2015 Redwood Creek Summer Steelhead Survey
Anderson D. 2016. 2015 Redwood Creek Summer Steelhead Survey. Redwood National and State Parks
Excerpts: "Summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are an anadromous race of rainbow trout. Their life cycle differs from that of the more numerous winter-run steelhead. Adult summer steelhead ascend the rivers in spring, hold over in deep pools in the summer, and then spawn in winter. Summer 2015 was the 35th annual consecutive summer steelhead trout survey of Redwood Creek, the first being 1981. The survey reach began at Lacks Creek at Stover Ranch and proceeded 38.9 km downstream through Green Diamond Resource Company timber lands into Redwood National Park to a location 0.75 km downstream of Hayes Creek. Originally, the survey was from Lacks Creek to Tom McDonald Creek, but it was expanded downstream of Hayes Creek in 1992. Five adult summer steelhead (steelhead >16 inches), zero ‘half-pounder’ steelhead (smaller immature sea-run steelhead returning after less than one year in the ocean), and 259 coastal cutthroat trout (O. clarki) (cutthroat >10 inches) were observed in a mainstem survey reach from Lacks Creek to just downstream of Hayes Creek in 2015 (Table 1). All five summer steelhead were observed within the original index reach, Lacks to Tom McDonald Creeks."
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Anderson, David
- Date of Issue
- 2016-03
- Publisher
- Redwood National and State Parks
- Units
- REDW
- Keywords
- abundance, anadromous fish, fish population, fish survey, Redwood Creek mainstem, Summer Steelhead trout, water discharge, water quality, water temperature