Fish and forest fires don’t mix well. Wildlife biologists have drawn that conclusion after studying many fires along rivers and streams. They know that cold-water fish such as trout can die when fire raises the water temperature to lethal levels, and fish populations can also be harmed by such fire-related impacts as heightened water temperatures that come from loss of shade, increased sedimentation from ash and fire-related erosion, and increased runoff from now-bare slopes.
While there are many published studies on the topic, no one has analyzed the effect of fires of the size, intensity, and frequency of those burning this 2018 season. From January 1, 2018, to August 5, 2018, 4,723 fires have burned 749,770 acres (1,171 square miles), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). To that date, 10 people, including two firefighters, had been killed in the blazes, and wildfires in California had damaged or destroyed thousands of structures.
When the current fire season has waned, state and federal wildlife biologists will turn their attention to considering the effects of the fires on rivers and streams in the fire-ravaged areas and on the fish still living in them. A federal research report titled “Short-Term Effects of Forest Fire on Aquatic Systems” (available online) concludes: “Elevated water temperatures can stress or kill cold-loving fish like our native trout and salmon, while heavy nutrient and sediment inputs can be toxic to all. Fish are apt to seek refuge in unaffected waters, leaving burned areas poorly stocked until conditions become favorable once again.”
Fish loss depends on the degree and duration of water-quality changes and the portion of streams unaffected by the fire. Faced with warming water temperatures, trout usually die if the fire blocks the river connections needed for them to seek refuge in cooler water. “Fish isolated from safe havens due to the extent of the burn or lack of connectivity between affected and unaffected waters will suffer the ill effects of burning on their habitat,” according to the report, adding that “[a] fish population inhabiting a widespread and well-connected stream system will recover more quickly.”
Fires cause a number of other changes in aquatic systems that likely affect trout and other cold-water fish species, according to the report.
Fine Sediment. Highly turbid waters caused by fine sediment — materials less than a quarter of an inch in diameter — can block light, which affects water temperature and plant productivity. Sediment deposited on stream bottoms can suffocate aquatic organisms and also impair spawning. However, “elevated sediment loads rarely persist longer than 5 years.”
Algal Blooms. “Algae . . . form the base for the aquatic food chain and are therefore indispensable to other forms of life in these systems. Given ample sunlight and nutrients, however, populations of these little plants can ‘bloom’ to extraordinary sizes. Excessive algal growth can be harmful to other aquatic organisms, as the mass of plants depletes the supply of dissolved oxygen through respiration and decay.”
Landslides. “Landslides are apt to occur four to 10 years after a severe fire. The lag is largely due to the relatively slow decay of roots of fire-killed trees and shrubs. Once these anchors are lost, the soil is more likely to slough from steep slopes when saturated with rainfall or snowmelt.”
Headwaters. “Shallow ponds and small, headwater streams are prone to the most extreme heating. Near complete loss of shading from vegetation along small forest streams has been reported to raise average maximum water temperatures by 18 degrees, to as much as 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Such effects, however great, should dissipate as water from headwater streams flows into and mixes with cooler waters downstream.”
Invertebrates. “The abundance of aquatic invertebrates is likely to differ little from that in unburned streams after a forest fire. Marked die-offs or out-migrations, however rare, are most likely to occur in the first year after fire, when water quality is apt to be poorest.”
Amphibians. Fish use amphibians such as frogs and tadpoles as a food source, and their populations can be affected by fire. “Changes in water temperature that stem from burning can… affect forest amphibians in positive and negative ways. High water temperatures can stress or kill individuals of species like frogs that thrive in relatively cold streams and ponds. Slight increases in average water temperature, however, can speed larval growth in a range of amphibians. Fast growth tends to lessen the chance of being eaten and the chance of breeding pools drying up before the tadpoles or larvae have morphed into their adult forms. Modest temperature changes can be mixed blessings, though: if breeding pools are warmer after a fire because they are less shaded, they are also exposed to greater ultraviolet radiation, which has the potential to kill or cause defects in young amphibians.”
Large Woody Debris. Downed trees help shape a stream’s channel and provide habitat for game fish, forage fish, insects, and aquatic plants. Trees killed by fire can lead to an increase in woody debris within a stream channel, but this is not necessarily a positive thing. A potentially important negative impact is if nearby trees all fall at roughly the same time after the fire, which can cause a gap of decades while new trees grow, then die and replace the now long-gone woody debris in the stream.
After all the studies and head scratching by scientists following the current fires, there is one thing known for sure: time will tell the real effect on fish and the streams and creatures they need for survival.
Affected Angling Waters
A review of the major wildfires this summer in California shows that as of this writing, they had burned in at least 19 areas that have rivers, creeks, or lakes, some of which are favored by anglers. The following waters have been affected by major fires this season. Some of these fires were still burning as this was written, so the acreage and list of affected waters may change.
