We hope that you have already heard the good news that salmon are spawning throughout West Marin! Maybe you have even been out to see the salmon spawning in a nearby creek or taken a creek walk tour with our friends at SPAWN?
In the midst of our continuing drought, we are relieved that we got enough rain to allow our beloved and threatened salmon to migrate up our creeks this winter. In fact, they have been seen in new tributaries, with above-average redd (coho egg nest) counts, and with some larger fish than normal! Marin County has the largest population of Central Coast endangered coho salmon from Monterey Bay to the Sonoma-Mendocino county line. While the news is very encouraging, the numbers are still below the federal species recovery target.
In the fall, EAC advocated to oppose a temporary urgency change petition (TUCP) by Marin Water (Marin Municipal Water District) to change the timing and reduce the amount of water returned to the creek to support the endangered coho salmon. We were concerned that this change could further harm the threatened fish with uncertain rainfall predictions in the middle of one of the worst droughts in Marin County’s recorded history
While the TUCP order was ultimately issued last year (albeit with strong environmental conditions); there is good news related to the salmon, reservoir levels, and the TUCP order to report. Terence Caroll, EAC Board Member, who sits on the Lagunitas Technical Advisory Committee as EAC’s representative, reports,
The reservoirs are collectively at 94% of capacity. All the Mt Tam reservoirs are full, and Kent Lake started spilling over on January 1st. There are fish present in many places. Marin Water has returned to normal operations as far as regulating flows in Lagunitas Creek and has committed to maintain normal operations for the remainder of 2022. While the TUCP order is technically still in effect, it is of no consequence at this point. Marin Water is still technically required to do the monitoring specified under the order, but creek flows are too high for them to do the required monitoring. Once the flows go down, they will start the monitoring and measurements again. So, we are happy to report this bit of good news for now.
EAC will be closely monitoring the issue and advocating for continued water conservation, as Marin’s drought is not over even though it may feel like it.
We will continue to monitor the status of the creek, the water flows, and the fish in the coming months. Despite our early rain in October and November, the long-range forecasts are predicting another dry month in February. While we are enjoying the sunshine in the midst of the winter cold, we need more rain in the state in the coming months.
