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CalTrout’s Southern California Steelhead Recovery Efforts Win Wells Fargo Environmental Grant

April 30, 2013 Leave a Comment

Good news if you’re a Southern California steelhead!

CalTrout received a grant from Wells Fargo & Company and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help fund our San Diego and Orange Counties Watersheds Steelhead Restoration Coalition (SanDOC for short).

This will help us grow and solidify the Southern California Steelhead Coalition, which already encompasses a sizable list of government and non-governmental stakeholders:

  • Trout Unlimited
  • Golden State Flycasters
  • The National Audubon Society
  • San Diego Coastkeeper
  • The Chaparral Lands Conservancy
  • National Marine Fisheries Service
  • US Fish & Wildlife Servidce
  • US Fisheries Service
  • The United States Marine Corps

CalTrout was one of 64 nonprofit recipients of Wells Fargo’s 2013 Environmental Solutions for Communities grant program, which was started in 2012 as part of Wells Fargo’s commitment to provide $100 million to environmentally-focused nonprofits and universities by 2020.

It is funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through a $15 million, five-year relationship to promote environmental stewardship across the country.

The SanDOC program is run by recent hire Roxanne Carter — an attorney with a real appreciation for steelhead and the ocean (look for an interview with Carter soon).

With so many pressures working against them (population, water diversions, barriers to migration, etc), endangered Southern California steelhead will require strategic and coordinated efforts if they’re ever going to recover — including the backing of a strong coalition.

We thank Wells Fargo and the National Fish & Wildlife Service for their support.

Filed Under: Imperiled Native Trout, Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With: , ,

A CalTrout Interview: Southern California Regional Manager Kurt Zimmerman

March 11, 2013 2 Comments

Though he’s now CalTrout’s Southern California region manager, Kurt Zimmerman is a former federal prosecutor, and he clearly means business when it comes to protecting and restoring steelhead and other species.

Welcome to another in a series of interviews with CalTrout’s regional managers — the people on the front lines in the battle to protect California’s trout, steelhead and salmon. Enjoy!

Tell us a little about yourself and your region.

SoCal Region Manager Kurt Zimmerman

SoCal Region Manager Kurt Zimmerman

I’m Kurt Zimmerman and I’m California Trout’s Southern California Regional Manager. My office is located in Ventura, and I grew up in Pasadena and Sierra Madre, so I’m no stranger to Southern California.

The Southern California region stretches from Santa Maria, California to Tijuana on the California/Mexico border. It supports 2/3 of the state’s population and it’s also the home of endangered Southern California steelhead.

In my former life, I was a federal prosecutor who worked to enforce environmental laws, both in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. I was also a natural resources attorney with NOAA where I provided legal oversight for restoration projects, including steelhead and salmon restoration.

What is the most critical problem facing fish in your region?

Mostly human impacts to Southern California’s native steelhead, especially dams and water diversions. Also, our enormous consumption of water has driven the Southern California steelhead to the edge of extinction; today, only about 500 adults remain.

In the past, about 50,000 steelhead occupied Southern California’s coastal streams and rivers.

The problem is that the steelhead are in trouble, but almost nobody down here knows about them. I think that’s a big issue — simple awareness. Most residents in the region have never seen a native trout or steelhead.

Still, I’m optimistic. CalTrout is taking a leadership role in the fight to restore Southern California steelhead with projects like removal of fish passage barriers.

For example, the Vern Freeman Diversion Dam’s fish ladder on the Santa Clara River looks like something from a Rube Goldberg nightmare; it’s not the most effective fish passage technology. We’re looking at what we can do to fix that.

We also oversee or support efforts to restore fish passage in other watersheds including the Ventura River, Zams Creek, Malibu Creek, San Juan Creek, San Mateo Creek and Santa Margarita River.

I’m optimistic we can make things happen, and while I doubt we’ll see the kind of numbers we once did in my lifetime, we can bring real steelhead runs back to Southern California.

Are Southern California Steelhead any different from those found elsewhere?

Yes. One of the long-term issues we’re facing is climate change; warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns will result in increased pressure on water supplies.

The Southern California Steelhead can survive much higher temperatures than the northern fish, and with climate change coming, that tolerance will prove useful.

It would be a shame for us to lose them right now when we needed them the most.

What’s your favorite place in your region to fish?

The Southern California steelhead is an endangered species, so you can’t fish for them here.

