Wildlife & Endangered Species

One of the unintended consequences of the devastation of Carr Fire in Shasta County is that is has been providing more water to Klamath and Trinity river fish in a time when river conditions have been looking tenuous. Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said the dam-controlling U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has nearly doubled flows on the Trinity River since late July.

In 1908, biologist Joseph Grinnell began leading hundreds of research expeditions throughout California to collect animals as museum specimens and catalog the wildlife in the forests, mountains and deserts. The meticulous notes he and his colleague took over four decades captured scientific snapshots of the wildlife in the first half of the 20th century, including surveys of birds in many areas of the Mojave Desert. 

The Trump Administration appears to be bringing President Trump’s recent tweets about California’s wildfires and environmental laws to life. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has directed fisheries officials to “facilitate” access to water in order to aid in firefighting efforts in California.

Related Article:

• The Washington Post: Fire officials to Trump: No, California didn’t worsen wildfires by dumping water into ocean

Can saving an endangered fish help heal some of California’s regional water woes? Masses of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) once migrated freely between the sea and river headwaters along the California coast. That began to change about a century ago as dams, stream realignments, bridges, invasive species and degraded estuaries all took their toll on steelhead, putting this intriguing member of the salmon family on a path toward near-extinction.

The federal government has declared Novato Creek recovery habitat for threatened steelhead trout. One problem: The North Marin Water District doesn’t think it is suitable because its upper reaches go dry during the summer, the agency says.

Research has found that wind is on the decline in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which subsequently impacts the turbidity of the water. That in turn has an impact on critically endangered delta smelt, writes Metropolitan Water District’s Tom Philp.

A new state of California study says a common group of pesticides could be harmful to bees, but citrus growers say they depend on it to protect their crops.

Heather Sears has been fishing for salmon out of this unassuming coastal community for nearly two decades. This year, for the first time since she arrived in 1999, she won’t be going out to sea. “I just didn’t think we’d have much fish this year,” she was telling me in a chilly backroom of her newly opened fish market on the Noyo River, Fort Bragg’s marine thoroughfare.