CalTrout’s South Coast efforts to revitalize the endangered Southern steelhead population recently reached a milestone. The project involves removing barriers to fish passage at the Metrolink railroad bridge and the I-5 bridge array on Trabuco Creek; the barrier location is in the heart of San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, on the Trabuco tributary to San Juan Creek. Remediation of these barriers will restore access to over 15 miles of steelhead spawning and rearing habitat.
We’re proud to report that with the immense help of partners and funders, this complex project has moved into the final design phase, with scaled-down models of the passages tested in laboratories and completion of actual construction expected in three to five years, according to Sandra Jacobson, CalTrout’s South Coast Director.
Kudos is deserved for the project engineers NHC, Mike Love and Association, Gannett Fleming who applied their unique expertise to technical design, and permitting consultant Stillwater Sciences and Trout Unlimited for their roles in shaping the project over the years. Orange County Flood Control District plays a key role in ultimately providing passage through this barrier by approving the permit for construction and O&M.
Progress is certainly being made to recover the iconic Southern steelhead species. The number of steelhead as documented by scientific monitoring is still precariously low, but the projects that remediate the main threats (like this one on I-5) are underway across the South Coast landscape, and there is reasonable expectation that these native fish can coexist with people.
Read more about the barrier removal project in the article, “Luring steelhead trout from ocean to Orange County waterways”, published in the OC Register.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.