Our principal project, for the past several years, has been the restoration of Coho salmon and steelhead in the Lagunitas Creek watershed. A dam was built across the stream to provide irrigation for local agriculture in the 1920’s. In the 50’s, a fish ladder was erected and had since fallen into poor condition. Water flowed through leaks in the bottom of a cell, the fish were misled to the base of the dam face and injured themselves trying to leap over it. This led to TU CA obtaining a $10,000 Embrace-A-Stream grant from National TU providing seed money to re-establish the base of the ladder, reduce the height of the dam, armor the sides of the stream (with boulders) where a tree had fallen and when all of that was done - cut off part of the apron below the dam and build a weir as well as a series of ladders.Those few days of hard work led to a dedication in the presence of the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt and much national television coverage in 1998.
Early 1980's: Fish ladder constructed at site of fish killing seasonal tidewater dam to provide downstream passage for juvenile fish.
November 1982: Hatch boxes placed on tributaries of Lagunitas Creek. 20,000 eggs are developing.
April 1983: Torrential rains and sediment hammer alevin (baby salmon). Thousands are lost.
July 1983: Work begins in Flanders Field to halt erosion on San Geronimo Creek, a tributary of Lagunitas Creek. Fencing, armoring of gully walls, and willow planting are completed by volunteers cooperating with the land owner.
July 1984: The Great Weekend For The Fish!
Over two hundred people join TU's effort at Samuel P. Taylor State Park to improve the habitat of Lagunitas Creek. Trees are planted to provide cooling shade, gabions are placed to diminish erosion, fences are built to exclude cattle from the creek bed, check dams are constructed to slow the flow of water in hillside swales, and hewlett ramps are created to provide protected holding water for young fish.
January 1985: 40,000 coho (silver salmon) eggs are placed in hatch boxes.
March 1985: Rearing troughs (the beginning of Trout Unlimited's hatchery) are constructed behind the MMWD treatment plant in San Geronimo Valley. Fish from the hatch boxes will be reared here until they reach a suitable size for release, thus assuring a high survival rate.
April/May 1985: Volunteers feed and care for young coho, all 24,000 of them!
June 1985: 23,000+ fish are released into the Lagunitas Watershed waters.
December 1985: Eggs are collected from returning adult silver salmon for fertilization and development at the hatchery.
Fall 1986: Hatchery improvements are completed.
February 1987: 10,800+ eggs are "eyed up", new life is developing within the tiny eggs. Hatchery work continues. Hopefully TU will get out of the hatchery business as young fish survive and return as spawning adults.
December 1987: Over 5,00 fish of larger than usual size are released because they have been kept in the hatchery over the summer.
December 1987/January 1988: 5,000 eggs are collected from Lagunitas fish. The eggs are fertilized and the young are reared and released.
October 1988: After letters from Trout Unlimited reach the Department of Fish and Game, and the Department of Water Resources, the Marin Municipal Water District agrees to increase water releases into Lagunitas Creek.
October 1989: Volunteers work on spawning gravels to loosen them prior to the arrival of the Fall run of fish. The gravels had become impacted with sediment.
October 1991: Habitat work undertaken to stabilize spawning gravels in the stretch of Lagunitas Creek immediately below Kent Lake.
Spring 1992: High turbidity and possible bacterial disease cause loss of all fry at hatchery. Good rains bring natural spawners into the Lagunitas system. Many of them use the spawning beds near Kent Lake.
October 1992: Imbedded spawning cobble loosened in upper Lagunitas Creek.
Fall 1993: Banner year for coho as more fish return to spawn in the creek.
July 1994: Instream structures are built, root wads are anchored to provide protected habitat for young fish, and erosion control work is completed up slope of the stream. Approximately 200 people volunteered over the Fourth of July weekend.
January 1995: At least 500 fish return to spawn in the Lagunitas system.
