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November 17, 2010
Bringing Steelhead Back to the
Sisquoc RIVER
State Launches Study to Identify Ways To Return the
Endangered Fish to Pristine Spawning Grounds in the
Los Padres National Forest
Officials with the State of
California have launched a long-awaited study of the Santa Maria
River system to determine what measures should be taken to
restore historic water flows. Periodic flows would allow
endangered steelhead trout to migrate upstream and access
historic spawning grounds in the Sisquoc River, deep inside the
San Rafael Wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest.
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Juvenile steelhead in the South Fork
Sisquoc River. Photo © Matt Stoecker |
Adult steelhead caught (and released)
on the Sisquoc River in 1998. |
The Sisquoc River
and its tributaries, including Manzana Creek, once supported the
second-largest steelhead run in Santa Barbara County (the Santa
Ynez River’s run of 25,000 fish was the highest). Early pioneers
as far back as 1879 reported hundreds of steelhead in pools, so
numerous that one could catch trout with their bare hands. A
historic cabin along the Sisquoc River contains charcoal
sketches of large fish, along with the dates and names of the
anglers who caught them, some measuring more than 24 inches
long. A newspaper article in 1941 reported that five steelhead
were caught on a downtown Santa Maria street when the river
overflowed its banks.
However, the construction of
Twitchell Dam in the 1950s effectively turned off the spigot
in this river system. The dam is designed to replenish
groundwater supplies, and does so by trapping all streamflow
during the winter and spring and slowly releasing it during the
summer. This schedule usually leaves no water for steelhead
during the times they would normally migrate upstream, in the
winter and the spring. For steelhead, adequate streamflows are a
lifeline between the ocean (where steelhead mature) and spawning
areas in the upper watershed, where they deposit their eggs.
16-inch steelhead in
Sisquoc River
The National Marine Fisheries
Service – the top federal agency charged with protecting
steelhead populations – recently released a
draft Recovery Plan for southern steelhead. It lists the
Santa Maria/Sisquoc River system as the highest priority for
recovery actions, and recommends providing adequate streamflows
for steelhead. In addition, longstanding California law requires
that all dams provide enough streamflow to maintain downstream
fish populations.
Currently, nobody knows exactly how much water is needed to
sustain a steelhead fishery. Due to this lack of data, the State
of California has included the Sisquoc/Santa Maria River system
as one of three rivers it will study in the coming years. The
goal of the study is to determine how much water is needed to
support a steelhead population in this river system. The study
will be completed in 2012.
It’s a perfect time to begin gathering data that will help all
stakeholders make informed decisions about water use in this
system. Such measures may eventually include water conservation,
adjustments to the dam’s water release schedule, or others.
ForestWatch attended the first public hearing on this study in
November 2010, and will continue to track the process to ensure
that steelhead can once again reach their historic spawning
grounds in the Los Padres National Forest.
June 30, 1879.
"The stream is full of mountain trout. I am confident that we
saw in some places more than 500 at one sight. We were
disappointed in the remembrance of leaving our hooks with the
wagons, but had no difficulty in capturing all we wanted with
our hands, averaging a pound each."
Benson, Arlene. The Noontide Sun: The Field Journals of the
Reverend
Stephen Bowers, Pioneer California Archeologist. Ballena Press.
1997. Pg 136.
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