Chinook spawners active in riffle, 44 miles above Scott River’s mouth, on Oct. 18th

Despite no rain for months, the annual fall Chinook salmon migration has moved into Scott Valley. The first fish viewed at the CDFG video weir, located in the upper canyon at river mile 18, was on October 5th. By the following Monday, salmon were seen in the Scott River near Shackleford Creek and Meamber Bridge. Flows at the USGS gage (at RM 21) were then measured at 25 cfs.

Chinook spawning was seen to be quite active above Etna Creek (RM 44) by October 18th, when these photos were taken. Two large adults can be clearly seen nearby.

A large Chinook adult.

Two Chinook circling, Oct. 18th

A reddish colored Chinook adult

Three post-irrigation season leases were obtained by the Water Trust to help improve this fall’s low flow condition of the Scott River. Although irrigation diversion ceased at Young’s Dam in August, the two stockwater rights were leased starting October 1st to ensure all water remained instream as flows naturally increase. A minimum of 400 acre-feet of additional water was purchased, with an option for more if dry weather continues.

An active surface water diversion near river mile 50 was also leased for 1.3 cfs beginning on September 25th, for a minimum of 30 days.

Young's Dam and fish ladder on October 18th

Density of 0+coho, trout, and dace in beaver dam pool

One of the Water Trust’s monitoring contractors, Sue Maurer, performed snorkel surveys of several lease sites to observe habitat conditions and fish use. Her photos offer a rare glimpse of this underwater world.

Lower French Creek has several beaver dams providing pool habitat above and below. Many juvenile coho salmon and steelhead are seen in these two photos, along with dace. A few young Chinook salmon were also found here.

Upstream on the Miner’s Creek tributary is another pool with 0+ coho and trout, seen here using natural woody cover.

Shackleford Creek’s tributary, Mill Creek, provides large enough pools to also support large 2+ rainbow trout, as seen in photo #4, along with juvenile steelhead and coho salmon.

0+ coho salmon using beaver dam pool, Lower French Creek

Woody cover for coho and trout on French Creek’s Miners Creek

Large 2+ trout inhabits Mill Creek tributary of Shackleford Creek

Low rainfall helped trigger a greater need in 2012 than last year for added water in several priority tributaries. Rainfall in Fort Jones was only 79% of average for the period October to April, triggering a “Dry Water Year” definition for the Scott River watershed.

The Water Trust obtained 5 partial season leases on French Creek and 1 on Shackleford Creek for a total of 330 acre-feet of additional instream water. These streams were identified as having coho salmon spawners during the 2011-12 winter, so improving their summer habitat to support the rearing of coho juveniles bumped up in priority.

Various reaches in French and its Miners Creek tributary received a total of 2.5 cfs in additional flow during late summer. This amount benefited at least 22,150 feet or 4.2 miles of stream habitat.

Shackleford Creek’s lease was on the Mill Creek tributary for a 1st priority right of 0.7 cfs, which increased flow for at least 4,000 feet. A large beaver pond below provides important fish rearing opportunity, especially for coho, throughout the year.

Miners Creek entering French Creek, below lease site.

Coho survey found this carcass in French Creek on 12-11-11. Round lesions are from lampreys that had latched onto fish during upstream migration, a natural and common occurrence.

Coho Salmon Returns Much Higher than Expected

ETNA, California. This season’s surprisingly higher return of coho salmon to the Scott River is generating lots of local excitement. At least 340 adult coho are documented, aof December 8, at the Scott River weir. This number represents a significant increase over the 62 fish counted when this brood year last returned 3 years ago in 2008.

“The California Department of Fish and Game is encouraged by the preliminary 2011 adult coho returns to the Scott River, indicating an increase in adult coho salmon abundance,” commented Morgan
Knechtle, an associate fisheries biologist with CDFG in Yreka. Knechtle operates the department’s video weir where the fish data are collected, located 18 miles upstream from the mouth of the river.

Habitat restoration efforts are one of the reasons for the better numbers, says Gary Black, contractor and former senior project manager with the Siskiyou Resource Conservation District (RCD). “The Scott Valley community should be proud of the unexpectedly higher coho return because measures taken by its residents have helped the stream habitat in the Scott River and tributaries to become much better than it was 10-15 years ago. The facts tell us the Scott River is a good and improving stream for fisheries.”

Ocean conditions also play a role in salmon population cycles. Coho salmon tend to return in three-year cycles, hence the comparison between the 2008 and 2011 runs. Biologists had predicted a much lower return of about 37 fish for this low brood year, based on the average past survival rate of yearling coho leaving the Scott River and returning as adults. The Scott River has one stronger brood year and two weaker ones. The stronger brood year was in 2010 with 927 coho returning and again in 2007 when 1,622 returned.

