Salmon River Dives and Spring-Run Chinook Symposium Forks of Salmon, Salmon River, CA July 24-27
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Front Salmonid Restoration Federation Summer 2007 10th Annual Coho Confab August 17-19, 2007 in Petrolia, CA on the North Coast The Coho Confab is a symposium to explore watershed restoration, learn restoration techniques to recover coho salmon populations, and to network with other fish-centric people. To confabulate literally means to informally chat or to fabricate to compensate for gaps in ones memory. Not to imply that restorationists are prone to hyperbole when recounting the size of a rescued fish, the magnitude of the waterfall coming out of the culvert, or the heroics of a particular restoration job. The Confab is an informal gathering of fishheads that allows for participants and instructors to learn from each other’s experience. Participants learn skills and practices that can be applied to restore The 10th Annual Coho Confab will feature tours of the beautiful Mattole River estuary. habitat in their home watershed. Each photo: courtesy Mattole Restoration Council archve year the Confab is held in another location on the North Coast. stream structures, and a tour of the of conservation easements with Noah The 10th Annual Coho Confab will headwaters of the Mattole addressing Levy of Sanctuary Forest, plus “Stories be held in the beautiful Mattole Valley water conservation, sediment and Songs of Salmon” with Freeman on the North Coast of California. reduction, and acquisitions. Other House, the author of Totem Salmon, This landmark event is sponsored by field tours will visit Wild and Working singer-songwriter Joanne Rand, Seth Salmonid Restoration Federation, Forests sites, in-stream structures in Zuckerman, co-author of Salmon Trees Foundation, Sanctuary Forest, the lower Mattole to the Estuary, and Nation, and David Simpson and Jane Mattole Restoration Council, Mill Creek. Workshops will focus on Lapiner of the theatrical troupe, Department of Fish and Game, and underwater fish identification, riparian Human Nature. Saturday night will the Mattole Salmon Group. This year’s invertebrate monitoring- stream health culminate with a wild salmon feast, a Confab will feature restoration tours assessment, and high-tech water cabaret, and the Joanne Rand band. The highlighting sudden oak death, road quality monitoring. Sunday morning workshops include decommissioning, the Mattole Canyon Open forums and resource low-flow assessment in watersheds, Creek Delta restoration, installing in- workshops will include a discussion monitoring riparian plantings, and the evolution of watershed restoration efforts in the Mattole. For more information about the Confab, please visit www.calsalmon.org or www.treesfoundation.org Advanced registration fees are $100 that includes all camping, food (except Sunday brunch at the Mattole Grange), and lodging. After August st Participants will learn 1 , registration is $125. Limited about macro-invertebrate scholarships and work trade positions sampling, water quality are available. If you are interested in monitoring, and low-flow arranging a work trade position, please conservation techniques. photo: courtesy Trees call SRF at (707) 923-7501. Foundation archives 2 Fish Passage Short Courses this Fall Staff Dana Stolzman in Santa Cruz and Sonoma Counties Executive Director Salmonid Restoration Federation in flows, water temperatures, and the Dian Griffith Bookkeeper conjunction with Department of Fish habitat diversity and complexity and Game, FishNet 4 C and Mike salmon and steelhead need to survive. Heather Reese Love and Associates are sponsoring Barriers also disrupt the biological Project Coordinator two Fish Passage short courses this and natural sediment balance in the fall. These courses will teach design stream, causing severe bank erosion, Board of Directors and implementation of fish barrier loss of property, and diminishing the Don Allan, President removal projects with the goal of downstream transport of sediment Redwood Community Action Agency increasing fish passage, thereby needed to replenish our beaches. Allen Harthorn, Vice-President helping to recover anadromous fish. The cumulative effect of culverts, California Watershed Network Salmon, steelhead and other road crossings, and other structures Jennifer Aspittle, Treasurer aquatic life depend on the health up and down the coast has impaired Stillwater Sciences of our coastal rivers and streams. fish passage greatly. The need exists Healthy streams provide cool water, to train county personnel, engineers, Steve Allen (alternate) CalTrans personnel, hydrologists, Winzler & Kelly clean gravel, natural meandering channels, and access to upstream and fisheries biologists how to Andy Baker (alternate) habitat. California streams have remove