The Eel River Salmon Restoration Project

Eel River Salmon Restoration Project
April 24, 2007


The Salmon in the Classroom Program is once again up and running in 63 classrooms throughout Humboldt County. K-12 students will learn about salmonid life histories and the habitat qualities that salmon and steelhead need to survive and thrive in our local watersheds. The steelhead eggs will come from the Mad River Hatchery. Prior to their release back into the natal stream, the Mad River, each steelhead will be marked with an adipose fin clip. This is the same mark that all Mad River Hatchery steelhead receive before release.

The ever popular "Salmon in the Classroom" program is back in business! Photo: Jan Duncan-Vaughn

Funding for the program came from many sources including the California Department of Fish and Game, Trees Foundations' Cereus Fund, the Humboldt County Fish and Game Advisory Commission, the Humboldt Area Foundation, and the Save-the-Redwoods League. In addition, many local businesses have supported our efforts, including Redway Feed and Garden, Fin and Feather Pet Shop, K & M Glass, and Town and Country Refrigeration. Thanks also to the Friends of the Mad River Hatchery and the staff there for providing the eyed steelhead eggs.

We will be planting about 10,000 trees, thanks to financial support provided by Working Assets. In addition, the California Conservation Corps has been assisting us with willow staking and willow mattress construction on the "Blue Goo Slide" located between Briceland and Redway, on Redwood Creek. The sediment basins are now filled with silt and gravel, which had been entering Redwood Creek and silting up spawning gravels and muddying the water. The willow orchards previously planted in the sediment basins are now yielding a crop of willow stakes for the current project. Redwood trees inter-planted in the orchard will be released as harvesting goes on, and the new forest will soon be visible from the road.

The Eel River Salmon Restoration Project has been conducting downstream monitoring projects in the South Fork Eel River tributaries since 1986. Some of the streams sampled include Redwood Creek, Seeley Creek, Salmon Creek, Dean Creek, Sproul Creek, East Branch (of the South Fork Eel), and Bull Creek. Currently, in Sproul Creek, this population monitoring program has provided eight years of continuous information on salmonids as well as other "non-game" species, including fish, amphibians, and reptiles.

For more information
please contact Harry Vaughn
at 707/943-3233.



This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-272

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