Abstract
Beavers, Are They Good for Southern Steelhead? Santa Ynez River
Track: Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management
Author(s): Scott Engblom
The Santa Ynez River downstream of Lake Cachuma is occupied by the endangered steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the introduced North American beaver (Castor Canadensis). With the ESA listing of steelhead as endangered in 1997, managers/biologists on the river continue to look for ways to improve habitat quality, remove migration barriers, and provide passage and rearing flows for steelhead at critical times of the year. A GIS-database is being used to track beaver influences in relation to steelhead regarding stream water quality and fish passage to improve habitat management, dam releases, and outreach. Beaver dams can change aquatic habitat from lotic to lentic by altering the substrate from hard to soft, increasing water temperature and decreasing dissolved oxygen concentrations, hence possibly degrading salmonid spawning and rearing areas as well as providing habitat for invasive warm-water salmonid predators. The complex relationship between beavers and steelhead will be presented through GIS.
Scott Engblom
Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board
3301 Laurel Canyon Road
Santa Barbara , California 93105
United States
Phone: 805-687-4011
E-mail: sengblom@cachuma-board.org