Salmonid Restoration Federation

April 5, 2006


First Annual Spring-Run Chinook Confab--Butte Creek, July 27-29, 2006

The Salmonid Restoration Federation, in partnership with the Friends of Butte Creek, will host the First Annual Spring-Run Chinook Confab on July 27-29, 2006, in beautiful Butte Creek. SRF is pleased to offer a three-day opportunity for property owners, local restorationists, fisheries biologists, and agency staff to participate in workshops on fish monitoring and identification techniques, to tour and understand restoration projects, and, through positive dialogue, to increase their capacity to impact the recovery of spring-run Chinook in California. Other workshops may include water quality studies, macro-invertebrate sampling, and water conservation techniques. Participants will learn skills, methodologies, and techniques that they can share with others in an ongoing effort to help people help fish.

The primary goals of the Chinook Confab are two-fold. This new Confab will provide affordable technical and hands-on trainings for the fisheries restoration and water conservation communities to benefit spring-run Chinook populations in California. Additionally, this event will provide non-adversarial opportunities for landowners, agency biologists, and community restorationists to discuss issues and perspectives in spring-run Chinook restoration and recovery in California.

Located in the Northern Central Valley, Butte Creek contains one of the last self-sustaining populations of spring-run Chinook in California. The recovery of this annual fish run provides a unique opportunity to reinforce the importance of collaborative watershed planning efforts in the recovery of other imperiled spring-run Chinook populations in California. The Chinook Confab in Butte Creek will draw a diversity of attendees, creating a unique opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas among people affecting and affected by spring-Run Chinook. SRF believes the time is ripe to engage restorationists in watersheds containing spring-run Chinook salmon by highlighting past and ongoing restoration efforts, by providing affordable training in best restoration practices, and by offering opportunities to consider future coordinated efforts and recovery implementation.

The Salmonid Restoration Federation's mission is to promote restoration and stewardship of California's native salmon, steelhead, and trout populations, and their habitat. SRF organizes the annual statewide Salmonid Restoration Conference, leads intensive week-long field schools, and collaborates with multiple other watershed and fisheries restoration organizations to educate and advocate for best restoration practices, strategic state and federal investments in restoration, and science-based salmonid recovery. Our events are attended by a broad spectrum of restorationists including private landowners, consulting scientists, agency personnel, legislators, tribal members, and community-based watershed stewards interested in how biological and physical sciences are integrated into state and federal salmonid restoration and recovery policy.

For more information about the conference, please see www.calsalmon.org, email srf@calsalmon.org, or call
707/923-7501.



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