Photo: Thomas Dunklin

"When you see that it's the same water that falls as snow and rain, rushes down nearby rivers, passes your lips, brings back the salmon--this is when you know your watershed". -Freeman House

The Mattole River watershed is located in Humboldt and Mendocino counties in northern California. The watershed boasts some of the most extreme rainfall, seismic activity, and rugged landscapes in the country. From its beginnings as springs in Mendocino County, it runs in a northwesterly direction, emptying into the Pacific Ocean at the north end of California’s Lost Coast.

The mountainous King Range separates the watershed from the Pacific Ocean. The coast here is so rugged that builders of the Coastal Highway were forced to go inland.

The watershed has a population of approximately 2,500 people, with most centered around the communities of Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, and Whitethorn.

The Mattole landscape is a mix of forest and open grassland, punctuated by creeks and the river. The Mattole River is home to one of the last runs of salmon that is unaltered by the introduction of non-native hatchery fish in California.