San Joaquin River

The San Joaquin River is a major river in central California that flows through the San Joaquin Valley into the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.

Sierra Nevada: A mountain range in eastern California that includes the headwaters of several major rivers. Snowmelt from its western slopes supplies much of the river’s natural flow.
Ansel Adams Wilderness: A protected wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California. The river’s headwaters rise in the Sierra Nevada near this wilderness area.
Central Valley Project: A federal water-management system that stores and moves water across California’s Central Valley. Its Friant Division stores San Joaquin water and supplies farms and communities.
San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge: A protected wildlife refuge near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus rivers. Its wetlands and riparian forests depend on river flows and provide habitat for wildlife.
Sacramento River: California’s largest river by flow, draining the northern Central Valley into the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Unlike the San Joaquin, it generally carries greater flows and enters the Delta from the north.
Friant Dam: A dam on the upper San Joaquin River that forms Millerton Lake. It stores river water and directs much of it into the Friant-Kern and Madera canals.
Miwok: Indigenous peoples of central California, including communities in the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley. Miwok communities lived in parts of the river’s watershed before Spanish colonization.
State Water Project: A California water system that stores and transports water from northern sources to southern users. Its pumps in the Delta can draw water from the San Joaquin’s downstream watershed.
Delta smelt: A small, endangered fish endemic to the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Water diversions and changing freshwater flows affect its Delta habitat.
Kings River: A Sierra Nevada river that flows into the Tulare Basin in California’s southern Central Valley. It lies south of the San Joaquin and historically drains toward an inland basin rather than the Delta.

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BakersfieldRelated: Its watershed and irrigation systems shaped agriculture throughout the valley north of Bakersfield.