September 1995: Lagunitas work continues with more trees planted, gravel moved, boulders placed, tree trunks muscled into position, reinforcing steel sledged into the substrate, and hearty food prepared to feed the volunteers.
October 1995: Informational kiosk and plaque honoring Leo T. Cronin is installed by MMWD at the Salmon Viewing Area near Shafter Bridge.
Winter 1995-96: Trout Unlimited member Bob Chamberlain collects majority of tissue of coho for the University of California at Davis's Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory. DNA testing is undertaken to document the strain of coho found at Lagunitas Creek.
May 1997: Trout Unlimited joins in the clean up of Lagunitas Creek. Fifty-six tires and much assorted junk is removed from the stream.
June 1997: Planning begins for the removal of Roy's Dam. TU and many other parties are involved. Approval of several government agencies is necessary if we are to proceed.
Fall 1997: Roy's Dam gets it's initial "trim" ito improve passage for this year's run of fish. This effort is successful, but more work is in the offing.
Spring 1998: North Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited receives Embrace-A-Stream grant for the purpose of correcting the fish passage problem at Roy's Dam.
May 1998: Core samples are taken to determine the base material on which Roy's Dam was built.
October 1998: Work on the removal of Roy's Dam continues. U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, accepts TU's invitation to come to Marin and help tear down the dam.
1999: Removal of Roy's Dam is finished and construction of what is now known as Roy's Pools is completed. The planning and work took the time and talents of many people who all saw in Roy's Dam, a problem which should have and could be fixed. Some gave a great deal, some gave less; all gave together to accomplish a common goal.
October 2001: With another Embrace-A-Stream grant, along with partnership of Point Reyes National Seashore, and the cooperation of Samuel P. Taylor State Park, exclusionary fencing is being constructed to keep cattle away from the stream corridor and riparian habitat of Devil's Gulch. Devil's Gulch is a major tributary of Lagunitas Creek winding through both National and State Park property.
October 2002: TU's project on Devil's Gulch involved the completion of cattle exclusionary fencing along a major portion of the creek that began one year prior. Through the efforts of many committed volunteers, the project was a complete success. The project was performed in cooperation with the National Park Service Coho Salmon and Steelhead Trout Restoration Program.
October 2003: With another Embrace-A-Stream Grant, a volunteer project involved the restoration of existing trails and replacement of three footbridges along Devil's Gulch. The new bridges replaced existing structures that were too close to the creek bank. The emphasis was on protecting the endangered coho salmon and steelhead from over exposure to human contact during spawning months when the popular trail attracts many visitors. The areas around the new structures were stabilized with environmental blanketing and the planting of native plant species to prevent erosion.
Late Summer 2004: Over several weekends, TU volunteers conducted a fish rescue from Cascade Creek in Fairfax. Salmonids and other species, stranded by diminishing summer pools that eventually dry up by late summer ,were netted and moved to safer local habitat.
October 2004: A major TU project which removed three failing culverts from Devil’s Gulch was completed with funding from a California Department of Fish and Game grant. The culverts were replaced by wet crossings, thus preventing hundreds of cubic yards of sediment from entering the creek and destroying sensitive spawning habitat.
April 2005: Trout Unlimited, the National Park Service, and California State Parks Department joined forces on Earth Day, at Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County along with interested volunteers to do much needed trail improvements and install an 18' long footbridge. Improvements to the trail added to visitor safety and help reduce intrusion on spawning salmon and steelhead. TU volunteers also planted native flora around the site of our culvert removal project completed in October of 2004.
Late Summer 2005: Another Cascade Creek fish rescue was conducted by TU volunteers. We successfully rescued twice as many fish as the year before from the same areas along the creek. Once again all species, stranded by diminishing summer pools were transported to safer local habitat.
October 2005: Trout Unlimited was a participating sponsor, along with the State and National Parks Departments and other environmental groups, that presented a “Symposium on Salmon Restoration in the Lagunitas Creek Watershed”.
