Creek is , which is the highest water yield of any Wasatch Front canyon stream in Salt Lake County. This canyon is a protected watershed area under strict management controls since it is a major source of drinking water for Salt Lake City. No dogs or horses are allowed. The water quality provides an excellent source of drinking water. Flooding is relatively rare for this creek. In the summer of 2010, Big Cottonwood Creek hit above the waterline. The flood stage for the urban waterways is . Big Cottonwood Canyon and the surrounding Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest have a long history of resource use and development. As Salt Lake City grew through the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, tremendous demands were placed on natural resources through population growth, mining, railroading, and manufacturing. The canyons were stripped of timber, forage, and minerals by 1900. A serious impact was the timber industry's sawmills. The first mills were two mills built in the lower portion of Big Cottonwood Canyon by 1850, and in the next decade, the mills moved up the canyon. Today the canyon continues to be impacted by recreational demands and urban pressure. Recreation Outdoor activities in the canyon include fishing, seasonal hunting, camping, hiking, picnicking, sightseeing, biking, rock climbing, skiing, and snowboarding. There are hundreds of places to stop and walk or hike to see Big Cottonwood Creek and its natural water features. The National Forest land in the canyon is intermixed with private land. The private land contains many homes, some right alongside Big Cottonwood Creek. Two large ski resorts are also located in the canyon: Brighton and Solitude. These resorts experience traffic all year. All of these activities further influence this ecosystem. Flora and Fauna Big Cottonwood creek is surrounded by a wide variety of native trees including the quaking aspen, gamble oak, douglas-fir, blue spruce, engelmann spruce, mountain mahogany, lodgepole pine, white fir, bigtooth maple, rocky mountain maple, rocky mountain juniper and boxelder maple. Invasive trees and plants have become a problem because they can throw off the balance of an ecosystem. They can affect water quality, which leads to issues for biodiversity, habitats, erosion, soil erosion, and affects the way that native species can survive and reproduce. Big Cottonwood Creek is home to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), and brown trout (Salmo trutta) and the native Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki utah).