Taking Care of the River and the Wild Things Within In 2024, the District completed its Mitigation Program required by the 1990 Water Allocation Environmental Impact Report. This program is designed to preserve the ecological integrity of the Carmel River by alleviating impacts associated with water extraction for water supply. The program includes river restoration activities, monitoring, and rescuing threatened steelhead from drying portions of the Carmel River and tributaries. This comprehensive program tracks changes in the riparian corridor, steelhead population, depth to groundwater and river flow, and the lagoon. The District continued to monitor dry-back conditions due to impacts from groundwater withdrawal and successfully rescued 5,633 juvenile steelhead from the Carmel River Basin in 2024. The fish were released into the Carmel River in perennial waters. Rescued fish were implanted with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags before their release to track their migration and survival. Staff also conducted late-season surveys of redds or steelhead nests. However, high flows in late winter and early spring hindered the crew from starting surveys during the optimum timeframe for spawning, and only 21 redds in 18 miles of river were observed. Although this was not the optimum timeframe for spawning steelhead, it was for Pacific Lamprey, which yielded a record of 632 lamprey redds. This could be an indication of a rebounding Pacific Lamprey run in the Carmel River watershed. Staff continued to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on field studies to develop a steelhead population life history model for the watershed. This is based on tagged fish from NMFS studies, District fall population surveys, and rescued fish from both the District and the Carmel River Steelhead Association. This effort included installing tag detection stations (arrays) from the lower valley to below Los Padres Reservoir. District fall population densities trended at just above average this season, and 1,290 fish were implanted with PIT tags to support these studies and help describe long-term trends in steelhead survival. Staff continued long-term efforts to monitor water quality conditions and fish passage in the Carmel River Basin to assess impacts on habitat from municipal and private pumping along the Carmel River. The District also carried out a wetland survey of the Carmel River lagoon area to track long-term trends associated with water extracted for community use. In late fall, District crews carried out the Vegetation Management Program in the active channel of the Carmel River to prevent debris dams and erosion. This work is authorized through a Regional General Permit from the Army Corps of Engineers and a Routine Maintenance Agreement with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Vegetation Management includes trimming back encroaching vegetation and reducing the hazard of downed trees by cutting them into smaller sections in preparation for winter flows. In addition, our crews removed the trash and plastic from the active channel of the river before winter rain washed them into the ocean. The District also assisted property owners along the Carmel River by evaluating streambanks for stability after high erosive stream flows and recommended protective measures. PAGE SIX Staff continued to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on field studies to develop a steelhead population life history model for the watershed.
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