Welcome! You’re standing in the 23,000-acre Peninsula Watershed. This land may look wild and feel quiet, but it plays a big role in our everyday lives.
A watershed is an area of land where fog and rainwater collect and flow downhill into the same place, like a river or lake. The Peninsula Watershed includes two main watersheds: San Mateo Creek, which flows to the San Francisco Bay, and Pilarcitos Creek, which flows to the Pacific Ocean.
Some of this water is stored in four reservoirs you may have heard of—Upper Crystal Springs, Lower Crystal Springs, San Andreas, and Pilarcitos.
The Peninsula watershed is part of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System. This system brings clean drinking water from the Sierra Mountains to more than 2.6 million people across San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda counties. Do you live in one of these counties? If so, your drinking water likely comes from this system!
But this watershed isn’t just important for people; It’s also home to many plants and animals. Some are threatened or endangered, so extra care is needed to ensure their survival.
As you walk along this half-mile Watershed Discovery Trail, you’ll discover some of the species that call the Peninsula Watershed home and learn why protecting this land matters to all of us.