GEYSERVILLE, Ca. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) and the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society (RRWSS) will host an Earth Day educational event at Lake Sonoma on Tuesday, April 22.
Corps Park Rangers, NMFS and SCWA scientists, partners and volunteers will seed Salmalogs (pastuerized salmon carcass analog pellets) into the new Dry Creek fish habitat restoration and enhancement area downstream from Warm Springs Dam, Tuesday, April 22 at 10 a.m. (across from Sbragia Vineyards) near Lake Sonoma.
"The Sonoma County Water Agency is proud to support this family friendly Earth Day celebration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society. We're always excited to get young people involved in Dry Creek and we hope folks will take the time to come enjoy all of the activities that are taking place on this incredible Creek," said Sonoma County Water Agency Director Mike McGuire.
The idea is to introduce natural nutrients into Dry Creek to mitigate for lost threatened Steelhead and the endangered Coho Salmon spawning populations by temporarily providing food for young salmonids, and to jump-start the macro-invertebrate population (insects) in the newly restored habitat.
“We are evaluating the utility of AquaDine’s Salmalogs (a Healdsburg-based fish food company) to temporarily provide nutrients to the food chain in the absence of returning robust salmon populations,” said Bob Coey, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service who is leading the study together with other partners. “Think of it as a ‘restoration vitamin.’” For thousands of years wild salmon delivered marine derived nutrients into freshwater streams when they returned to spawn and die by the thousands - this link to the natural food chain has been severed for about 50 years as populations have declined.
“We continue to collaborate with our partners, stakeholders and volunteers to save the endangered Coho salmon and restore the natural ecosystem of the newly built fish habitat restoration areas,” said
San Francisco District Commander Lt. Col. John K. Baker. “The seeding of the Salmalogs is the next step in bringing the Coho back to the watershed.”
The seeding is part of the Corps’ continued commitment and stewardship of the land and the future return of these fish to their home. As Gifford Pinchot, First Director of the U.S. Forest Service who said, “Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.”
When: Tuesday, April 22, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Location: USACE Dry Creek Restoration site
(Across from Sbragia Vineyards)
Clothing: Casual (recommend wearing hiking footwear or rubber boots for wading)
For more information: Park Ranger Joel Miller at (707) 431-4554.
Media are invited to walk-and-talk with release participants during the event.
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The district's Russian River Coho Salmon Brood Stock program is located behind the Don Clausen Fish Hatchery continues to successfully raise and release the last viable endangered and threatened Coho and Steelhead into the Russian River watershed.
The Russian River watershed was selected as the first Habitat Focus Area under NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint as the organization’s habitat conservation science and management efforts work to meet multiple conservation objectives on a watershed scale. In total, the Dry Creek Habitat Enhancement Project will enhance six miles of Dry Creek to provide low-flow refuge for young salmon to rest and feed. The majority of land used for habitat restoration along Dry Creek is privately-owned.
The two projects completed this summer at Reach 15 project and at Dry Creek Vineyards, as well as a winter-refuge project completed in 2012 at Quivira Vineyards and Winery, will be used to study how the enhancements work on a small scale, prior to construction of the complete six-mile enhancement required in National Marine Fisheries Service’s Russian River Biological Opinion.
For more information on the Dry Creek Restoration Project or the Russian River Coho Salmon Brood Stock program, please visit http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/ or call (415) 503-6804.
For more information on the Dry Creek Restoration Project or the Sonoma County Water Agency please visit http://www,scwa.ca.gov/drycreek/ or call (707) 547-1927.
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