I will say the Kern River isn’t that far from Los Angeles, and it’s a beautiful place to fish for trout..

For families looking for a fishing experience, Lake Cuyamaca — near Julian, in the mountains north of San Diego — is a pretty place, too. It’s at elevation, so they can stock it year-round with trout. The fishing is usually pretty easy, which is important when you’ve got kids.

Filed Under: CalTrout People, Regions, Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With: ,

After Two Dry Months, California’s Waterpack Swings From Feast To Famine

February 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

A warm early winter storm and record-setting Holiday snowfall put California’s snowpack at 150% of normal at the turn of the year, but the driest January and February on record have moved the pendulum the other way — the snowpack is now only 63% of normal.

With little in the way of precipitation in the forecast, it’s clear that California’s water users — and its steelhead, salmon and trout — could be facing a painful, low-water year (from the SacBee):

If February concludes without additional storms — and none are expected — the northern Sierra will have seen 2.2 inches of precipitation in January and February, the least since record-keeping began in the region in 1921.

That is well below the historical average of 17.1 inches.

And,

The prospects for more rain this winter are not good. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center released a long-range forecast on Feb. 21, saying that the odds favor dry conditions across California and the Southwest through May.

Fortunately, it’s too early for fishermen to panic; California has experienced heavy late precipitation the last few years, and while you never want to find yourself counting on late storms to prop up a sub-par snowpack, it’s possible.

Should the water situation not improve dramatically, expect California’s reservoirs to end the rainy season far below capacity, leaving the water users and fish to deal with the consequences of too many promises for too little water.

Filed Under: California Water, Eastern Sierra, Mount Shasta, North Coast, Northern Sierra, Southern California Tagged With:

The Los Angeles River Before It Became A Concrete Channel (It’s Not What You Think)

February 4, 2013 Leave a Comment

A short piece in Los Angeles Magazine paints a picture of a Los Angeles River very different from the concrete jungle it’s become today:

Before human civilization transformed it, the L.A. River flowed in some places through grassy oak woodland. In others it coursed through a dense forest of willows, cottonwoods, and sycamores. Steelhead trout swam through its currents, antelope and deer paused at its banks to drink, and grizzly bears ambled into its waters for food.

After a winter storm, the tame stream became a whitecapped fury. In the parched summer months, the river plunged below the surface where it encountered the porous soil of the Los Angeles Basin. But at the Glendale Narrows, shallow bedrock forced the stream aboveground, guaranteeing a year-round flow. In other places, where the parking lots of Beverly Hills, Compton, and Hollywood bake in the sun today, groundwater hydrology conspired with seasonal flooding to create a vast system of marshes, ponds, and other wetlands teeming with plant and animal life.

Today, the Southern California landscape has been transformed and its steelhead and other wildlife have suffered for it.

While we’re in the midst of trying to save what’s left, it couldn’t hurt to pause every once in a while to remember things as they really were.

The Los Angeles River

(Photograph courtesy of the Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries)

Filed Under: California Water, Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With:

Feds Detail Central Coast Coho Recovery Plan

September 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

California’s coho salmon are in dire trouble, especially along the central coast, where they’ve all but disappeared.

The NOAA plan is not only significant in scope, it’s also apparently extraordinarily detailed (from the Santa Cruz Sentinel):

Meeting in Scotts Valley, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday detailed a road map to restore the legendary fish to local streams, slipping from the mountains to the sea for millions years before all but disappearing during the post-WWII era. And with it came a warning that the time for action is short.

“The situation south of the Golden Gate is dire,” warned Jon Ambrose, a NOAA biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Once found in more than a dozen rivers between San Francisco and Aptos, Coho are now found in two: Scott Creek and San Vicente Creek. The population ran into the hundreds of thousands during the 1940s; it is now listed as an endangered species.

The highly detailed recovery plan includes scores of recommendations and a detailed analysis of specific rivers. It covers proposed legislative and regulatory changes, pollution control practices, road and sewer management, monitoring and much more.

It calls for specific activities, such as felling trees into rivers to bolster habitat, restoring estuaries, reducing nitrate discharges from stables and even working with the Santa Cruz Seaside Co. to come up with a way to keep litter from drifting from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk into the San Lorenzo River.

The full 24-page executive summary is found at the bottom of the article, and it includes many of the habitat improvements (large woody debris, etc) championed by CalTrout in restoration projects (and legislation like the Coho “HELP” act).

