RETU Holiday Logo

rickie

What is a "Salmon Carcass Toss" and why is it so much fun?  (See below!)

Redwood Empire Chapter of Trout Unlimited Holiday Newsletter
Year End Review
and the view ahead to 2011
Winter  2010
RETU Website
In This Issue
Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival 2011
Steelhead in the Classroom
Salmon Creek Estuary Restoration
Salmon Carcass Toss
General Meeting--January 19
Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival
2011




TU is sponsoring the Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival again for 2011.  Save the date!  February 11-13.  It is a free event for the entire family.

 

The purpose of the Wild Steelhead Festival is to celebrate the return of the wild steelhead! and:

 

  • Honor our partners and businesses that have joined us in the effort to protect local threatened wild steelhead.
  • Foster awareness of the importance of cool, clear, clean water.
     
  • Raise money to fund local watershed restoration and education activities.

 We will be joined by author and steelhead fly-fishing master, Lani Waller on Friday night February 11th, for the dinner/dance at the Villa Chanticleer.  Dinner tickets: $35 adults/$20 children.


Contact Event Coordinator Liz Keeley at 484-6438, or  by email info@healdsburgsteelheadfest.org

for registration information. Dinner is expected to sell out quickly.

 

Help us make this year's festival even bigger and better by volunteering, setting up an informational booth or supporting us through a sponsorship.


Our next General Meeting is January 19 at the Sonoma County Library at 3rd and E Streets in Santa Rosa from 7:00pm - 8:45pm.  Please join us for the Wild Steelhead Festival update.
Greetings!

Happy Holidays!


First, I want to thank the Redwood Empire TU

board members who have dedicated many hours

during 2010. Work has been arduous at times.

We finalized re-structuring of the board and

designed a new strategic plan! 

 

Two Thousand and Eleven marks the beginning of

the implementation phase of this Strategic Plan,

which summarized tasks RETU with the vision to

restore excellent salmon and steelhead fishing to

the Redwood Empire.

 

We have established a top ten list of goals. At the top is our intention to return a run of 50,000 WILD steelhead and 10,000 WILD Coho to the

Russian River by 2040.

 

TU's Protection, Conservation and Education

programs will provide the vehicles to accomplish

our objectives.

 

Check out our website:

http://redwoodempiretu.org/

 

For more information select the membership tab

and then to the left select "Our Top Ten Goals".

 

RETU will continue to emphasize Youth Education

with the annual Wild Steelhead Festival, Steelhead

in the Classroom, and a new Program, a Fly Fish

and Conservation Camp for children ages 11 - 18. This is tentatively scheduled for May 14th and 15th. Education Chair Carlo Bongio, will provide

more details in the months to come.

 

The conservation issues facing all the watersheds

in our jurisdiction seems overwhelming to us at

times, but RETU remains undaunted.  With the

support of TU California and TU National, we will

create lasting change for our fish, our families,

and our planet. For 'quality of life' not 'quantity of

money', (in my view), should dictate our actions.

 

Some of the many complex issues that continue to

threaten the Russian River watershed include the

improper management of in-stream and main stem

water flows, in-stream gravel mining, the health of

our estuary and other salmonid nurseries, and the

continued discharge of waste water into the

Russian River.

 

We have a lot of work to do, and that is just the

Russian!

 

If any of these topics strike a cord with you, right on! This is your call to action.  Email me at

flyfishdr@comcast.net and let me know your

ideas!

 

Hope all your Holiday Fishes come true.

 

Julie Carlson-Phelan, D.C.TUlogo50 

President

Redwood Empire Chapter



wildsalmonongrill
Don't miss this year's Wild Salmon Dinner at the Villa Chanticleer Friday February 11 during the Healdsburg Wild Steelhead Festival.
STEELHEAD IN THE CLASSROOM was first introduced to California from Canada as a result of RETU's early work.  Over 70 classrooms participate in the North Bay, and most are using an innovative classroom incubator developed by RETU.  This year's teacher training for new teachers to the program will be held January 8 at the Warm Springs Visitor Center at Lake Sonoma.  Contact Rich McGowan for more information or to sign up.  Rich can be reached at 887-1378 or at rjmcgowan@earthlink.net.




SalmonCreekRootWad
LARGE redwood root wad in Salmon Creek Estuary Photo by Brock Dolman
Salmon Creek Estuary Restoration Work Underway
This Fall, work began on the restoring the Salmon Creek Estuary to improve habitat conditions for juvenile Coho Salmon and Steelhead.  RETU arranged for the delivery of large redwood root wads that will be used for in-stream structures that will provide hiding places for juvenile salmonids that rear in the estuary before migrating out to the ocean.  This fresh water estuary rearing can be extremely important to the success of a salmonid fishery. 

A study in one North Coast estuary found that 85 percent of the adult salmonids that successfully returned from the ocean to spawn had reared in the estuary.  Restoring natural habitat features such as large woody debris will reduce predation by birds and other estuary wildlife that like to snack on young salmonids.  RETU is working with Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and Prunuske Chatham restoration specialists on this project.  Volunteer opportunities on this project for RETU members may come up in 2011 so stay tuned!

drycreekcarcass
Wild Chinook Carcass 2010 - Dry Creek Watershed
Photo by Brock Dolman
Annual "Salmon Carcass Toss"
brings ocean nutrients back home.
For the last few years RETU volunteers have participated in a "Salmon Carcass Toss" along streams in western Sonoma County.  Volunteers pickup barrels of surplus coho and steelhead carcasses from the Dry Creek Fish Hatchery courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Game.  The carcasses are then distributed along streams that are home to rearing young coho salmon and steelhead trout.  The carcasses decompose and add vital nutrients to the stream's eco-system at the base of the food chain feeding insects upon which young salmonids feed.  Biologist only recently began to realize how important salmon carcasses have been in bringing the ocean's nutrients up into the forest ecosystem.  Salmon nutrients have been found in trees long distances from streams.  Historically, salmon carcasses by the thousands were eaten by insects and mammals in our local watersheds.  Mammals have done what they do in the woods, and the nutrients have feed the food chain from the ground up.  We have lost that vital component in our watershed's natural system of self-renewal and sustainability.

Restoring healthy wild salmon runs and their free fertilizing carcasses to the our forested watersheds will yield multiple benefits we are only beginning to understand.
Next General Meeting--January 19
The next General Meeting of the Redwood Empire Chapter of Trout Unlimited (RETU) will held Wednesday January 19 at 7:00 PM at the Central Library in Santa Rosa, corner of 3rd and D Street.  All members and prospective members are welcome. 

Are you new to fly fishing and looking for some tips on techniques and the hot spots?  Are you newly retired and looking for a fun way to give back to the waters that have given you so much enjoyment over the years?  Then getting involved with RETU may be just what you are looking for!  Join us at our January 19 meeting and let's go to work restoring the once world famous Russian River wild steelhead fishery.
How about a Year End Donation?