Tour Coordinators: Leonard Ash, Alameda County Water District; Dr. Joe Merz, Cramer Fish Sciences; Scott Chenue and Randall Renn, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; Claire Buchanan, California Trout; Joe Sullivan, East Bay Regional Park District;  Jeff Miller, Alameda Creek Alliance

 

The Alameda County Water District (ACWD), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and California Trout (CalTrout) are collaborating to propose a tour of Alameda Creek to highlight fish passage improvements and fish monitoring in the watershed. Moving upstream, Alameda Creek gives way from a flood control channel in a dense urban and suburban setting to a natural stream with an intact riparian canopy and diverse substrate. Alameda supports a self-sustaining population of wild resident O. Mykiss and provides habitat for Chinook salmon near the southern extent of their range as well as multiple species of lamprey.

 

ACWD will host the first stop at their downstream fish ladder at their rubber bladder dams in Fremont. After completion of the ladder in December 2022, anadromous fish had access to Alameda Creek for the first time in 50 years. ACWD will talk about the history of fish passage efforts in the lower watershed by myriad partners through challenging infrastructure, how they coordinated their effort with Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, and how Cramer Fish Sciences has assisted with monitoring fish movement past the ladder.

 

Moving upstream, the next stop will be at the Sunol Valley Fish Passage project site where the last major barrier to anadromous fish, a PG&E gas pipeline, remains on the mainstem Alameda Creek. CalTrout, the project lead, will bring tour participants to the barrier location within an active working quarry and discuss implementation plans which will begin in June 2025 as well as their post-project fish monitoring strategy.

 

The last stop on the tour will be in the upper watershed at the Sunol Regional Wilderness where SFPUC will provide some history of their fish passage improvement and related infrastructure projects as well as their longstanding and extensive fisheries monitoring program that incorporates electrofishing, fish trapping, PIT tagging, spawning, benthic macroinvertebrate and snorkel surveys. There will be time before departing back to Santa Cruz, for tour participants to explore the wilderness preserve as it is a truly unique wild area in the Bay Area. Additional collaborators on the tour include East Bay Regional Park District and Alameda Creek Alliance.

 

Due to access and space limitations at the three proposed tour stops, 20 tour participants is the maximum we can accommodate. Transportation from Santa Cruz to Alameda Creek would be optimal in 12-person vans or a “mini bus” that seats 26. The travel time from Santa Cruz to Fremont at the fish ladder is just over 1 hour. The distance between each tour stop is no more than 20 minutes. The travel time home from Sunol Regional Wilderness is likely closer to 90 minutes with anticipated commuter traffic.