The annual survey of coho spawning grounds in the mainstem Scott River and tributaries is also ongoing to identify where the redds (nests) and carcasses are found. In Scott Valley, the Siskiyou RCD

staff is leading the survey where access is available, while CDFG is coordinating the effort in the canyon area. [See attached photo.] This information will help the Scott River Water Trust identify where the young coho salmon may need additional water next summer to ensure better survival. As a win-win tool for fish and farmers, the Water Trust will pay for water to be left instream. An estimated 2,174 yearlings migrated out of the river for this brood year in the spring of 2010, representing 34.5 yearlings produced per adult, according to Fish and Game data. This freshwater survival rate appears to be an indicator of in-river conditions. In contrast, the out-of-basin survival rate may indicate downriver and ocean conditions. Until this year,that rate had averaged 1.74 percent yearlings to survive as returning adults.

Coho salmon in the Klamath River Basin were listed as a threatened species in 1997 under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and in 2005 under the California ESA. Before and after those listings, the Scott Valley community has actively participated in voluntary watershed and stream restoration efforts. More restrictive regulatory programs by state and federal agencies were also proposed. Expectations are for increased population trends of all three coho brood years.

Caption: “Coho salmon carcass found during survey in French Creek on Dec. 11th. Round lesions are from lampreys that had latched onto the fish during its upstream migration, a natural and common occurrence.

A wetter than normal water year in 2011 helped increase streamflows in Scott Valley and also reduced the need for water leasing by the Water Trust. Summer habitat was benefitted by the addition of 181 acre-feet of water through three leases in French Creek and Patterson Creek. Added flows ranged from 0.2 to 5.0 cubic feet per second (cfs). Intensive habitat monitoring was performed by Siskiyou Resource Conservation District (RCD) staff at the Patterson Creek lease site using draft protocols developed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

A very dry fall has started off the 2012 water year, which began October 1. While the Scott River did not dry up this summer and had adequate fall flows for fish passage, an experimental effort was made to lease water from October 15 to November 28. An addition of 8 cfs, the majority of the stockwater right for an irrigation district and adjacent landowner, was made at river mile 47 at Young’s Dam. The physical habitat effects of the leased 720 acre-feet were also measured by the RCD staff, again using NFWF draft protocols.

Salmon surveys are showing an above average return of adult Chinook and coho salmon to the Scott River. Both species were able to reach good spawning habitat in the upper Scott River above Young’s Dam. From preliminary 2011 data collected by the California Dept. of Fish and Game at their video weir below Scott Valley, the number of Chinook adults entering the valley is estimated at 4,350 fish while 352 coho spawners have also arrived to date. Complete counts will also include figures from the lower Scott River and tributaries.

See the following article on the significance of the coho.

Our Executive Director, Dr. Sari Sommarstrom, recently gave a panel talk in Sacramento at a Legislative information hearing on the topic, “Coho Salmon on the Brink: Understanding the Depth of the Crisis and Recovery Strategies.” The hearing was sponsored by the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture: http://asmdc.org/members/a01 Sari’s powerpoint can be found on this Water Trust webpage. Below is the Summary which was presented as a handout:

FACTS

The Scott River still supports a natural run of coho salmon, often one of the best in CA.

• The 2010 adult coho run size was 927 fish (via video weir counts by CDFG), which is the good brood year. Historic estimates before 1965 were 800 to 2,000 coho.
• Two weak brood years (’08 and ’09) produced less than 100 adults.
• The Scott’s run appears to be much larger than other natural coho runs in CA in one out of three years (2007 and 2010).
• Less than a decade of good data does not allow trend analysis or prediction.

The Scott River Water Trust became the first water trust in California in 2007 as a win/win tool.

• Water leases are a useful voluntary tool to help immediate flow needs in coho streams.
• Criteria for choosing streams for additional flows target potential coho rearing habitat using long-term data, field experience, and project monitoring.
• Scott River coho restoration checklist shows significant progress in almost all areas.

The SWRCB’s Division of Water Right’s instream process under Water Code 1707 is too cumbersome and expensive to make voluntary instream dedications worthwhile.

• It took the Water Trust two years and $30,000 just to add “instream” as a beneficial use to one water right.
• The uncertain process lumps small water transfers in streams where coho reside with large water transfers, such as through the Bay-Delta.

Beaver ponds provide excellent coho habitat and water storage for free yet are not supported by CDFG policy.

• CDFG’s hunting regulations and depredation policy encourage removal of beaver.
• State Coho Recovery Strategy does not actively support beaver pond restoration.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Promote systematic, annual coho population data for representative coho streams.
  • Data needed on adult spawners, redd locations, downstream migrants, rearing sites.
  • Sustain current data collection and reporting efforts by CDFG on the Scott River.
  • CDFG should determine freshwater and marine survival rates for each brood year in each major coho stream in the State.
• Let good data and analysis lead us to our conclusions and actions. Ask for evidence when assertions are made about cause and effect related to coho.
• Support ways to improve the SWRCB’s water rights process for instream transfers in coho streams.
  • Ask SWRCB to develop a separate process for small instream transfers within watersheds having threatened salmonid populations.
  • Provide for a Categorical Exemption under CEQA for small instream transfers.
• CDFG needs to have a beaver management policy that is coho-friendly yet reasonable when conflicts arise.

