Spawning Time in the Gualala
The Gualala River bar opens on November 29th!

Gualala Bar Opens

by Sean Case

Winter and early spring are always an exciting time for us, after all of the the past summer's hard work, we see the return of the adult steelhead. The young steelhead, that we see year round are beautiful but there is something special about witnessing a full-grown fish fresh from the ocean. During this time, we also see schools of large young steelhead getting ready for their first adventure into the Pacific.

Steelhead-carcus

Our Spawner Survey Program has grown through the years with the addition of several new volunteers. We still have a couple of months to go, so if anyone is interested in participating please let us know, we would love to share this exciting time with more people.

Although we are still a ways away from our goal of estimating salmonid populations for the Gualala, the extra help is invaluable in building this program.

Steelhead swimming upstream in the Gualala

Sean Case is the GRWC Lead Scientific Technician and coordinates the Spawning Survey Program.

You can contact Sean at scase.grwc@mcn.org or phone the GRWC office at 707.884.9166.


Upcoming Workshops

When in Drought... Adapting to an Uncertain Climate

January 10, 2015
1:00 to 4:00pm
Gualala Community Center


more information...

Or contact the GRWC
707.884.9166

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Backyard Biochar
Demonstration Workshop

Date to be announced

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The Flow Bank Program
Installing Rainwater Catchment Systems
Date to be announced

A Threat to the
Gualala River...

New Zealand mud snails have infested the Russian and Garcia Rivers.

NZ-mud-snailsLet’s keep them out of the Gualala!

By The GRWC Interns

The New Zealand mud snail is an invasive species and is very easily spread; anything that touches water can carry them. Many common items are fishing gear, boats, waders, shoes, and monitoring equipment.

The snails can live up to 50 days in damp conditions.

There are ways to stop them however, the most straight forward being to freeze them. Putting gear or any other items that touched the water in a freezer for twelve to twenty four hours is enough to kill any attached snails.

Since the snails can often be so small they're very resilient, simply scraping gear off, or attempting to search out and get rid of the snails is not enough to remove all of them, and freezing gear is strongly encouraged.

Although they have not yet been found anywhere in the Gualala River Watershed, they are now commonly found in California, and are in the Garcia and Russian Rivers, so please be careful and freeze your gear!

Forest Management Plans in the Gualala

Interested in developing a Management Plan for your forest?

Gualala Redwood Forest

Funding is now available to develop Forest Management Plans through the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP).

Landowners owning 20 to 5,000 acres of forestland can receive funding through CFIP for 90% of the cost of the plan.

An approved Forest Management Plan can lead the way to additional funding for site preparation, tree thinning, fuels management, erosion control and fish and wildlife habitat improvement on your property.

Contact Jill Butler at CAlFire
for more info...

email:Jill.Butler@fire.ca.gov

Tel: 707.576.2935

Jammin For Salmon

We have now placed over 700 logs and rootwads or 110 logging truck loads of wood back into the streams...

Offloading lwd in the Little North Fork GualalaLarge wood placed in the Gualala RiverLarge wood placed in the Gualala River New Large wood placed in the Little North Fork Gualala

Funded by grants from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife

Gualala
Critter of the Month

Ladybugs
(cocconellidae)

LadybugsLadybugsLadybugs

Photos taken on Buckeye Creek
Courtesy of Derek Acomb, CDF&W