Alameda Creek, the largest local watershed in Alameda County and the Bay Area, once hosted big runs of steelhead and Chinook steelhead. However, dams, other barriers and water diversions resulted in the decimated of these runs. Here is the latest press release on the great work by the Alameda Creek Alliance and Jeff Miller to restore these magnificent fish to the creek:
Fremont, CA – Alameda Creek Alliance volunteers last week helped fish biologists from the East Bay Regional Park District capture and radio tag a single adult steelhead trout in lower Alameda Creek below the BART weir, an impassable concrete barrier that blocks fish spawning migration.
On February 5, Park District biologists attached a radio transmitter to a 25” female steelhead and moved her upstream into lower Niles Canyon. This steelhead migrated into the Stonybrook Creek tributary, where she was observed last week spawning with native rainbow trout.
The female steelhead has been nicknamed “Anna,” a reference to the anadromous, or migratory, life cycle of steelhead. “Anadromous” derives from Greek words meaning “up running.” Steelhead trout and rainbow trout are different forms of the same species. Steelhead have migrated from the fresh water streams of their birth to the ocean, whereas the smaller rainbow trout spend their entire life cycle in fresh water.
Four adult steelhead were seen at the BART weir barrier on February 3 but only one steelhead was captured on February 5. A 29” chinook salmon was also captured, likely of hatchery origin.
The Park District captures and radio tags steelhead to track their upstream migration. The Alameda County Water District and California Department of Fish and Wildlife helped coordinate the fish capture and tagging. Trout Unlimited, South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition and Diablo Valley Fly Fishers also provided volunteers.
Local, state and federal agencies have been working on multiple projects to restore steelhead trout to Alameda Creek. The Alameda County Water District and Alameda County Flood Control District will begin construction this summer on a critical fish ladder that will allow steelhead to migrate past the BART weir barrier and an adjacent inflatable rubber dam used for water supply operations. It will take three years to complete construction for this complex fish passage facility. The ACWD recently completed construction of another fish ladder at a second inflatable rubber dam one mile upstream in the flood control channel.
In 2018 the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission finished rebuilding the seismically-challenged Calaveras Dam in the upper Alameda Creek watershed. The new reservoir will be operated with cold water releases in the summer to help steelhead and trout rear downstream of the dam. The SFPUC also recently finished construction of a new fish ladder and fish screens at the associated Alameda Diversion Dam in upper Alameda Creek. This diversion dam will be operated to bypass much more of the winter and spring.
“Anna, our anadromous trout, was in a hurry to spawn and she quickly found good habitat in a Niles Canyon tributary and a willing mate among the native rainbow trout population there,” said Jeff Miller, director of the Alameda Creek Alliance. “We’ve had a handful of adult steelhead attempt to migrate up lower Alameda Creek each of the last four winters, but only a few have gotten a helping hand to suitable spawning grounds.”