On September 19th, CalTrout’s Bay Area Manager Patrick Samuel and CalTrout-UC Davis Cold Water Fish Scientist Dr. Rob Lusardi taught a group of teachers about coho salmon at Walker Creek.
The teaching tour gathered at the Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center which sees around 4,000 5th grade and 6th-grade students every year. Walker Creek Ranch has a creek running through the property and is great habitat for endangered coho salmon and an ideal place to teach students about the river ecosystem.
Patrick Samuel started off the day with an introduction to the coho salmon lifecycle. Then Dr. Rob Lusardi went into the creek to collect a bug sample using a net and explained how to identify the invertebrates that make up the coho salmon diet. These samples can be collected and brought back to the classroom and analyzed under a microscope to classify each species.
The purpose of this trip was to train teachers to emulate this process in their own classroom, making the curriculum adaptable and shareable to others. This trip is part of a larger initiative to introduce students to science through exploration. Through experiential learning and exploring in the creek, our goal is to inspire curiosity and encourage students to look closely at the world around them, and expand their comfort zone in working with bugs and mud.
Walker Creek Ranch is a habitat haven which is evident in the other creature cameos we saw throughout the day including grey foxes, deer, jackrabbits, salamanders, and racer snakes.
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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.
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