Abstract

Habitat/Passage Impediment Tracking of Endangered Southern Steelhead, Santa Ynez River
Track: Parks, Natural Reserves, Fisheries, and Wildlife Management
Authors: Timothy Robinson

The endangered southern steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are monitored and habitat restoration efforts conducted by the Cachuma Water Agencies on the Lower Santa Ynez River (LSYR) in Santa Barbara County. These efforts entail habitat mapping, maintaining an inventory of current and removed migration passage impediments, and evaluating the benefits of those removed barriers. A developed multi-variant GIS-database has proven to be a valuable tool to track habitat extent and quality, meet restoration and grant writing goals, and produce regulatory compliance documentation. The impediment and habitat inventory will be presented for steelhead in association with public trust resource management on the Santa Ynez River and its tributaries below Bradbury Dam at Lake Cachuma. Specifically, all removed passage barriers will be highlighted as well as the quality of habitat opened up above those impediments for steelhead spawning and rearing.