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- Salmon are definitely an iconic species,
especially here on the Eel River,
which is the third largest salmon run here in California.
Salmon are extremely important
for the ecology of Northern California forests.
They bring those marine derived nutrients
all the way from the ocean up
and they essentially feed the forests
and they feed the critters that live in the forest.
The Eel is really unique in that it has a significant amount
of its population, almost 100%, is wild fish.
- When you hear the stories from the old timers
about the runs were so thick, you could walk across
the salmon's back or you could catch them with pitchforks,
I mean it just gives you an idea
of how present they were on the landscape.
We have witnessed in a relatively short amount of time,
a rapid decline in the populations of Coho.
In California, annual returns across the state
for Coho Salmon in the 1940s would have been
in the numbers of about 400,000 and now we're looking at
anywhere from 2-10% of those kinds of returns.
- It's really no secret that the Eel River
has had its fair share of hardships
with irresponsible land use practices a long time ago.
- It started with mining and then logging.
They would build a dam in the middle of the creek,
fill it up with water and logs,
and then dynamite it during a big winter storm
and those logs would come down and scour out
the entire channel bed, disrupting all the fish nests
and any other living thing that was in the creek.
- The legacy forest practices that occurred
were really a mentality of cut and run before we really had
a better awareness of the environmental impacts.
There was significant damage to the watershed
during those times.
When our owners purchased the Humboldt Redwood Company
lands, there was a deep desire
to get these forests back to their former glory.
- You know, the timber companies of today
are not the timber companies of yesterday
and we're really fortunate here on the North coast
that we do have timber companies that really value
restoration as a part of their business.
- Humboldt Redwood Company allows us
to come on their land and restore the habitat.
- This.
You have to eventually figure out
whether these fish are moving upstream or downstream.
The lower Eel and Van Duzen population
has been identified as a core population,
meaning that it's essential for recovery
in order to take them off of the Endangered Species Act.
- The Lawrence Creek off-channel habitat
restoration projects are really exciting
for us to be working on right now.
We do affectionately call it Larry 1.0 and Larry 2.0.
- During a really strong rain event, the creeks swell up
bank to bank and the fish have no escape.
The water is so turbid that they can't see
in front of their faces, let alone find
little bits of food to eat, so Coho are particularly good
at sniffing out those off-channels
and those clean water inlets and they follow them up
into slack water areas, such as these,
where normally they would be fighting for their lives.
The temperature and the dissolved oxygen are such
that these fish can not only persist,
but they can thrive and we know that
because we pit tag them and re-capture them all summer long
and we can get growth rates on those same identical fish.
Fresh fish.
Woo, look at that guy.
- 15.4 grams.
- As soon as you pull the equipment
and the habitat feature filled up,
you throw the minnow traps in there and the fish show up.
They all caught fish.
Oh my goodness.
My whole career is revolving around the Coho Salmon
and to have them appear the first year after construction,
that really means a lot.
- As a restorationist, you can't ask
for anything more satisfying than to immediately see fish
using a feature that you helped build or enhance.
- You have a certain responsibility
when you own lands like this and have the opportunity
to bring back habitat for these fish.
Since we've put these projects in, it really has taken on
a life of, boy, build it and they will come.
- [Anna] As resource professionals,
even though we address resources in a very different way,
we're able to come together
and really get some good work done as a result.
- We couldn't do recovery without our partners.
You can definitely do a lot more
when you have everyone on board
and everyone shaking their head yes as to moving forward
with projects like these that benefit Coho Salmon.
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