In March, Amelia Johnson (California Sea Grant/UCCE Sonoma) along with Tim Ryan and Will Boucher (Watershed Stewards Project, AmeriCorps members with California Sea Grant) represented the Russian River Coho Salmon Monitoring Program at the 32nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Federation Conference in Santa Barbara, California.
Amelia (pictured) presented data from the coho program during her talk “Are low summer flows limiting survival of salmonids at the stream and watershed scales in the Russian River watershed?” Amelia discussed data from the 2013 summer snorkel and fall flow surveys the coho program conducted across the watershed. Data showed limited habitat availability during the peak dry season for coho salmon, due to dry and intermittently flowing stream reaches.
The continued collection of this data could help prioritize future restoration and water conservation efforts as well as hatchery coho stocking by the Russian River Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program.
For more information, visit Sea Grant Extension Program