Feds say coho salmon can be saved if cities, landowners take action
Kurtis Alexander
Santa Cruz Sentinel
04/07/2010
The Central Coast’s coho salmon, whose numbers have dwindled to maybe a few dozen in Santa Cruz County, can be rescued from the brink of extinction, say federal fishery experts.
But not without action.
An ambitious plan by the National Marine Fisheries Service to save the endangered fish calls for concessions from Santa Cruz area landowners and governments — sometimes significant and costly — from reducing the amount of drinking water diverted from streams to possibly removing the Boardwalk’s parking lot at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River.
“It’s condor time now for the coho,” said John Ambrose, a biologist with National Marine Fisheries. “We’re going to have to take more proactive steps to halt the decline.”
The recovery plan released last month, and now out for public review, is seeking to restore a population of Pacific salmon that has historically spawned by the thousands in rivers and creeks between Santa Cruz and Mendocino counties. The population is now believed to be in the hundreds, however, with only occasional sightings in Santa Cruz County.
While related to the more well-known chinook, whose sport fishing season opened last weekend, the Central Coast coho, which can be fished catch-and-release only, has been all but left for gone.
“No one ever expected recovery here,” said Chris Berry, a water manager for the city of Santa Cruz. “The common wisdom was that it never had a viable population.”
The federal plan calls for restorative action on 28 watersheds statewide, seven in Santa Cruz County. The San Lorenzo River, officials say, is one of the most important because of its large size. It is also one of the most challenging to address, they say, because of the development along its shores.
In the plan, federal officials offer dozens of recommendations to improve living conditions for the fish in the San Lorenzo River. Many of the actions simply renew emphasis on existing policies, like cracking down on building code violators near the river and ensuring downed trees are left in the water to create pools for the fish.
Other proposals are more novel, like considering removal of the paved parking area at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
“The likelihood of that happening is probably not high, but the benefit for salmon and steelhead would be high,” said Ambrose. “When we cover these estuaries with buildings and parking lots, we lose a lot of habitat.”
The measures proposed by the National Marine Fisheries are not binding, but landowners and government agencies that take action contrary to the health of protected wildlife, under the Endangered Species Act, can be penalized.
Federal officials say the intention is to work cooperatively with communities and find ways to meet everyone’s interests.
Berry, with the city of Santa Cruz, has mixed reactions toward the plan.
“On the one hand, I was kind of excited to think the San Lorenzo River could sustain coho salmon at some point,” he said. “On the other hand, I saw a headache for our operations.”
The city, which gets much of its drinking water from the San Lorenzo River and its tributaries, is asked to limit its water diversions to ensure ample water for the fish. Berry had not yet read the full 645-page plan and did not know the extent to which it would affect the city.
The plan endorses the city’s proposed desalination plant, noting that alternative water sources are important to develop and, in fact, should be considered by other water agencies in the county.
The owner of Big Creek Lumber, Bud McCrary, has not read the entire federal report either but remains skeptical about the recommendations.
His logging business, which is committed to sustainable forestry practices, has questioned whether the coho is native to the Central Coast and, in fact, is amid a legal effort to change the federally-defined range of the fish.
