Unwise Water Use May Put a Fish Out of Water : Steelhead trout of the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers are threatened by pollution and lower stream levels. With help, they can make a comeback.

This fall, a local equivalent of the spotted owl controversy came to public notice in Ventura County. But in this case, the endangered animal is the steelhead trout, a relative of the salmon. And the threatened habitat is not the woods but the rivers--the Santa Clara and the Ventura.

The local argument is about our water-use habits. And many of the people involved are joining a common cause. Folks who want to save the endangered fish have gotten together with folks who want someday to eat the endangered fish.

Connor Everts, a director of the Casitas Water District and the Ojai Sanitation District, is a fishing enthusiast. He also advocates conservation and recycling, rather than dams, as the best ways to manage the local water supply.

“Salmon and steelhead used to run (in the Ventura River) through downtown Ojai,” Everts said. “My grandfather used to catch them. When I was 8, I could still catch them near the Matilija Dam.”

Everts is one of many local officials who believe that the presence or absence of the steelhead trout in our local rivers is a sign of the health--or ill health--of the environment. “It’s like the canary singing in the mine--a sign that the atmosphere is good for the people working there,” he said. “If it dies, the situation is going bad.”

Water officials such as Everts have choices when providing water for showers and sprinklers. They can take water out of rivers or catch water behind dams. Or, as they sometimes have in this county, they can promote conservation. They can also build facilities to enable the reuse of waste water for outdoor purposes, as Thousand Oaks is doing.

Conservation and recycling allow more water to be left in rivers for nature’s purpose--such as a habitat for fish.

Jim Adams, a manager with the California Department of Fish and Game in Fillmore, has been monitoring developments in our county from the perspective of a game warden. According to Adams, providing ways for the steelhead to get around local dams as well as moderating the amount of freshwater drawn from local underground and surface rivers have produced “some very good news. The steelhead have always been here, but the run was declining. In the spring of ‘94, we’ve sighted adults and juvenile fish where they haven’t been for years.”

Dennis McEwen, the department’s steelhead expert in Sacramento, cites urban sprawl, drought, damming and the toxics used on yards and business properties as enemies of the species.

“When you build with little consideration for the environment, habitat is lost and you’re on the brink of extinction,” he said. “That goes for people too.”

McEwen is the author of a forthcoming report, “The Steelhead Management Plan For California,” which links the health of our local rivers with the fate of this fish. Groups--including members of sportfishing clubs--worried about water quality and supply have lobbied Sacramento since the ‘70s to create a statewide plan to restore the animal’s habitat in Southern California.

California Trout, a statewide organization affiliated with local clubs like the Conejo Valley Fly Fishers, Camarillo Fishing Club and the Sespe Fly Fishers, is a booster of the idea. Nowadays, steelhead can legally be caught from June to November--but you have to drive north of Monterey to find any.

As trout-fishing fans, these folks are cousins of bird watchers. But instead of jotting down sightings, they catch and then release the fish. They also want the species to be brought back from near-extinction in sufficient numbers that they can, eventually, eat some.

McEwen’s report, due out next month, will indicate that this won’t happen for years. But the place where fishing enthusiasts and game wardens are united is bigger than just a belly full of fish.

“Rivers have many uses,” McEwen said. “We need a new ethic of rivers.”

California Trout spokesman Jim Edmondson put it this way: “The dream is to restore trout and steelhead resources to what they were in early California. Conservation makes it all possible.”

Details

* GETTING INVOLVED: Groups working to preserve local rivers for fishing and recreation are Friends of the Santa Clara River (498-4323), Friends of the Ventura River (643-6074), and Keep The Sespe Wild (646-5960.)

* INFORMATION: For a copy of “The Steelhead Management Plan For California,” call the California Department of Fish and Game (916) 653-7664. California Trout’s number is (818) 951-4015.