Restoring steelhead populations

This past November, 11 barriers were removed from Carpinteria Creek in Santa Barbara County, California. Once major barriers to fish passageway, this project concludes over a decade of planning, implementing, and advocacy by South Coast Habitat Restoration (SCHR), and other state, federal and local partners.

The NOAA Restoration Center provided funding and had a role in the planning and design of many of these projects.

Many of the barriers on the creek were located on privately-owned ranches that are active agriculture producers. “We had to do some basic education with these landowners about the importance of healthy creek habitat that functions as migration corridors and spawning grounds for endangered steelhead trout,” stated Mauricio Gomez, Director of SCHR.

The most common barriers were concrete low-flow crossings and undersized bridges that had been built in the early 1900’s. In addition to constricting the natural flow of the creek, parts of the waterway below the barriers were often channelized with concrete – handy for reducing flooding, but detrimental for fish migration. Restoration at these sites included removing concrete barriers and installing larger bridges to continue providing access for landowners across the creek.

“Everyone is looking at the work that was done in this creek as a model for other similar projects in southern California,” said Eric Friedman, with the office of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

The work means that six new miles of spawning habitat is now available to steelhead trout.  The numbers of steelhead using creeks like this one in southern California varies from year to year, based on the amount of rainfall.

This project is one of many currently focusing on restoring habitat in coastal areas with the goal of increasing resilience in fish populations in North America.