Miscellany...

When I showed up for Friday's fieldwork gig, I was handed a copy of Metro Santa Cruz by someone who works for the county. This article on disappearing salmon is mostly accurate and actually not too bad for a freebie rag. It mentions several people I work with on an almost daily basis, together with noted Central Coast researchers, Sean Hayes and Bruce MacFarlane of NOAA. When the crisis with the coho first hit and no one really knew wtf was going on, I heard Bruce give a presentation at a meeting wherein he first shared what he and the others had found with regard to tracking ocean conditions. These guys are on the cutting edge of what's going on with the fish around here, and I feel really lucky to be able to pick up my phone and call them when I have questions, or even offer my help.

The other thing mentioned in the article is an off-channel pond on a little creek called San Vicente. The creek is immediately south of the town of Davenport which is little more than a wide place in the road with a spectacular view... but anyway. The article quotes NOAA ecologist Kit Crump as saying that when they approached the site in 2001 it was as a "take" case, meaning coho and steelhead were presumed to have been harmed and/or killed by being swept into the pond. Until they seined it took scales to age the fish, and determined that all the huge, fat, healthy fish in there were young of the year and about 30% bigger than fish who rear normally in the stream! Unheard of! Preposterous! They checked again the following year... same deal. Pond full of fat, happy juvenile salmonids, going against what every biologist had been taught to think about where steelhead and salmon prefer to rear. It made this little pond (an old agricultural diversion pond) into quite the controversy in our world, for so many reasons.

According to this year's preliminary surveys by NOAA, coho returns were indeed as awful as everyone had feared. On the two streams presumed to be the strongest coho streams, they had oh, maybe 30 juveniles seen on one stream, 50 on the other. On tiny little San Vicente Creek? A hundred and eighty six. Wow!! The importance of that tiny little pond suddenly skyrocketed in everyone's importance.

On September 15, a project to do depth maintenance (euphemism for "dredge") and install a sluice/sediment gate for the pond so inflows can be regulated was begun. In addition to coho, we also have red-legged frogs there and potentially San Francisco garter snakes. So, to sum up, we're affecting a jurisdictional wetland that is full of listed species. A nightmare of permitting loopholes, restrictions and pitfalls that took months to navigate. It has not been fun, but our team has kept its eyes on the prize all this time, and our project is now 3/4 done in time for this year's rainy season. The coho in the stream this year will have a high flow refuge in the pond that will keep them from being swept downstream and out to sea (killed) and a place to hang & eat themselves into food comas come springtime.

It's been a really busy, exhausting few weeks. We started sampling on September 19 and really haven't stopped. For me this means long days that start before dawn and end after dark, hard work, hoofing it in sometimes many miles to sampling sites in remote locations, bad food for lunch and the fear that I can never carry enough water to slake my constant thirst.

I still owe a good friend an apology for pulling a disappearing act on a trail run we were supposed to do last weekend that got pre-empted by nonstop sampling. Maybe it will make her feel better if I tell her that by Sunday evening three things had happened: 1) I had gotten in an accident with my state-issued vehicle, 2) been jokingly accused of steppin out by the SO because I am simply never home anymore 3) being not-so-jokingly accused of treating the house like a hotel, i.e. leaving my gear and clothes everywhere, abdicating all my normal household chores (which for my compulsive neatnik and also uber-busy love is a cardinal sin...heh). All I can do is grit my teeth and ride it out because this is how it's going to be for the entire month of October... between sampling season and red-legged frog monitoring for my little project mentioned above my life is pretty much spoken for.

So, M, if you are reading this, please know that I have not forgotten, I am still coming up with new ways to beg for forgiveness and you will have your pound (or two) of flesh! :0D