Assessing Salmonid Habitat in the Russian River Watershed

Through funding from the Sonoma County Water Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Services, the Sotoyome RCD is currently participating in a cooperative effort to restore and enhance Salmonid habitat in the Russian River. These efforts are being spearheaded by the Salmonid Coalition, whose mission is to:

"protect and enhance existing habitat, and to restore historic habitat to promote the recovery and maintenance of Salmonid fish populations in the Alexander, Dry Creek, and Knights Valleys of the Russian River Watershed; and to create sustainable partnerships, both public and private that allow property owners, public agencies, and conservation groups the ability to contribute to these efforts while balancing the need to provide for regional economic viability . . ."

SRCD staff has conducted outreach in 15 tributaries to the Russian River, requesting access to enter and evaluate current creek conditions. Over 95% of the parcels on these streams are privately owned, totaling approximately 460 separate parcels and 250 landowners. Thus far, outreach efforts have secured access to 12 of the 15 target creeks, representing approximately 32.3 miles of creek. After obtaining permission from landowners to enter the creek, biologists from NOAA fisheries, SRCD, and/or Department of Fish and Game walk the creek to determine whether or not existing stream survey data truly reflects the current state of Salmonid habitat in those target creeks.

Creek assessments associated with this effort do not include the collection of new data but instead rely on data already collected by many state, federal and private entities with a history of work in the Russian River Basin. Those partners include but are not limited to the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (NCRWQCB), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Sotoyome Resource Conservation District (SRCD), the City of Santa Rosa, and the University of California Berkeley (UCB).

The next phase of the project will focus on the analysis and integration of the information collected through the ground-truthing efforts into a summary report. This report will compare the conditions observed this spring (2007) to those summarized in existing assessment reports. In addition, restoration recommendations will be made and prioritized. The SRCD has funding to provide technical assistance through next Spring to landowners in Dry and Alexander Valleys who may have erosion and water quality concerns. To learn more about SRCD's role in the Salmonid Coalition efforts, please contact Kara Heckert, at (707) 569-1448 ext. 104, or email her at kheckert@sotoyomercd.org.