Restoration work at Malibu Lagoon to save the endangered South Coast Steelhead seems to be paying off. A 20-inch long steelhead was spotted in the Creek on May 15th, the first sighting in decades.
Congratulations to all those involved in the restoration efforts, including CalTrout’s Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition Coordinator, Candice Meneghin.
“The project had a lot of critics during its implementation, because people didn’t believe that you should use a bulldozer in a sensitive habitat. The counter to that is that when you fill in a wetland with bulldozers and let that dirt stay there for 70 years, the only way to get it out again is to use more bulldozers,” said Suzanne Goode, a senior environmental scientist at California State Parks. “We feel somewhat vindicated to our critics who said that we were going to kill everything.”
“The project had a lot of critics during its implementation, because people didn’t believe that you should use a bulldozer in a sensitive habitat. The counter to that is that when you fill in a wetland with bulldozers and let that dirt stay there for 70 years, the only way to get it out again is to use more bulldozers,” said Suzanne Goode, a senior environmental scientist at California State Parks. “We feel somewhat vindicated to our critics who said that we were going to kill everything.”
For more on the restoration efforts, read the California State Parks press release. Click to learn more about our Santa Clara River restoration project and the Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition.
Photo Credit: Jayni Shuman, RCDSMM Stream Team.