13th Annual Coho Confab
The 13th Annual Coho Confab will be held in Western Sonoma County in the Russian River watershed from August 13-15, 2010.
Friday afternoon featured tours of the Russian River Broodstock Program followed by a tour of Dry Creek live willow siltation baffles, live willow brush mattresses, live willow deep cluster planting, live woven willow walls, live willow brushlayers with coir wrapped soil lifts, live willow brushlayers with boulder and gravel lifts, vegetated boulder wing deflectors, roughened channels to replace culverts and several fish habitat structures.
Saturday morning tours included a Gold Ridge RCD Tour of Dam Removal and Landowner Tools for Protecting Salmon and a visit to the Dutch Bill Creek Fish Barrier Elimination Project, which includes both the Camp Meeker dam removal and Market Street culvert fish passage projects. Highlights included several examples of stream habitat enhancement projects through the placement of large woody debris structures. Brock Dolman led a tour of Rainwater Catchment and Water Conservation Practices at OAEC, and Nick Bauer of UC Cooperative Extension led an Underwater Fish Identification workshop.
The Saturday afternoon sessions included Salmon Creek: Save our Salmon, Water Conservation and Instream Habitat Projects led by John Green of Gold Ridge RCD and Lauren Hammack of Prunsuke Chatham, Inc. There was a workshop on Aquatic Invertebrate Identification and Standard Techniques to Monitor Restoration Efforts with invertebrate taxonomist Dr. John Sandberg and Jim Harrington of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife's (CDFW) Aquatic Bioassessment Laboratory. There was also an Austin Creek: Headwaters tour to planned structures designed to increase fish habitat and the effects of road development on aquatic habitat. After the tours there was an Open Forum focused on Coho Salmon Restoration and CDFW’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program. The evening culminated wtih a BBQ, cabaret, campfire, and concert with Joanne Rand.
Sunday morning workshops included Slow it, Spread it, Sink it: Slowing Down Upslope Erosion in the Headwaters of Dutch Bill Creek with Brock Dolman as well as another opportunity to attend both the underwater fish identification and the macro-invertebrate sampling workshop.
