Photo offered as proof that river teemed with steelhead

Water district pitted against environmentalists over fish

Zeke Barlow
Ventura County Star
11/16/2008

The old black and white photo seems to tell a simple enough story.

In it, two men wearing overalls and wide hats that were the custom in the 1910s are standing in downtown Piru, proudly hoisting up a string of six thick steelhead they caught.

But in the complex, controversial world of trying to determine how to best manage the endangered fish, nothing is simple.

Environmentalists say the photo is one of the many pieces of evidence that show the steelhead were once plentiful in the Santa Clara River and that the United Water Conservation District needs to work to get the fish back to those high numbers.

The folks at United say those fish could have been caught anywhere, and the photo does little to prove that steelhead ever inhabited the river in high numbers. The district recently hired a historian to pore through old newspaper articles, fishing reports and stocking records to see exactly how big the steelhead population was — or wasn't — on the river. The result is a nearly 800-page report on the history of fish on the river.

Million-dollar questions

This is a high-stakes argument over history, one that could force United to spent tens of millions of dollars to fix its fish ladder and diversion, or permit it to continue as it has for years. California Trout recently filed notice of intent to sue United for not doing enough to protect the steelhead and restore the population to historic levels.

"Going back in time is a difficult thing to do, and any historical estimates are not very precise, and that is similar with any wildlife populations," said Chris Yates, who oversees steelhead issues for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and believes enough data exist to prove there was a sizable, viable population on the river before the impact of man.

Yates said the National Marine Fisheries Service uses population estimates from nearby watersheds and historical habitat modeling to put the population of steelhead in the Santa Clara River from 7,000 to 9,000 before any man-made structures were on the river. The NMFS maintains that the river is a vital component of the restoration of the fish in Southern California, where they estimate populations once numbered from 32,00 to 42,000.

United isn't so sure.

"I don't know that we can say how large the population used to be," said Jim Kentosh, resource and planning manager with the district. "Certainly the indications are that the numbers are not as high as some folks think."

The historian is poring over old stocking records, and United's General Manager Michael Solomon said he thinks history will show that the majority of fish in the river are stocked rainbow trout from fisheries or stocked steelhead that were brought in from the north, not native steelhead. Rainbow trout are basically the same as steelhead; the main difference is steelhead swim from freshwater to the ocean and back again.

Solomon contends that the reason that only two steelhead have been seen in one season going through the fish ladder that goes around the Freeman Diversion on the Santa Clara River is that they just aren't here. And if they were never really here in high numbers, why should the district pay millions to fix a ladder that might not be broken and wouldn't lure fish that aren't there or never were, he asked.

'Not an open checkbook'

Solomon said the old black and white photo doesn't prove that fish were in the Santa Clara watershed. He argues that while some natural steelhead might have been in the river, the majority might have been either stocked rainbow trout or steelhead that were brought in from Northern California.

"They are trying to get us to reach a goal based upon what we can see is not there," Solomon said. "We are not an open checkbook to something that is not there."

But others dispute United's claim that the populations were not robust on the river in years before dams and water diversions were built around Southern California.

NMFS said it's unlikely that stocked rainbow lived very long and steelhead that were found in the Santa Clara River and its tributaries were there long after the stocking programs.

"There is not an argument that we have seen that the Santa Clara River wasn't an important part of the Southern California steelhead habitat," Yates said. "The science we have is solid."

Nica Knite with California Trout said she thinks United is trying to dismiss high population numbers in the district's own interests.

"If United can make a case against the preservation of steelhead, they can make a case against having to do something for the benefit of steelhead," she said, citing genetic evidence of historical natural populations. "There's not even a debate."

Ed Henke spent his childhood years playing around the Santa Clara River, and in recent years, the retired National Football League player has spent many hours researching the history of steelhead on the river. He found the old photo, which he thinks is a part of a larger body of evidence that the steelhead were once thick on the river. He, too, thinks United is trying to disprove that to its own advantage.

"They are trying to present a case in their favor because they are trying to not do what the feds and the state told them," said Henke, who now lives in Oregon. "You can't argue with history. History is a fact, and those fish were in there."

Hamper the recovery

During the course of his research, he said, he found old newspaper articles showing 10-pound steelhead in Santa Paula Creek and reports of catches elsewhere, proof that they were abundant, he said...

...Read full article at the Ventura County Star.

To read United's historian's report, visit http://www.unitedwater.org/index.cfm?go2=steelhead. The district will hold a public meeting on Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way.