Lichau Creek is an 8.9 miles (14.3 km) southwest-flowing stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 in Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which flows through the town of Penngrove

Penngrove, California

Penngrove is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States, situated between the cities of Petaluma and Cotati, at the foot of Sonoma Mountain. It is part of the North Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area...

 and discharges into the Petaluma River

Petaluma River

The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough near its mouth. It springs from farmlands southwest of Cotati and flows generally southward through Petaluma's old town and of tidal marshes to end in northwest San Pablo Bay.-History:The word...

.

The original name of the creek is O'Hara Creek and is named after the settler, John O'Hara, who purchased and owned the land through which the creek flows. O'Hara was born in 1833 in County Sligo, Ireland and settled in Penngrove sometime between 1852 and 1857 and died in 1911 at the age of 78 years. The October 26th, 1904 Santa Rosa Republican refers to this creek as O'Hara Creek.

Course

The creek springs from the western side of Sonoma Mountain

Sonoma Mountain

Sonoma Mountain is a prominent landform within the Sonoma Mountains of southern Sonoma County, California. At elevation of , Sonoma Mountain offers expansive views of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sonoma Valley to the east...

 between Copeland Creek

Copeland Creek

Copeland Creek is a perennial stream that rises on Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County, California.-Description:The headwaters area is slightly above the Fairfield Osborn Preserve, while the middle reaches drain grazing land and vineyards on the lower western slopes of the Sonoma Mountains...

 and Lynch Creek

Lynch Creek

Lynch Creek is a stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which discharges into the Petaluma River.-Course:Lynch Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain and descends initially to the west. It flows under Sonoma Mountain Road, then turns southward and roughly parallels Lynch Road...

. Descending initially to the west, it crosses under Sonoma Mountain Road and passes north of Stony Butte. After crossing East Railroad Avenue and Petaluma Hill Road, it flows under the Northwestern Pacific Railroad

Northwestern Pacific Railroad

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional railroad serving California's North Coast. The railroad currently runs on 62 miles of the 462 mile main line, stretching from Schellville, California to Eureka, California...

 tracks. It immediately bends southward and parallels the tracks through Penngrove, crossing Adobe Road and Main Street.

On the northern outskirts of Petaluma

Petaluma, California

Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. In the 2010 Census the population was 57,941.Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San...

, it crosses Ely Road and turns southwestward, crossing Old Redwood Highway, the North McDowell Boulevard Extension, U.S. 101, and Stony Point Road to reach the Petaluma River.

Flora and fauna

A 1968 survey of Lichau Creek found algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

, duckweed, cattails

Typha

Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan, being found in a variety of wetland habitats...

, dragonflies

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

, dipterous insects

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...

, caddisflies

Trichoptera

The caddisflies are an order, Trichoptera, of insects with approximately 12,000 described species. Also called sedge-flies or rail-flies, they are small moth-like insects having two pairs of hairy membranous wings...

, frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

s, steelhead trout

Rainbow trout

The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....

, and stickleback

Stickleback

The Gasterosteidae are a family of fish including the sticklebacks. FishBase currently recognises sixteen species in the family, grouped in five genera. However several of the species have a number of recognised subspecies, and the taxonomy of the family is thought to be in need of revision...

s living in the creek.

Bridges

At least three bridges span the creek:

• Petaluma Hill Road crosses 0.1 mile (0.160934 km) north of Old Redwood Highway on a 49 feet (15 m) concrete continuous tee beam built in 1920 and reconstructed in 1976.
• East Railroad Avenue crosses 0.1 mile (0.160934 km) east of Petaluma Hill Road on a 42 feet (13 m) concrete culvert built in 1970.
• Adobe Road crosses 0.08 mile (0.1287472 km) east of Old Redwood Highway on a 24 feet (7 m) concrete tee beam built in 1929.