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Wildlife officials feared that the endangered steelhead trout, saved from the Palisade burns, might not have stood up to spawn after it had finished over the past few months.
After the Santa Monica basin was burnt in January, the fish were shattered with electricity, scooped up in a bucket, trucked into a hatching area, fed unfamiliar food, and moved to another stream. It was all part of the liberation effort that was released in the nick of time.
“All of this was a very stressful and traumatic event and we are delighted that we didn’t actually kill a lot of fish,” said Kyle Evans, Environmental Program Manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “But I was worried that it had disrupted the entire process that thwarted the last few months.”
Steelheads were once abundant in Southern California, but their numbers plummeted amid coastal development and overfishing. The clear Southern California population is listed as at risk at the state and federal levels.
(Alex Bejar / California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
But this month they did spawn.
It is believed that more than 100 baby trout will sway around a new excavation at Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County.
Their presence is victory – for the species, and for their adoption.
However, more fish need better habitats, which is lacking in Southern California. This is due to the increased frequency of droughts and catastrophic wildfires.
Steelhead trout is the same species as rainbow trout, but with a different lifestyle. The steelhead moves into the ocean and then returns to the creek of birth to spawn, but the rainbows bring it to life in freshwater.
Steelheads were once abundant in Southern California, but their numbers plummeted amid coastal development and overfishing. The clear Southern California population is listed as at risk at the state and federal levels.
This month’s young fish marked the next generation of the last population of steelheads in the Santa Monica Mountains.
They also represent the return of a species of species that was devastated itself by a fire four years ago, but have since recovered.
It is believed that more than 100 baby trout will sway around a new excavation at Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County.
(Kyle Kusa/Santa Barbara County Land Trust)
Alisal Blaze torched about 95% of the Arroyo Hondo Reserve, located west of Santa Barbara, and subsequent streams of debris suffocated a stream of the same name that housed steelheads.
All the fish died, according to Meredith Hendricks, executive director of Santa Barbara County Land Trust, a nonprofit that owns and manages the reserve.
“To be able to provide space for transplanting these fish when we ourselves went through a similar situation but lost a fish — that was a real big deal,” Hendrix said.
Arroyo Hondo Creek has similarities with the native trout panga creek. Both are coastal streams of roughly the same size.
There is a bonus feature. There is a state-funded fish street built under Highway 101 in 2008, improving fish movement between rivers and seas.
Spawning is a biologically and vigorously demanding effort, and according to Evans, the process likely began before December.
That is, when 271 Steelhead evacuated in January from Topanga Creek, a biodiversity hotspot in Malibu, it was already ongoing and severely damaged by the Palisade fire.
When they were transported about 50 miles north to the hatch site in Fillmore, they hang out until 266 people arrived at Arroyo Hondo the following month.
State wildlife officials regularly inspected the fish with new excavations, but no nests were found laying eggs.
Steelhead trout swims at Arroyohondo Creek in Santa Barbara County. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Then, on April 7, Evans received a text message from Leslie Chan, Land Program Director at Land Trust. Leslie Chan received a video that appears to show young young people who have just traced the year.
The next day, Evans’ team was sent to Ogawa to confirm the discovery. They tallied about 100 newly hatched fish.
The younger trout spans about an inch, and as Evans says, it’s not very bright. They hang out in shallow waters and do not tighten bolts from predators.
“They’re a bit happy to be alive and they’re not actually trying to hide,” he said.
By the end of summer, Evans estimates that two-thirds of them will die.
However, survivors are sufficient to keep their population recharging. Evans hopes that in a few years, the number of fish that first moved will be three to four times higher.
The plan is to ultimately move at least some to a native home in Topanga Creek.
Now Topanga “looks pretty bad,” Evans said.
The Palisade fire stripped the hillsides around the vegetation, paving the way for dirt, ash and other materials to pour into the waterway.
Another at-risk fish, the Northern Tide Goby, was rescued from the same basin just before the steelhead was released.
Within two days of trout removal, the first storm of the season will arrive, potentially filling the remaining fish in a muddy slurry.
Civic scientists, Bernard Inn and Rebecca Ramirez of Centres Rebecca Ramirez joined agency staff on January 17th by rescue of a federal endangered species of fish at Topanga Lagoon in Malibu.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Evans expects it will take about four years for Topanga Creek to be ready to support the Steelhead again, based on his experience of recovering after Thomas, Woolsey, Alisal and others.
There is also discussion about moving around the steelhead to create a backup group.
For example, some of the steelheads saved from Topanga could move to Malibu Creek, another stream in the Santa Monica Mountains that will empty into Santa Monica Bay. Efforts are underway to remove the 100-foot Ringe Dam in Malibu Creek and open more fish habitat.
“As we saw, if there’s one population in the mountains of Santa Monica and a fire breaks out, you could lose it forever,” Evans said. “So having fish in multiple regions is a kind of way to protect it.”
With Topanga Creek Steelhead reaching north, it is believed that no one currently lives in Santa Monica.
According to Evans, who advocates for defending funding for such efforts, habitat restoration will include $100 billion in bond measures to fund Come Online Money, water, clean energy and other environmental projects soon from Proposition 4.
“It doesn’t matter how many fish you have, or if you’re growing them on a hatch plant, or what you’re doing,” he said. “If they’re not supported by the landscape, it’s no point.”
Some people make temporary accommodations on The Land Trust permanent, according to Hendricks.
Arroyo Hondo is a long stream with lots of nooks and crannies to hide the trout. So when it was time to bring the steelhead home, she said, “I’m sure I’ll be left behind.”
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