[env-trinity] Marin Coho Crisis

Sat Jan 10 08:25:44 PST 2009

Well, for me it's close to home, or rather it is home.

Byron

 <http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/> San Francisco Chronicle

'Crisis situation' for Marin's coho salmon

 <mailto:pfimrite at sfchronicle.com> Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, January 10, 2009

(01-09) 17:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- 

The lack of rain this winter has contributed to what fisheries biologists
say is, so far, the worst return of coho salmon in the recorded history of
Marin County's Lagunitas Creek watershed, one of California's most critical
ecosystems for the endangered fish.

Images

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BA4C155A50.D
TL&o=0> A male and a female steelhead salmon swim under a bridge ...
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BA4C155A50.D
TL&o=1> Where have the salmon gone? (John Blanchard / The Chronicle)
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BA4C155A50.D
TL&o=> http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/plus-green.gifView Larger
Images 

*
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BABJ1573QM.DTL&
type=newsbayarea> SAN FRANCISCO / Unabomber's items can be auctioned
01.10.09 

Only a smattering of coho were spotted and only 20 egg nests, or redds, were
seen in the two main tributaries - Lagunitas and San Geronimo creeks -
during the annual winter survey of fish, watershed biologists said this
week. 

The paltry showing of redds represents an 89 percent drop in the number of
returning offspring of parents that gave birth in the lush western Marin
watershed three years ago. Last year at this time, 148 redds had been
counted, then the lowest number in the 14 years that records have been kept,
said Paola Bouley, the conservation program director for the Salmon
Protection and Watershed Network, or SPAWN. 

"It's just frightening, actually," Bouley said. "We were expecting 70 redds,
which is still a 63 percent decline. It's definitely a crisis situation."

The waterway, which winds its way through the picturesque San Geronimo
Valley on the northwest side of Mount Tamalpais, typically supports the
largest wild run of salmon left in the state, historically about 10 percent
of California's coho population.

During the first winter rains, the spawning fish swim 33 miles from the open
ocean into Tomales Bay and up the creek through the redwood-studded valley
to lay their eggs and die. The females lay their eggs only after they've
found the place where they were born three years before. The decline this
year is alarming given that 190 redds were counted in 2005 when the parents
of these coho laid their eggs.

The plummeting coho numbers exacerbate a near catastrophic decline in the
overall population of salmon along the West Coast. So few chinook salmon
returned to spawn in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system last year that
ocean fishing had to be banned in California and Oregon. 

The number of coho eggs throughout the state declined about 70 percent last
year. The low number of coho in the Lagunitas watershed in 2007 was shocking
given that a record 496 redds were counted in 2004, the year they were born.

"We had our best year class in 2004," Bouley said. "What happened is our
best year class turned into our worst year class."

This year is looking even worse.

Fisheries biologists believe the primary cause is the unusually dry weather
in Northern California, which has prevented salmon from swimming up the
creeks. The rains in December were barely enough to breach sandbars on most
beaches, forcing salmon up and down the coast to circle in the open ocean
where they are vulnerable to sea lions and other predators. 

"It's not looking good," said Sean Hayes, a National Marine Fisheries
Service biologist who monitors salmon in Scott Creek, the southernmost coho
run in California, north of Davenport (Santa Cruz County). "The fish have
been hammered a couple of years in a row now. If it doesn't rain, there
could be a spawning failure this year, which would be catastrophic."

Threat of extinction

Bouley said a big rainstorm could turn things around, but hardly any rain is
expected in the next two weeks. If things don't improve, she said, this
year's cycle of fish may go extinct. 

The lack of salmon in Lagunitas Creek is a major concern, she said, because
the watershed is a statewide model for fisheries restoration. The first
winter rains normally bring schools of coho wriggling up the creeks, drawing
tourists, schoolchildren and naturalists to watch the fish leap from the
foaming rapids. 

"The Lagunitas population is critical to the viability of the entire central
California coho population. It is the keystone watershed along the coast,"
Bouley said. "Fisheries agencies look to Lagunitas as the key to the
recovery for neighboring watersheds. We won't have any streams left to seed
them if this one is gone."

The watershed is unique in that the primary spawning grounds are in the
middle of developed communities. Since coho were listed as endangered in
2005 under the Endangered Species Act, many residents have taken a
proprietary interest in the fish. Schools have become involved, organizing
work parties and teaching children about the historic coho migration. 

More than a century ago, about 6,000 coho spawned in the system of streams
every year. At that time, the salmon swam from Tomales Bay virtually to the
top of Mount Tamalpais, spawning in tributaries all along the way. But
industry started taking a toll almost from the day Joseph Warren Revere
spotted the valley in 1846 and saw "a copious stream, fed by mountain
brooks." 

The redwood forests surrounding the creek were logged between 1860 and 1900.
Subsequent homes and roads built along the waterway removed about 60 percent
of the original riparian habitat.

The first major dam, which created Lake Lagunitas, was built in 1873. Six
more dams were constructed over the next century, the largest being Peter's
Dam at Kent Lake, finished in 1953 and then raised 42 feet in 1982. The dams
blocked 50 percent of the historic salmon habitat, reduced the amount of
gravel and increased sedimentation in the creeks. 

But the decline was slow. Old-timers told how they used to spear fish from
decks or garage hatches overlooking the creek. In 1959, when the habitat was
already in serious decline, the largest recorded coho in state history, a
22-pounder, was fished out of Lagunitas Creek.

Lobbying the county

The restoration effort began in the early 1980s when a group called Trout
Unlimited began lobbying the county to stop the decline of the fishery. 

SPAWN, which was created in 1996, sponsors salmon-watching creek walks
during spawning season and has saved more than 15,000 juvenile salmon and
steelhead from drying pools during the summer. The Marin Municipal Water
District, which is required by the state to help the coho as mitigation for
raising Peter's Dam, started counting coho redds in the early 1990s and now
works with SPAWN to monitor releases from the dam, install woody debris in
the creeks and replant vegetation.

"This is the beacon of hope for the California watershed," Bouley said, but
"the fish are missing. They are gone."

Byron Leydecker, JcT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 land

415 519 4810 cell

 <mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net> bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

 <http://fotr.org/> http://www.fotr.org 

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