NOAA coho salmon restoration plan

The NOAA coho salmon restoration plan (click image for document)

Filed Under: Mount Shasta, News, North Coast, Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With:

CalTrout A Part Of Native Species Restoration In Malibu

May 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

CalTrout is part of a native species restoration project at Chumash Village in Malibu, CA. Interested in helping? Everything you need to know is in the flyer below (June 10, bring work shoes, water and a hat):

Chumash Village Restoration

Restoring native species in Malibu...

Filed Under: Southern California Tagged With:

Final Steelhead Recovery Roadmap For Southern California Steelhead Released

January 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

In an important step towards steelhead recovery in California, NOAA Fisheries has released the final Steelhead Recovery Roadmap for Southern California. This from the NOAA site:

“This final plan is a roadmap to recovery for one of the most endangered fish species in the United States,” said Penny Ruvelas, NOAA Fisheries Service Area Office Supervisor for Protected Resources in Southern California. “It will likely take decades to restore these fish to the coastal rivers and streams where they once thrived, but this plan is a very significant step in achieving that goal.”

It is estimated this Southern California distinct population segment of steelhead once numbered over 45,000 but has since declined to less than 500 and was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1997. The ESA requires a Recovery Plan be developed when a species is listed under the statute as either threatened or endangered.

CalTrout is heavily involved in Southern California steelhead recovery efforts (click here for a list of recent posts about Southern California).

This is only the start of the process, but we’re already seeing a lot of attention paid to steelhead recovery efforts.

Filed Under: Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With: ,

Notching Matilija Dam

December 5, 2011 2 Comments

Everyone Wants the Now-Useless Matilija Dam Removed. So Why Hasn’t It Been Taken Out?

Matilija Dam, on the Ventura River, was constructed in 1948 and is completely ineffective today. Full of silt and sediment, it does nothing for flood control or water supply and it completely blocks Southern steelhead passage. Efforts to remove Matilija Dam started in the mid-1990′s. But, like many other environmental projects, the removal of the Matilija Dam on the Ventura River has been impacted by the world’s economic crisis.

Matilija Dam

Matilija Dam (picture by Paul Jenkin)

A full spectrum of community stakeholders and agencies came together and by 2007, they had developed a preferred preliminary design, a budget (approximately $145 million), and a schedule. At that time, Congressional approval for the project was obtained.

The project design included: the removal of the Matilija Dam structure, the disposal of the 6 million cubic yards of sediment currently sequestered behind the dam, and the complete habitat restoration of the river canyon. Since 2007, however, the U.S. budget crisis has made it impossible to appropriate funds for progress on the Matilija Project.

In the face of bleak funding prospects, project leads (County of Ventura Watershed Protection District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) went “off the reservation” and developed a modified, potentially less expensive project design that failed to meet the ecological restoration goals of the project. Instead, their plan would permanently store as much as 2.5 million cubic yards of the fine sediment in the river canyon itself, covering the existing riparian habitat (which includes native oaks, springs, and other critical habitat values) and constraining the river into an unnaturally inhibited channel.

CalTrout worked closely with Matilija Coalition Director, Paul Jenkin, to stop this “imposter project” and remind the agencies of the original intent of these efforts: 1.) to restore the Ventura River and the Matilija Canyon area for the benefit of Southern California steelhead (and other native species and habitat) by providing fish passage and habitat, 2.) to restore the natural processes that allow the river to carry and deposit the sediments that naturally replenish our Ventura beaches.

Over the course of a year and many meetings, CalTrout and Paul Jenkin successfully persuaded with stakeholders and agencies to reaffirm the eco-restoration project goals, and to consider and refine adjustments to the original 2007 “approved project.” These changes could potentially save money, prevent additional sediment accumulation behind the dam prior to its removal, and allow some forward motion to begin, even with the meager economic outlook.

Accordingly, the Matilija Dam Removal Project appears to be “back on the rails.” Plans to begin notching the dam to current sediment levels are being developed. And adjustments to the larger project are being explored – including non-habitat impact alternative storage areas for the sediment.

Progress on this work is constrained by funding. But the liability of the Matilija Dam and the threat of increase removal costs in the future if additional sediment accumulates are motivating continued efforts by agencies and stakeholders. Ventura County is moving ahead with the design and permitting for dam notching, and CalTrout will continue to work closely with the Matilija Coalition to assure that progress continues to be made.