Carr Fire (181,496 acres in Shasta and Trinity Counties): a small portion of the Sacramento River just north of the Sundial Bridge at Redding, Clear Creek and French Gulch–Whiskeytown along Highway 106, Deadwood, Crystal, Mill, and Willow Creeks.
Hirz Fire (450 acres on the northern shore of Lake Shasta in Shasta County): Naloni and Salt Creeks.
Mendocino Complex Fire (Mendocino and Lake Counties): located northeast of Ukiah, this complex consists of two fires:
Ranch Fire (258,527 acres) — Alder, Rice Fork, Rock, Little Soda, Bucknell, East Fork Middle, Twin Valley, Ladybug, Hospital, Wild Bill, Root, Wyman and Grapevine Creeks. River Fire (48,920 acres ) — Wolf, North Fork Wolf, Clover, Gilbert, Ally, East Fork Middle, and Little Soda Creeks.
Whaleback Fire (18,703 acres along the western shore of Eagle Lake in the Lassen National Forest): Pine Creek.
Eel Fire (972 acres in Mendocino County): Rose Creek, feeding into the Eel River east of Covelo.
Washington Fire (16,553 acres, eight miles south of Markleeville in Alpine County): Wolf, Monitor, and Poor Boy Creeks and East Fork of the Carson River.
Ferguson Fire (95,544 acres east of Mariposa and west of El Portal in Mariposa County): Rush, Iron, Indian, Feliciana, Little Grizzly, and Sweetwater Creeks and the South Fork of the Merced River along Highway 140.
Holy Fire (18,137 acres in Orange County in the Cleveland National Forest): the west side of Santa Mountains has burned toward Lake Elsinore.
Georges Fire (2,863 acres in the Sequoia National Park): George and Hogback Creeks and the hills far above the Owens River.
Donnell Fire (29, 569 acres in Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County): North shore of Donnell Lake, Middle Fork and Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River and Fence, Little Teton, Cloudburst, Cottonwood, McCormick, Eagle, Wheats Meadow, and Arnot Creeks. The fires also burned around these lakes: southern and northern portions of Lake Shasta, Keswick Reservoir north of Redding, Spring Creek Reservoir, and roughly the top half of Whiskeytown Lake. The popular fishing sites at Lewiston and Trinity Lakes have not been affected by the fires, except that watertender planes have been refilling from Trinity.
Fire Updates
Public agencies are working to provide information on access to backcountry areas and campgrounds near fires. CAL FIRE information is available at http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents. In a press release, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) says: “CDFW does not maintain up to date status on road or campground closures, with the exception of CDFW managed properties. Check the websites of those agencies who manage the land you intend to visit or where you have reservations.”
Fire Recovery Support
To help the people of Redding and Shasta Counties, donations can be made to the Disaster Relief Fund administered by the Shasta Regional Community Foundation at http://www.shastarcf.org/funds/cdrf. All of the donations (excluding online credit card processing fees) will go to Carr Fire recovery efforts.
OTHER NEWS
Mokelumne River Gets Wild and Scenic Status
Thirty-seven miles of the North Fork and main stem of the Mokelumne River between Salt Springs and Pardee Reservoir have received Wild and Scenic River status from the State of California, thus protecting these sections from new dams and other development. Authorization for the designation was included in the recently adopted state budget after a three-year effort led by state senator Loni Hancock and the Jackson-based Foothill Conservancy.
The advocacy campaign is unusual because it was supported not only by conservation and fishing groups, but also by utilities and water agencies, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which has the legal rights to pump 325 million gallons of river water for 1 million residents in the Bay Area. Water is also provided for agricultural uses in the Central Valley.
For information on fishing the area, visit http://www.foothillconservancy.org/pages/fishing_access.cgi.
Sacramento Fly-Fishing Group Wins Conservation Award
At its annual meeting in San Luis Obispo, the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society gave its Conservation Achievement Award to the California Fly Fishers Unlimited (CFFU), a Sacramento-based fly fishing club.
The list of the club’s work is extensive. On Putah Creek, the CFFU provided funding for excavator work and volunteer labor to add spawning gravels that helped enhance spawning and rearing habitat. In addition, the club purchased radio telemetry equipment, partnering with the CDFW to conduct monitoring and radio tracking of trout implanted with radio transmitter tags.
Using the CFFU-purchased telemetry equipment, the club partnered with Trout Unlimited (TU) and the CDFW to tag and radio track trout in the Little Truckee River between Boca and Stampede Reservoirs. Previously, CFFU volunteers helped with habitat enhancement work organized by TU in this reach of the river.
The club provided $5,000 to purchase cameras and video monitoring equipment to support Friends of Auburn Ravine and the CDFW to monitor the Chinook salmon run in the ravine near Lincoln. CFFU volunteers helped with viewing many hours of video images to count salmon and with surveys to count and sample carcasses for DNA study.
