Eel River Salmon Restoration Project, Small Scale Hatcheries At Risk

Eel River Salmon Restoration Project
September 6, 2004


Will the Eel River Salmon Restoration Project (ERSRP) continue to operate its small-scale natal stock supplementation hatchery into the future? With the release of 12,413 marked fish this last June back into Redwood Creek, this question was on all of our minds. Since 1983 we have operated a natal brood stock trapping and rearing program on Redwood Creek, a tributary to the South Fork of the Eel River at Redway. Last season (2003-2004) we trapped 72 chinook salmon, 10 coho salmon, two steelhead, and one chum salmon. This provided 13,145 chinook salmon eggs for our hatchery. Funding for our hatchery has been largely provided through the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) Grant Program. Unfortunately CDFG decided to discontinue funding for our hatchery, as well as the Humboldt Fish Action Council hatchery located on Freshwater Creek, and the Mattole Salmon Support Group hatchery located on the Mattole River. No specific reasons were given by CDFG for the closure of each individual hatchery.

Last season we received 12,000 fertile chinook salmon eggs from Hollow Tree Creek hatchery, also located on the South Fork of the Eel River near Leggett. This facility was designed to hatch and rear over 200,000 fish per year and it was determined that it would not to be "cost effective" to rear the low number of eggs taken. Instead of destroying the eggs an alternative decision was made, in collaboration with all parties, to allow the ERSRP to hatch and rear these salmon based on the low operating cost at our Marshal Creek facility. Our costs are low due in part to our being "off grid" with no electric bills to pay. All water used at the site is gravity flow with no pumps required to operate it. Also, our site has very high survival from fish egg to planted fish. Finally the fact that Hollow Tree Creek is also a tributary of the South Fork Eel River did not call for an inter-basin transfer of eggs out of the South Fork Eel River drainage. All of the Hollow Tree chinook salmon were released back into their home stream in early June.

One major drawback resulting from the decision made by CDFG to discontinue the operation of our hatchery was the loss of fertilized salmon eggs for our Salmon in the Classroom (SIC) Program. Students involved in the SIC program were able to learn about salmon by directly hatching, raising, and then releasing "their" salmon back into the natal stream. Both Redwood Creek and Freshwater Creek provided great field trip sites where students were able to study the creek's insect life and habitat attributes in conjunction with salmon planting. One teacher involved with our program put it best: "Every year my class of students can hardly wait for wintertime because it heralds the beginning of their study of the salmon. They quickly bond and connect to their salmon and are very concerned when we have power outages. The first words out of their mouths when coming into the classroom are, `Did the salmon live?' It seems to me that the last several years, more and more kids are coming into the second grade with sophisticated background knowledge of local environmental issues. They are receptive, concerned and highly motivated to learn so they can make a difference. Raising salmon is without a doubt the most rewarding and valuable science curriculum I've ever had the pleasure to teach. I can't imagine a year without it, and I sincerely hope I never have to!" In order to continue this community watershed-based education program, a tentative agreement has been negotiated between ERSRP, CDFG, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) which will allow us to take eggs from one female chinook salmon to supply students with eggs for their classrooms.

In 2004, we provided 25 classrooms with 500 Redwood Creek chinook salmon eggs. The survival rate from egg to release by students was 93% for the past two years and has never been lower than 85%. As with our hatchery reared salmon all fish raised in local classrooms were marked prior to release, which will assist in monitoring their return in two to four years. Another community-based hatchery, operated by Humboldt Fish Action Council on Freshwater Creek, supplied salmon eggs to 30 classes. ERSRP provided equipment for most classrooms and technical assistance to all 55 classes. Due to the popularity of the program we expect to work with even more classes next season. We offer our sincerest thanks to the CDFG Grant Program and to the Cereus Fund for providing financial support for this important educational opportunity for local students.

Poor logging practices and the Eel River floods in 1955 and 1964 resulted in numerous logjams comprised largely of logging slash. This was followed with many logjam removal projects, which remained popular into the early 1980s, and which, in many cases, resulted in the loss of fish habitat quality. In some cases modification was necessary due to the fish passage barriers created by these jams. In the future it seems that project design and gradient control incorporated into restoration projects such as road and stream crossing removals should be designed to maintain gravel in upper stream reaches and avoid filling in pools and ultimately the estuary in the lower river. The era of stream clearance should have come to an end with what we have learned from the recent past. How much high quality spawning gravel is remaining in upper watershed reaches following past logjam removal projects is a question that needs to be addressed.

Wood Creek, a tributary to the South Fork Eel just downstream from Redway, is one such current restoration site that we designed to address this concern. During this recently completed project we modified two logjams to improve fish passage, constructed several boulder gradient control structures for gravel retention, and installed in-stream habitat enhancement structures for wild steelhead. Modification of the logjams in the upper basin resulted in the release of a large volume of gravel held above the logjams and last winter the released gravel filled the downstream gradient control structures. Previous lack of channel structures below the logjam, caused by the Army Corps of Engineers' removal of all of the large wood in the lower half-mile, had largely resulted in a scoured bedrock channel with limited gravel retention capacity. The gravel and silt retained behind the newly completed structures caused a shift in channel characteristics toward greatly increased pool volume, more spawning gravel, and the development of stream-side soils and associated riparian vegetation in the enhanced stream-side riparian zone. Large numbers of juvenile and young steelhead were observed this spring making good use of the new habitat provided by this project. On one site visit following a December storm, a chinook salmon was observed utilizing one of the gradient control structures for accessing the upper stream channel.

Tree planting has also continued to play an important role in our habitat recovery efforts. A grant received from Working Assets enabled us to plant over 33,000 trees (mostly Redwood trees) during the past two seasons. These trees have been primarily directed toward habitat restoration projects where heavy equipment and boulder deliveries to the stream channel have resulted in up-slope soil disturbance. Previous tree planting projects in the mid-80s have established new forests in previously completed restoration projects. These new forests provide visual enhancement on restoration sites, root strength to stabilize soils, leaf litter to protect and build soils, and increased canopy closure providing shade to cool water temperatures. The forests also provide a valuable food source to growing salmon and steelhead on windy days by dropping terrestrial insects into the stream.

For more information please email us at
hvaughn@northcoast.com or see www.hits.org/salmon98


This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-144

Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation. For more information contact:
Eel River Salmon Restoration Project
PO Box 589
Miranda CA 95553
Phone: (707) 923-9109