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).
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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.