By Charlie Schneider We’re going to bring things full circle this week, with a look at how emerging science can meld with policy and restoration efforts to help reach our ultimate goal of improving steelhead runs. A previous SF post (http://www.wildsteelheaders.org/much-at-stake-in-listing-decision-on-northern-california-summer-steelhead/ ) highlighted the petition to list summer steelhead on the Eel River in Northern California, and discussed …
Much at stake in listing decision on Northern California summer steelhead
We love all steelhead here at Wild Steelheaders United, but some anadromous O. mykiss populations may deserve more love than others. Consider wild summer run steelhead in Northern California. The available data for wild summers between Redwood Creek and the Gualala River (including the legendary Eel River watershed) suggest their numbers are greatly depleted — probably enough to warrant …
Throwback Thursday- A Friendly Reminder: Hatchery Steelhead Are Tasty
With summer just around the corner, the Wild Steelheaders crew is feeling a bit nostalgic. Winter rods are packed up and summer steelhead are a ways away, and we’ve been finding ourselves daydreaming of tiny flies, drylines, baseball games, cherry pie, and some of the internet’s most prolific fishy blog posts. In the spirit of days gone by, we’re kicking …
Can a Wild Coho Salmon Population Recover Following Closure of a Hatchery Program
Today’s post is the conclusion of our two part guest series on the recovery of Coho in Oregon’s Salmon River. (Click here for last weeks post) Lately we have shared several studies on Pink and Coho salmon, which provide important lessons for salmonid recovery efforts across a range of species and watersheds. Perhaps the most important lesson is that decisions …
The Last Steelhead
Longtime angling author, steelhead aficionado, TROUT Magazine contributor and musician Chris Santella has created a novel way to publicize the plight of wild steelhead. Santella’s new rock opera, The Last Steelhead, looks at the factors contributing to the decline of wild steelhead runs and “the attitudes surrounding our behaviors and policies that seem to be standing in the …
The Life Cycle of Wild Steelhead
Well, it is steelhead season. No doubt. “Septober” is officially underway. To celebrate the changing season we are re-posing the question that every serious steelhead angler should be able to answer in the affirmative: Do you really know a steelhead? Think about it, we spend thousands of hours pursuing steelhead, but how much of that time is …
Science Friday: Sand bars, lagoons and moving steelhead
Back to back Science Friday posts focusing on California and the unique challenges that steelhead face in the state. This week we pivot from juvenile steelhead coping with ponded pools to a look at juveniles that enter and live seasonally in lagoons at the mouths of creeks and rivers — a phenomenon fairly common in smaller coastal watersheds in California …
WSU leading the charge on sonar
Occasionally, we get asked what Wild Steelheaders United is really doing to improve wild steelhead populations across their range. We could start by mentioning that our habitat restoration and fish passage improvement projects are delivering big results in some of the last best wild steelhead strongholds in North America. In the past year alone, our work along California’s fabled …
TU lauds new public lands bill for NW California
The northwest corner of California, between the Russian and Klamath Rivers, is home to some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead streams in the West. This region boasts some of the most famous steelhead fisheries in the world, including the Trinity, Mad, Mattole, and Eel River systems. Trout Unlimited’s North Coast Coho Project has been working for …
Ya Gotta Believe!!
By Bill Herzog Back in 1969, the New York Mets made baseball history. The “Amazin’ Mets,” as they came to be known, a team that had been dropped in the toilet like a three day old dead goldfish by most baseball experts, came from nowhere to shock the country and win the World Series that year. The Mets …