Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
ral resources division of the San Francisco Public Utility Commission
(SFPUC), which owns and operates the largest dams and reservoirs in the
Alameda Creek system. Under his leadership, the SFPUC has ceased to
stonewall Alameda Creek's restoration.
Big dams owned by the SFPUC at Calaveras and San Antonio reser-
voirs have prevented Steelhead and Chinook Salmon from reaching up-
stream spawning areas on their own for decades. Yet since 1996, creek
activists have documented more than 100 Steelhead and three dozen Chi-
nook Salmon that have sniffed their way up Alameda Creek from the bay,
through the maze of shoreline salt ponds and past the exposed flood-
control channel, where they are stymied by a weir that protects the rail-
road and BART track piers plus three inflatable rubber dams. Beyond
stretches an estimated 15 miles of potential fish spawning grounds.
The question of whether these would-be spawners deserve protection
has alternately driven and stalled restoration in the lower creek. Central
Coast Steelhead were listed under federal law as threatened species in
1997, a status finalized in 2006. The ruling about which fish are considered
Steelhead is based on the circumstances of an altered landscape: all
On-
chorhyncus mykiss
Trout still able to migrate between inland spawning
grounds and the ocean are Steelhead protected by the Endangered Species
Act, whereas resident fish unable to access the ocean due to blockages are
unprotected Rainbow Trout. That means none of the
O. mykiss
in the Ala-
meda Creek watershed are protected by law until a ladder permits the fish
to bypass the BART weir and access the ocean.
Tales of frustrated fish drew environmental activist Jeff Miller to Ala-
meda Creek in 1996. He spoke with local anglers who recalled fishing the
creek's abundant Chinook and Steelhead runs in the 1950s and 1960s, and
who continued to hand-carry returning spawners over the rubber dams.
Miller created the Alameda Creek Alliance to bring down these obstruc-
tions.
Over the years, the alliance has needled agencies into removing one
barrier after another between fish and the upper reaches of Alameda
Creek. These include two swimming hole dams in Sunol Regional Park,
two abandoned dams from Niles Canyon, and the lower rubber dam. As
early as 2012, fish ladders at the BART weir and remaining rubber dams
will be installed. And plans to restore the salt ponds at the creek's mouth
should help juvenile fish make the physiological adjustment to salt water.
Thanks to these efforts, Steelhead and salmon may soon reach Little Yo-
semite—a natural waterfall in Sunol Regional Park—under their own
power.
All that's needed now is water, made available at the right times for
Steelhead to enter, live, and leave the watershed. In early 2011, the SFPUC
reached agreement with government agencies on a flow schedule for water
