Morro Creek is a coastal stream in San Luis Obispo County, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA. This watercourse discharges to the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 at the city of Morro Bay.

Natural history

The creek is in the coastal sage and chaparral

California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion

The California coastal sage and chaparral, a sub-ecoregion of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, is found in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California in Mexico.-Location:...

 section of the California chaparral and woodlands

California chaparral and woodlands

The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of lower northern, central, and southern California and northwestern Baja California , located on the west coast of North America...

 Ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

. Historically this watershed had habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s containing considerable amounts of chaparral

Chaparral

Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico...

, and scarce Oak woodland

California oak woodland

California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico...

s and Digger Pine trees.

Cultural history

The lower reaches of Morro Creek were used as a significant settlement of the Chumash tribe since at least the Millingstone Horizon

Millingstone Horizon

Millingstone Horizon is an archaeological period of Native American dominance denoting a period in California, USA involving extensive use of manos and other grinding technology. The interval is a subset of the Archaic Period; specifically Millingstone is usually applied to the period 6500 to...

. There is also incidence of historic mining of chromium within the catchment basin. It was used extensively for grazing by the cattle ranches.