Thursday August 20, 2026
Lost Coast Outpost —
Stretching from its headwaters in the forest above town down to its mouth in Butcher Slough, Arcata’s Jolly Giant Creek is only four miles long — pretty short, so far as waterways go, but its importance outshines its length. About half of it is in the city proper, and it functions as a drain, funneling runoff down to Humboldt Bay during the rainy months. Most of that lower half is underground, snaking through Arcata concealed in culverts, and when those rainy months come and the marsh floods, so does the creek. If it coincides with a king tide — a mighty tidal surge that usually occurs a few times a year — then woe be to the Arcatans near the marsh, whose homes sometimes flood. Climate change has the power to make the problem worse. Are there ways to prevent or blunt future floods? Probably, and Arcata’s now about $600,000 closer to getting there.
The California Coastal Conservancy recently awarded $597,000 to the city government to study ways to restore the creek and Butcher Slough and adapt them for climate change, money the city gets to accept later this month. It’s a big project, and this funding will only make up the first chunk of a larger, sustained effort, but it’ll go a long way towards completing the initial research. The city will study the creek’s hydrology and its hydraulics: how it moves and where it goes, where it needs the most work.