The CFFU committed $5,750 to provide pack stock and packer services for CDFW crews and volunteers to enable completion of a multiyear status assessment of the golden trout. The remaining surveys are located more than 15 miles from a trailhead in the headwaters of the Little Kern River in the Golden Trout Wilderness. Pack stock will be used to transport sampling gear, camping gear, and food for a large crew to complete this work. The club “adopted” mile 16 on the south side of the American River and its members pick up trash and clean the trail. The CFFU also supports cleanup of Arcade Creek annually during the Sacramento area’s Creek Week.
The club awards the Bob Bittner Memorial Scholarship annually to a University of California Davis (UCD) graduate student in fisheries/aquatic science. The scholarship is currently $3,000 per year. Since 2010, the CFFU has awarded a total of $22,900 in scholarships to UCD students. At least two past award winners are now fisheries professors at Western universities.
The club has purchased aquariums, chillers, and insulation for many dozens of classrooms in the Fish in the Classroom Program in the Sacramento region and has helped teachers gain the in-service training needed to teach the Salmonids in the Classroom Curriculum. Typically, CFFU volunteers deliver salmon eggs (in November) and steelhead eggs (in February) to more than fifty classrooms. The club helped in as many as 75 classes in some years. The CFFU is now providing at least one teacher per year with a grant of $400 to $500 to provide buses for their children to take a field trip to the river to release their fry. For more information on the CFFU, go to http://www.cffu.org.
Protecting and Restoring Salmon and Steelhead Rivers
Trout Unlimited has praised the introduction of federal legislation by California congressman Jared Huffman that will better protect and restore some of the most famous steelhead and salmon fisheries in the state, including the Trinity, Eel, Mad, and Mattole Rivers. According to TU, “The Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act (House Resolution 6596) covers some of California’s most unique public lands and waters and will improve the resiliency of the landscape to catastrophic wildfire.”
Michael Caranci, president of TU’s Shasta Trinity Cascades Chapter, said, “This legislation strikes a good balance between resource protection, wildfire prevention, and improving recreational opportunities. We can’t be passive about protecting our real wealth here — our scenic wild country and legendary fishing waters.” HR-6596 includes measures to restore forested lands, protect rivers, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, rehabilitate habitat degraded by illegal-trespass marijuana-growing operations, and improve and construct new trails and other infrastructure to promote and expand recreational use.
One of the measures that will help steelhead and salmon and sustain angling opportunities is establishment of a 730,000-acre Special Restoration Area in the South Fork Trinity River watershed and the Forest Service-managed portion of the Mad River watershed. A restoration and fire reduction program will improve forest diversity and decrease fire danger along roads where most human-caused fires begin. It should also help protect water quality in these watersheds — in this region large flushes of sediment from post-fire landscapes after storms can be one of the most significant impacts on salmon and steelhead habitat.
Watch for Rattlesnakes
As California’s weather remains warm, humans are not the only species coming out to enjoy the sun. Snakes, too, can be found basking in the sun’s rays. Although most snakes in the state are harmless, the CDFW reminds the public to steer clear of rattlesnakes and know what to do if one strikes.
Rattlesnakes are generally not aggressive and usually strike only when threatened or deliberately provoked. Given room, they will retreat. Most rattlesnake bites occur when a snake is handled or accidentally touched by someone walking or climbing. The majority of snakebites occur on the hands, feet and ankles. The CDFW recommends the following safety precautions.
Wear hiking boots and loose-fitting long pants. Never go barefoot or wear sandals when walking through wild areas. When hiking, stick to well-used trails. Avoid tall grass, weeds, and heavy underbrush where snakes may hide during the day. Do not step or put your hands where you cannot see, and avoid wandering around in the dark. Step on logs and rocks, never over them, and be especially careful when climbing rocks or gathering firewood. Check out stumps or logs before sitting down, and shake out sleeping bags before use. Never grab “sticks” or “branches” while swimming in lakes and rivers. Rattlesnakes can swim. Be careful when stepping over doorsteps, as well. Snakes like to crawl along the edge of buildings, where they are protected on one side. Always have someone with you who can assist in an emergency. Do not handle a freshly killed snake, because it can still inject venom.
Though uncommon, rattlesnake bites do occur, so have a plan in place for responding to any situation. Carry a cell phone, hike with a companion who can assist in an emergency, and make sure that family or friends know where you are going and when you will be checking in. If you or another are bitten by a rattlesnake, stay calm. Wash the bite area gently with soap and water. Remove watches, rings, and so on, which may constrict swelling. Immobilize the affected area and transport the bitten person safely to the nearest medical facility.
What you should not do after a rattlesnake bite is apply a tourniquet, pack the bite in ice, cut the wound with a knife or razor, use your mouth to suck out the venom, or let the victim drink alcohol. For first-aid information on rattlesnake bites, visit California Poison Control at https://calpoison.org/topics/rattlesnakes.