Filed Under: Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With:

Emergency Stream Closures to Protect So Cal Steelhead Are Under Discussion

November 16, 2011 1 Comment

At the November 16, 2011 California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) Commission hearing held in Santa Barbara, the Commission will consider a Request for Emergency Rulemaking to close the Sisquoc River, Sespe Creek and North Fork Matilija Creek Watersheds to Fishing.

This request was filed by the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), a Santa Barbara-area environmental law firm in an attempt to protect Southern California steelhead. It has become the focus of much discussion and some controversy and has raised concerns about the long-term prospect of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Southern California steelhead and how that impacts our fishing interests.

CalTrout does not support the Request for Emergency Rulemaking for stream closures primarily because Emergency Rulemaking is not warranted for any of the listed streams. While the EDC request informally states that “fishing has increased in recent years” it provides no documentation of current, imminent, or ongoing threat of “take” of endangered steelhead in the subject watershed areas.

DFG is required to enact fishing regulations that comply with the federal ESA steelhead protections. This often results in the closure of any areas of a river or stream that can be accessed by a returning ocean-run steelhead when flows allow.

Conversely, those areas of stream that are above an impassable barrier, such as a dam, are not closed under the ESA for steelhead protection. Accordingly, in the case of the above Emergency Request, it appears that DFG staff will recommend that the Fish & Game Commission deny the Request for Emergency Rulemaking and instead will take the following non-emergency actions:

  1. Sisquoc River: Because Sisquoc has no permanent impassable barriers which prevent steelhead migration access, DFG will pursue standard (non-emergency) actions to assess and proceed with closure measures.
  2. Sespe Creek: Due to a lack of detailed analysis of several possible barriers in Sespe Creek, DFG will conduct an assessment of those barriers prior to making any determination about future Sespe Creek closures. (While the potential for fish passage at Freeman Diversion Dam (which is below Sespe Creek) has been a matter of controversy for many years, there appears to be no single documented record or evidence of unaided passage by a steelhead from below Freeman through the fish ladder and into the mainstem Santa Clara River. Accordingly, CalTrout asserts that Freeman Diversion is an impassable barrier, and therefore, until new fish passage is available at Freeman, we believe Sespe Creek is not eligible for ESA closure.)
  3. North Fork Matilija: Because there is an impassable barrier on this creek, this waterway is not eligible for closure for ESA steelhead protection.

These expected DFG responses to the Emergency Request align with the Southern California steelhead ESA listing, and are therefore supported by CalTrout. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With: , ,

The Southern California Steelhead Coalition Is Back!

August 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

by Nica Knite, Southern California Region Manager

The Southern California Steelhead Coalition (SCSC) is making a comeback! Though it was founded more than a decade ago, in recent years only remnants of the SCSC have functioned… Or at least until eighteen months ago, when a shift started taking place.

New ideas, new participants, and new life started to take root.

Under the leadership of CalTrout’s Southern California Region, the SCSC is reinventing itself with an expanded membership, a new, more-effective structure, and plans to “make steelhead waves” across the southland for years to come.

More than three dozen groups have signed up to participate in the SCSC, and 13 representatives attended our meeting this June.

“Chapters” are being formed in order to provide local forums for ALL conservation stakeholders in a watershed (or group of watersheds) to coordinate, partner, strategically plan, and support community movements for steelhead recovery.

The chapter plans are scalable for the coastwide SCSC, and members will be developing and implementing systematic, cyclical restoration and outreach activities.

The Santa Clara and South Orange/North San Diego Counties (SanDOC) Chapters are underway, the Ventura Chapter is starting up this summer, and Santa Barbara and Santa Monica Mountains Chapters will follow.

CalTrout is pleased that a cadre of fly fishing clubs and the Southwest Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers are participating in the SCSC.

The Southern California Steelhead Coalition will work to provide opportunities for all groups that share an interest in healing our watersheds and protecting our fisheries. Clearly, the engagement of our fly angling community members is greatly appreciated and we look forward to shared projects and high-quality outcomes for the benefit of steelhead.

Questions about participation in the Southern California Steelhead Coalition? Contact Nica Knite: nknite@caltrout.org or (619) 269-9207.

Filed Under: Southern California, Steelhead & Salmon Tagged With:
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