Native Fish Society joins the Eel River Forum

We are pleased to announce that on Wednesday, June 14th, Native Fish Society became charter members of the Eel River Forum, a group comprised of 23 public agencies, tribes, non-profit conservation organizations and other stakeholders working with the shared interest to prioritize recovery actions for California's Eel River watershed and its native fish. The forum was established in 2012 and is organized by California Trout. The mission of the Eel River Forum is to “coordinate and integrate conservation and recovery efforts in the Eel River watershed to conserve its ecological resilience, restore its native fish populations, and protect other watershed beneficial uses.”

In 2016, the Eel River Forum adopted the Eel River Action Plan, which outlines specific actionable items to address issues related to water diversions, water quantity and quality, and to engage with the community of stakeholders active in the conservation and recovery of the Eel.

Last summer, Native Fish Society staff, Mark Sherwood and Jake Crawford and Redwoods Coast Coordinator Samantha Kannry gave a presentation at an Eel River Forum meeting to discuss our multi-year water temperature monitoring efforts above Scott Dam. Our goal with this work is to have a better scientific understanding of whether previously accessible, but currently blocked habitat upstream of the dam would provide critical cold water habitats for salmon and steelhead if they were to regain access during the upcoming relicensing of the Potter Valley Project. In addition, at this June meeting, Samantha gave an introduction on her upcoming graduate research at UC Davis, alongside UC Davis Animal Science professor Mike Miller, PhD, where she will gain a better understanding of the summer steelhead life history as it exists in the Van Duzen River, and gain a deeper insight of the population structure across the Eel River basin as a whole.

We are excited to officially join this community of groups and agencies working together towards the recovery of the Eel River, and thank you to our conservation partners, CalTrout, for organizing the forum. We look forward to working more closely with these partners through this forum.

Read more about our interest and efforts here on our Eel River Headwaters Campaign page.