barriers, large and small, as North Coast Regional Water Quality been fragmented by roads, dams, an essential part of recovering coastal Control Board salmon and steelhead. Fish passage culverts, concrete channels, low- improvement projects are often Don Baldwin (alternate) water crossings or other structures complicated by various site constraints Department of Fish & Game that create difficult or impassable and socioeconomic challenges, migration barriers for fish. Sean Carlson requiring creative approaches. Metropolitan Water District Coho salmon and steelhead were of Southern California Techniques for retrofitting once abundant in California with existing structures are constantly Rob Dickerson millions returning each year to their Trout Unlimited evolving based on lessons learned natal streams to spawn. Coho salmon from previous projects, such as the Jodi Frediani (alternate) populations have dwindled to less evolution of corner baffles. Innovative Sierra Club than 10% of their historic abundance. design methods, such as stream Joelle Geppert One of the greatest factors in their simulation and natural roughened North Coast Regional Water Quality decline has been migration barriers channels, address the passage of Control Board that prevent salmon and steelhead both fish and other aquatic species. from reaching stream areas needed Josh Israel These techniques, however, require UC Davis for spawning and rearing. Barriers a more thorough understanding of not only create difficult or impassable stream morphology and sediment Jennifer Jenkins (alternate) heights for migration but can also transport than the traditional stream Pacific Coast Fish Wildlife Wetlands alter the depth of jump pools and Restoration Association crossing design. This workshop aims eliminate the riffles and resting to provide an overall understanding Dave Kajtaniak (alternate) areas fish need as they swim up or Department of Fish & Game downstream. Barriers alter in-stream continued on page 7 Kent MacIntosh (alternate) Trout Unlimited Zoltan Matica (alternate) Department of Water Resources Will Pier Sonoma Ecology Center Kent Reeves (alternate) East Bay Municipal Utility District Margo Moorhouse Coastal Stream Restoration Group Participants in the fish passage Design & Layout by short courses will tour fish Trees Foundation passage restoration sites. photo: Darcy Astion Page 2 Salmonid Restoration Federation 3 Flow Regimes as a Limiting Factor by Josh Isreal While the specific flow requirements for passage, a minimum depth of 12 cm of salmonids vary for each species, for trout, 18 cm for steelhead and coho local populations of salmon and salmon, and 24 cm for Chinook salmon steelhead have additionally evolved the are considered necessary for passage necessary physiological and behavioral (Bjornn and Reiser 1991). FishXing characteristics for them to survive the (http://www.stream.fs.fed.us/fishxing/ dynamic flows encountered during each resources.html) is an awesome resource, phase of their life history at a specific which allows the user to evaluate and time of the year. Flow regimes are one design fish passable culverts. of the most important drivers of habitat The timing and velocity of flows during structure at micro-, reach, and riverscape spawning are critical characteristics scales. During critical stages while eggs of spawning reaches, and poor flow incubate, young fry forage or drift, and conditions can limit the survival of adults struggle to return to spawn, the eggs and alevins. In locations like Butte relationship between flow volume and Creek, redd imposition may limit the velocity demonstrates the importance survival of earlier spawning Spring Run of a variable flow pattern over daily, Chinook salmon, which are an important seasonal, and annual time periods that genetic component of this distinct stock is critical for the long-term persistence of California Chinook salmon. With of salmonid populations. A critical adequate management of flows released review by Bjornn and Reiser (1991) Butte Creek is a prime example of how increased from upstream hydroelectric facilities, water flow releases have contributed to the recovery summarized a majority of the known the quantity of spawning gravels available literature concerning flow regimes and of salmonid populations in that watershed. to Butte Creek Spring Run Chinook photo: Allen Harthorn their relationship to salmonid habitat. could be increased and egg survival Predation, fishing, and disease are potentially increased. Most salmonids ocean. While long-term flow increases pressures facing most local salmon and need water depths of at least 15 are likely necessary to support a steady steelhead populations, yet the potential cm, though this is also variable and rate of out-migration of populations far difficulty of finding preferred spawning dependent on