Contents

• Current Conditions: Fall Surveys
• Program Update: Upper Conner Creek Civil Construction Complete
• Featured Article: Eyes That Shine & Mothers of the Year: Getting to know the Wolf Spider
• Trinity River Watershed Spotlight: Bug of the Month – Mayflies (Isonychia)
• Upcoming Meetings and Events
• Reading, Listening, Watching

Current Conditions

Fall Surveys

Annual Spawning and Carcass Surveys

Spawning surveys in the Trinity River kicked off the week of Sept. 1 with a training session and survey from Lewiston Dam to Bucktail. Crews found seven redds, a couple Chinook salmon carcasses, and springers schooling in some of the pools.

The full spawning survey efforts in the mainstem Trinity River began Sept. 8 and crews have marked 54 redds in reaches 1-7 as of Sept. 19.

Season Schedule

• Lewiston-North Fork (reaches 1-7)
  • Surveyed weekly
• Big Flat-Cedar Flat (reaches 9-10) and Hawkins Bar-Weitchpec (reaches 12-14)
  • Surveyed on alternating weeks

Link to weekly reports

Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program – Dutch Creek

Monitoring the performance and development of channel rehabilitation projects is required by our Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program. This year marks the fifth year since the completion of the Dutch Creek project in Junction City. In early September a monitoring crew set up a drone based survey mission to collect high quality photographic data that will be used to create an accurate ortho-mosaic image and structure for motion modeling. The data will be used to inform how the Dutch Creek site revegetation is evolving and record any geomorphic evolution within the channel.

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Surveys

Monitoring for aquatic macro-invertebrates will kick up efforts through the fall and winter season with tracking the development of algae (periphyton) on newly inundated floodplains, and investigating the fish food (benthic macroinvertebrate) response to flows. Monitoring teams are out on the river monthly and will begin bi-weekly monitoring starting in November or December.

Read about Growing Food for Juvenile Salmon in a Regulated River System, here.

Annual Willow Creek Weir Monitoring

The Willow Creek Weir was installed and has begun monitoring for fall run chinook, steelhead and coho. Annual adult monitoring efforts are implemented by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with install/removal assistance from the Hoopa Valley Tribe and is funded by the Bureau of Reclamation. Trapping efforts will continue through the fall and wrap up, likely mid-November.

2025 Run Size Estimates

After several years of low returns of salmon and steelhead to the Trinity River, local biologists are cautiously optimistic about returns in 2025 based on early fish counts. Every year biologists snorkel dive throughout the New River, Canyon Creek, and the North and South Forks of the Trinity River to count spring Chinook Salmon and summer steelhead. These species enter the river in late spring or early summer and hold over until spawning in early fall. Spring Chinook Salmon counts have been particularly depressed since 2016, rarely exceeding 100 fish across all four tributaries, with a record low of 12 in 2020 (no surveys were conducted in 2021 due to wildfire). A total of 267 spring Chinook Salmon were counted across all four tributaries this year, which is the highest count since 2013 but very close to the long-term average. The majority were observed in the New River.

Summer steelhead are usually more abundant than spring Chinook in the tributaries. Their numbers also dropped to a record low of 296 in 2020 and remained well below average until this year. Biologists counted 2,552 summer steelhead this summer, nearly double the long-term average. The New River and the North Fork Trinity had the highest counts.

Spring Chinook Salmon, fall Chinook Salmon, fall steelhead and Coho Salmon populations returning to the mainstem Trinity River are estimated using data from mainstem weirs and Trinity River Hatchery and those numbers are not available yet. However, trap counts at the weirs offer a preliminary indication of what these runs might look like. Catches of spring Chinook Salmon at Junction City weir were slightly above the most recent 20-year average. Trapping of fall steelhead, fall Chinook Salmon, and Coho Salmon at Willow Creek weir are just getting underway. Early indications from weir trap counts and anecdotal observations in the lower river suggest a good run of fall Chinook Salmon, while it is too early to say how the steelhead and Coho Salmon runs might look. All of this information considered together suggests we might see at least average runs of salmon and steelhead in the Trinity River in 2025.

Program Update

Civil Construction Complete at Upper Conner Creek

The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation completed civil construction at the Upper Conner Creek restoration area in early September. The project rehabilitated 14.6 acres of riparian floodplain along a 0.9 mile stretch of the Trinity River in Junction City, Ca. Crews added three riffle enhancements and placed large wood to slow water and create habitat along several levels of inundation within the newly rehabilitated floodplain. The project also included an upgrade to the Junction City Campground river access. The design moved the frequently used boat access from private land onto Bureau of Land Management land as well as increased the size of the launch and parking area, improved the access road and added boulders to slow water just upstream of the put-in. Yet to be placed is a Bureau of Land Management pit-toilet, picnic area, and interpretive sign. Hoopa Valley Fisheries Department re-vegetation crews remain at work and re-vegetation will continue until complete, likely in 2-5 years.

Featured Article

Trinity River Watershed | Animal Spotlight

Upcoming Meetings and Events

For a full list of events, click to view the TRRP Calendar.

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Reading, Listening, Watching

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Contact Us

Call Us: 530-623-1800 Email Us: info@trrp.net

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