Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years

"The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief. A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn't believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch."

"Coho salmon once thrived in the coastal watersheds of Sonoma County and the broader North Coast, where winter rain, summer fog and the protective canopy of towering redwood forest sustained young fish and spawning adults over millenia. Decades of logging, including industrial-scale operations that picked up after World War II, decimated much of the forestland, unleashing enormous amounts of sediment into the stream channels, burying the gravel beds that salmon and steelehead trout needed for spawning."

"Development, gravel mining and other human activities eliminated flood plains, channelized flows, and limited the woody debris and shade that keeps the water cool enough for young fish to survive. By 1965, the last year Russian Gulch was surveyed for coho salmon, water temperatures were past the 70-degree threshold for salmon survivability. Coho, the rarer of two native salmon species, were gone and steelhead, an ocean-going rainbow trout, were a rarity."

A team from The Wildlands Conservancy observed juvenile coho salmon in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch at Jenner Headlands Preserve. The endangered fish had not been seen in that arm of the watershed for decades. Coho historically thrived across Sonoma County and the North Coast where winter rain, summer fog and redwood canopy sustained spawning adults and young. Industrial-scale logging after World War II released enormous sediment that buried spawning gravel. Subsequent development, gravel mining and channelization eliminated flood plains, reduced woody debris and shade, and raised water temperatures past survivable thresholds by 1965.

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