The Scott River Water Trust was surprised by a recent press release by Klamath Riverkeeper that fish were dying in Patterson Creek supposedly as a result of water diversions. As of July 7^th, all of the water diversions on Patterson Creek above Highway 3 were leased to stay instream for the benefit of rearing habitat for young coho salmon and steelhead. Good habitat exists about ¼ mile above the bridge for several mile upstream. Of the 927 adult coho that returned to the Scott River last winter, a significant number were seen spawning in Patterson Creek, as the species also did in 2007.

For some reason, Klamath Riverkeeper seems to believe that all drying streambeds and stranded pools with fish in Scott Valley are caused by stream diversions. Without such human water use, they claim, the creeks would never be “dewatered”.

No one likes to see dying fish in stranded pools but one can’t fight natural conditions either. No one should be surprised that some sections of streams dry up every year in Scott Valley. While water diversions can contribute to this situation, this behavior in these stream reaches mentioned by Klamath Riverkeeper’s press release is fundamentally a natural condition and documented historically.

In 1851, journal entries by George Gibbs observed that the river in Scott Valley has only “two or three small branches which continue to flow during the dry season.” He also noted the western side of the valley next to the mountains as being very gravelly and “cut up with arroyas from the mountains”.  Around 1854, the pioneer that Kidder Creek is named after found, to his dismay, that the creek’s flow began falling in July every year and did not begin flowing again until the rains began.

An “arroyo” is a Spanish term for an intermittently dry creek. That is what we have in the lower reaches of most of the tributaries to the Scott River, especially when steep mountain streams enter the flatter alluvium of Scott Valley. Blame the geology and the climate. These “alluvial fans” can be readily seen where State Highway 3 bridges Kidder Creek, Patterson Creek, and Etna Creek. There is not enough stream energy to continue carrying the larger rocks. The full natural flow would not be sufficient to sustain surface flows, as shown by historic evidence.

The Water Trust seeks water leases from active diverters in priority coho streams where additional flows can benefit summer rearing habitat. French Creek and Shackleford Creek have sufficient flow during this wet year so the Water Trust is not seeking water leases there, as it has during past drought years. The main stem Scott River is currently at 200 cubic feet per second (cfs) flow. With the lowest flow always around September 1^st, there is no danger of the river drying up in the next 3 weeks.

The Water Trust was glad to see that this year’s stronger coho brood year had a run of 927 adults, which is in the ballpark of the 800 to 2,000 coho that the California Dept. of Fish and Game (CDFG) estimated the Scott River’s population to be in the early 1960s.

Final data on the Scott’s 2010 salmon populations  are at last available from Cal Fish & Game. The estimated total for 2010 is 2,508 Chinook salmon and 927 coho salmon.

Much of the data comes from CDFG’s Fish Counting Facility, which is a weir located 18 miles upstream from the mouth of the Scott River and attached with a 24-hour recording video camera. Field surveys of redds, carcasses and live fish throughout the river and tributaries help complete the tally. 

The Chinook population is higher than last year but lower than 2008′s. The coho population is much higher than in 2009 with 81 adults and in 2008 with 62 fish, both years known to be weaker brood years. This year is the coho’s stronger brood year (of its 3 brood years), as was 2007 when 1,622 adults were counted at the weir.

Stream flow was not an access problem in the mainstem Scott during the October-November period of the Chinook run nor during the November-January coho run in the tributaries. High flows on a total of about 13 days caused the video filming to be stopped so estimates had to be made for the coho numbers during those periods. The Chinook run appeared to end about Dec. 1st while the last coho was seen on Dec. 24th.

Contact Morgan Knechtle at CDFG in Yreka  at (530) 842-3109 for more details on the 2010 salmon returns.

A preliminary estimate of 881 coho salmon adults passed the California Dept. of Fish and Game’s video measuring weir at mile 18 of the Scott River during the 2010 spawning season from November to January. This figure is up considerably from 81 adults counted last year and 62 adults in 2008, but lower than 2007′s count of 1,622 adults. The Scott River is known for having one brood year much stronger than the other two brood years in the 3-year life cycle of its coho, based on CDFG data going back to the early 1990′s. Compared to other California streams supporting natural coho runs, the Scott River is one of the highest producers of coho spawners each year but all numbers are depressed.

Adult coho salmon (photo by CDFG)

Field surveys by the Siskiyou RCD biologist and crews helped track the location of coho spawner carcasses and redds in Scott Valley’s tributaries, where coho prefer to spawn. Based on this field data, the Water Trust will be targeting priority streams and key reaches where the juvenile coho will likely rear this summer. Depending on the Water Year Type and anticipated flow conditions, lease prices will be set by the Water Committee and potential water lease sites will be sought.