Forest Service Unveils Plan to Save Sespe Creek Trout

The goal is to save one of the last steelhead trout populations in Southern California--but that may be small consolation for some of the bullfrogs and other fish in Los Padres National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service announced a restoration plan Monday aimed at protecting the dwindling steelhead population in the Sespe Creek watershed by using controlled fires to replenish habitat nutrients and killing bullfrogs, green sunfish and black bullhead catfish because they’ve begun to take over the steelhead’s environment.

The steelhead population in Southern California, from the Santa Maria River south to Malibu Creek, has declined by 99% since earlier this century, said Marty Golden, the Southern California steelhead coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In other words, the 55,000 steelhead trout once swimming in local rivers and streams have dwindled to 500. Golden estimates only 100 are left in the Sespe watershed.

“If you get much lower than that, they’re gone,” Golden said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service nominated the steelhead for the endangered species list last year. It will be decided in August whether the fish will be protected. Within the last decade, resource managers have realized that fire plays a vital role in maintaining healthy ecological conditions within a natural environment, said George Garcia, acting resource officer for the Ojai Ranger District.

The Forest Service should have a fire plan in place this year that will list watershed areas that should be subject to prescribed burns and areas where naturally occurring fires should be allowed, Garcia said.

Prescribed, or controlled, fires are recommended for the Sespe watershed because the watershed and the vegetation within it aren’t mimicking what’s occurred historically.

Some vegetation is over 50 years old, creating potentially hazardous conditions if a wildfire occurred, Garcia said.

Prescribed fires reduce the threat of wildfires, return nutrients to the soil and provide an opportunity for young growth to regenerate, Garcia said.

Another factor threatening the steelhead and their habitat is the presence of exotic plants and animals that were brought into the area from other locales. They include salt cedar, also known as tamarisk, bullfrogs, green sunfish and black bullhead catfish.

The fish and the bullfrogs will be sacrificed because there is an abundance of those populations, Garcia said.

Efforts are ongoing with volunteers to remove the tamarisk and take it to higher ground where it can dry out and die. If the tamarisk is not removed, it could potentially dry out the entire stream because it consumes water much faster than other surrounding vegetation, Garcia said.

Garcia believes the exotic fish and bullfrogs might have been brought in from ponds in Rose Valley. Some fishermen relocate the fish to the creek in hopes of catching them the following year, unaware that introducing the species to a new area might cause problems.

The Forest Service will work with volunteers on an experimental basis this year to determine where concentrations of the exotic fish and bullfrogs are in the Sespe watershed.

The plan to restore the steelhead habitat by using controlled burns and by killing the other nonnative fish and bullfrogs met with support Monday from Russ Baggerly, president of Citizens to Preserve the Ojai.

“These are species that don’t belong there and it will ruin the resource for the species that do belong there,” Baggerly said. “The Sespe is such a prime habitat for steelhead and the Santa Clara River watershed is relatively unspoiled. I think its incumbent upon those of us who understand the need for species preservation to make sure that they have every chance possible to survive.”

The Forest Service is also planning erosion control projects and will continue its ongoing inspections of the Sespe oil fields to ensure compliance with federal lease standards, Garcia said.

This watershed analysis is a working document that will be updated as conditions change, new information is received and projects are implemented, said Ojai District Ranger Larry Mastic.

“This analysis will be a tool to help us work with cooperating agencies and interested publics,” Mastic said.