21st Annual Coho Confab

Overview

SRF, with the support of California Department of Fish and Wildlife, hosted the 21st Annual Coho Confab at the beautiful Rock Creek Ranch on the South Fork of the Smith River. The pristine Smith River is the largest undammed river in California and is located in the northwest corner of the state in the Siskiyou Mountains. The Confab featured a Beaver Dam Analogues workshop and tour, underwater fish identification on the Lower Smith River, as well as an Open Forum focused on Research to Restoration. Field tours visited future and completed fish passage projects and bridge replacements, large wood projects in Redwood State Parks, and engineered log jams in the Lower Klamath River tributaries.

Videos of the first day's presentations, recorded by Thomas Dunklin, are available on vimeo.

Below is the final detailed agenda:

Friday, August 24

5-6:30pm – Check-in, Meet at Rock Creek Ranch

6:30pm – Community Dinner

7:30pm – Confab Welcome with Salmonid Restoration Federation

7:45pm – Orientation Presentations

• Humpty Dumpty and Habitat Restoration in Dynamic Systems, Rocco Fiori, Fiori GeoSciences
• Scale, Biology, and Endurance: Using a Long-term Coho Salmon Monitoring Program in the Smith River to Advance Restoration Planning Where it Matters Most, Marisa Parish Hanson, Smith River Alliance
• Geology is Destiny: Why the Smith River is What It Is, Michael Furniss, Redwood Sciences Lab, Retired

Saturday, August 25

7:30-8:30am – Breakfast Pack lunches for field day and check-in for Saturday arrivals

8:30-9:30am – Opening Circle Announcements and Presenter Introductions

9:30am-12:30pm – Concurrent Morning Field Tours

• Stream and Valley Floor Restoration – 15-years of Progress and Evolution in Lower Klamath Tributaries, Part 1, Rocco Fiori, Fiori GeoSciences, and Sarah Beesley, Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program
• Fish Passage Toolbox: Approaches to Solving Fish Passage Problems, Antonio Llanos, Michael Love and Associates

1:30-4:30pm – Concurrent Afternoon Field Tours

• Juvenile Salmonid Identification in the Lower Smith River, Zack Larson, Zack Larson and Associates Environmental Consulting
• Stream and Valley Floor Restoration – 15-years of Progress and Evolution in Lower Klamath Tributaries, Part 2, Rocco Fiori, Fiori GeoScience, and Sarah Beesley, Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program

5-6:30pm – Saturday Open Forum

• Connecting Research with Restoration, Justin Garwood, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Darren Mierau, Cal Trout, and Julie Weeder, SONCC Coho Salmon Recovery Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries

Saturday Evening 7-8pm BBQ Dinner; 8-9pm Campfire

Sunday, August 26

8:30-9:30am – Pack Up and Breakfast

9:30-10am – Closing Circle

10am-2pm – Concurrent Workshop and Tour

• Design, Permitting and Monitoring of Beaver Dam Analogues in Lower Klamath Tributaries workshop, Rocco Fiori, Fiori GeoSciences, Michael Pollock, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, and Sarah Beesley and Jimmy Faukner, Yurok Tribe Fisheries Program
• LWD and Future Fish Passage and Completed Restoration Projects on Rowdy and Dominie Creeks and other Tributaries to the Smith River tour, Travis James, Michael Love & Associates, Jennifer Jacobs, Fisheries Program Manager, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Dan Burgess, Natural Resources Director for Del Norte for Rural Human Resources, and Susan Leroy and Kristine Pepper, CalTrans