The use of hatcheries to supplement struggling wild populations and augment harvest opportunities remains one of the most controversial subjects in the salmon and steelhead world. While production hatcheries often provide harvest opportunities where they wouldn’t otherwise exist, they also present significant risks to wild populations.
A recent review by a team of researchers led by John McMillan, the former Wild Steelheaders Science Director, of over fifty years of peer-reviewed global hatchery research found that 83% of scientific studies indicated that hatcheries had adverse impacts on wild salmonid populations.
A LITERATURE REVIEW LED BY TROUT UNLIMITED SHOWS OVER 80 PERCENT OF GLOBAL, PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH ON THE TOPIC HAS FOUND AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON WILD SALMONID POPULATIONS IN FRESHWATER AND MARINE ENVIRONMENTS
Our El Dorado chapter of Trout Unlimited held its November 16 meeting to report on the Survey of Caples Creek conducted by the TU Inland Trout Project personnel located in Truckee, CA. The survey was completed at the end of July and comprised six people over three days. Lauren Herbine, Restoration Scientist, and Dan Johnson presented and discussed the material. Documentation had been provided previously via a Google Earth project which provided location, pictures and text of observations. Fifty log jams were noted, ten pools were fished, seven passage barriers were found and twenty-seven potential sediment sources were described.
Lauren and Dan stated that the terrain proved tough, but the landscape was beautiful!
Their broad impressions were that Caples presents as a healthy, dynamic river responding well to recent wildfires. There were very few places that any sediment input looked dramatic, and for the most part were very happy with the amount of sediment and structure found in the creek. Log jams provided fantastic fish habitat and in some cases were even pushing water out into older oxbows. Sediment deposition took place in pocket floodplains where a healthy riparian buffer is forming. They saw or caught many trout around log jams. The lower part of the reach was exclusively Rainbow trout and the upper 1/3 contained Brook trout. No Brown trout were caught or observed. Fish were found in all sections although numbers and sizes were small.
The team has no recommendations for further study or restoration action. They believe that nature will continue to improve the biological conditions and hence the fish populations. The biologists present concurred in this belief. Some type of monitoring should be established to periodically review the conditions and fish population. Our chapter can develop a monitoring plan in the coming year. The El Dorado Irrigation District performs an electro shock survey for rainbow trout every fifth and sixth year at the Kirkwood meadow. this is useful data but limited in the broad scope of the creek.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced the availability of up to $2 million in grant funding for non-lethal beaver damage management, in support of ecosystem restoration and protection under the Nature-Based Solutions Initiative and CDFW’s beaver restoration and human-wildlife conflict program objectives.
The North American beaver’s critically important role as an ecosystem engineer and keystone species, particularly as climate change, drought and wildfires increase in severity, has gained rapidly growing recognition in recent years. Because they are crucial to restoring and maintaining healthy ecosystems and their functions, CDFW has implemented new measures to maintain healthy beaver populations in suitable habitat throughout California.
Read more: DFW Has Grant Funding for Beaver Damage Mitigation
Sites Reservoir is not a 21st century water solution. It will add little water to California’s supply. And as proposed, it will not provide net environmental benefits. Our coalition elaborated on these claims, in depth, in our protest.
The real and potential harms that will be caused by Sites Reservoir include (non-exhaustive):
Impacts to water quality, such as increased levels of metals and heavy metals, increased levels of aqueous mercury (which climbs the food chain), formation of harmful algal blooms both in the reservoir area and the Bay-Delta due to flow reduction.
Extensive greenhouse gas emissions.
Fragmented and destroyed wildlife habitat in the project area, with impacts to the Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Burrowing Owl, Giant Gartner Snake, Foothill Yellow-legged Frog, Mountain Lions, American Badgers, Monarch Butterflies, native bees, native bats, and many other species.
Story from Friends of the River
The TU staff from Truckee performed an initial survey of Caples Creek on July 22,23 and 24. A group of 6 persons traveled from the trailhead on Silver Fork Road to the dam at Caples Lake. This is a 7.5 mile journey on a straight line but is obviously much longer along the creek Their objective was to identify features which may impact the habitat and trout. They documented 6 pools, 118 log jams, 30 potential sediment sites and 7 barriers to fish passage. They took extensive photographs documenting the location and features of each item. I am confident they also made numerous other observations and notes which would define the habitat. Each of these noted items are recorded on Google Earth including images of each. We are looking forward to a presentatiion of results at our November meeting. The image of one of the meadow areas belies the rugged nature of the full length, elevation changes and deadfalls
Anthony Cortez and William completed the Caples Creek Wild Trout signage update on August 25. They are pictured on the left. The sign update placed the new catch and release regulations for the creek. The central photo shows the newly identified "Girl scout access" trail at kirkwood Lake. The right hand image is the new sign at the northe end of the Caples dam replacing ones lost over the winter.
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation reported in July that Copco II, the first of four dams to be removed on the Klamath River, is nearly gone. Crews have been working hard this summer to remove the concrete structure and restore the river channel.
The other three dams will be removed next summer, allowing steelhead, salmon, and lamprey access to over 400 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in the upper basin for the first time in over a century.
While in Montana, summiteers built beaver dam analogs with TU project guru Tess Scanlon and went on educational site visits with Casey Hackathorn, Upper Clark Fork Program Manager. They hosted guest speakers, worked on their volleyball skills, and learned the fly and candy shops in P-burg ain’t always cooperative. They also fished as much as possible, with the less experienced fishers in the group leading others to solid connections with native cutthroat. To see who all made it to this year’s event, check out the TU Teen Summit Bio Project page.
For years, beavers have been treated as an annoyance for chewing down trees and shrubs and blocking up streams, leading to flooding in neighborhoods and farms. But the animal is increasingly being seen as nature’s helper in the midst of climate change.
California recently changed its tune and is embracing the animals that can create lush habitats that lure species back into now-urban areas, enhance groundwater supplies and buffer against the threat of wildfires.
Before the boating season gets into full swing, the League to Save Lake Tahoe (or Keep Tahoe Blue) hosted an all-encompassing training course for the people working where the public meets the lake – at marinas and boat ramps – so key information about aquatic invasive species can be shared.