge · Red Bluff · Susanville · Truckee–Grass Valley · Ukiah
Counties

Alameda · Alpine · Amador · Butte · Calaveras · Colusa · Contra Costa · Del Norte · El Dorado · Fresno · Glenn · Humboldt · Imperial · Inyo · Kern · Kings · Lake · Lassen · Los Angeles · Madera · Marin · Mariposa · Mendocino · Merced · Modoc · Mono · Monterey · Napa · Nevada · Orange · Placer · Plumas · Riverside · Sacramento · San Benito · San Bernardino · San Diego · San Francisco · San Joaquin · San Luis Obispo · San Mateo · Santa Barbara · Santa Clara · Santa Cruz · Shasta · Sierra · Siskiyou · Solano · Sonoma · Stanislaus · Sutter · Tehama · Trinity · Tulare · Tuolumne · Ventura · Yolo · Yuba

Coordinates: 37°42′22″N 120°59′29″W / 37.70611°N 120.99139°W

Categories: Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands | Central Valley of California | Agriculture in California | Geologic provinces of California | Regions of California | Northern California | Grasslands of the United States | Physiographic sections | Valleys of California

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Fri Jul 30 05:00:03 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
'California Central Valley' Blogs
The Women's Foundation of California July News and Updates
womensphilanthropy.typepad.com
The Women's Foundation of California July News and Updates

WPWI

hu, 08 Jul 2010 23:11:24 GM

Central Valley. Sowing Change 2010: A Funder's Tour to Cultivate a Healthy . Central Valley. September 21 23, 2010 Early Bird Special if you register by Monday July 26, 2010 Register now! Learn more. ...

Google Blogs Search: California Central Valley,
Thu Jul 15 16:20:52 2010
'California Central Valley' Answers
Tattoo shop In the central valley in California?
Q. A very good/safe clean place. This would be my first and I want it to be very good! Please tell me what town they are in.
Asked by J H - Sun Mar 25 10:22:29 2007 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Danny Black studios
Answered by Tattooed Mistress - Sun Mar 25 13:42:34 2007

Yahoo Answers Search: California Central Valley,
Mon Jun 21 18:53:04 2010
[Hide]▲