hitch photo © Tom Taylor

LINKS

 

 

 

Next meeting September 24

At the July 16 Chi Council meeting we discussed the Kelsey Creek Watershed Assessment, Integrated Reginal Water Management Plan (IRWMP), and prospects for allowing fish passage at the Main St bridge in Kelseyville: check the minutes for details.

The next Chi Council meeting has been scheduled for 3:30PM on Wednesday September 24, at the Lake County Agricultural Center near the intersection of Lakeshore Blvd and Highway 29 in Lakeport. Anyone unsure of the location is advised to download a map providing explicit directions.

Observations may be sent by email to chicouncil@lakelive.org (either typed into the body of the message or as an attachment); or by fax to (707) 263 6224; or by snail mail either to Victoria Brandon, 15995 Lucy Circle, Lower Lake 95457; or Peter Windrem, 7460 Kelsey Creek Dr, Kelseyville 95451. Please remember that negative observations (no chi seen) are just as valid and important as positive ones, and that the minimum information needed for an entry into the database is date, creek, and approximate number of fish. Time of day, precise location, and additional comments about weather, predators, etc are all very helpful but not essential.

The Chi Council is a coordinated resource management and planning group dedicated to the study, protection, and restoration of a viable population of Lavinia exilicauda chi (the Clear Lake Hitch) within a healthy watershed ecosystem. Details of the Council's goals, guidelines and organizational structure are stated in the August 23, 2004 Memorandum of Understanding which formally established it as an entity.

The hitch, an ancient fish endemic to Clear Lake, live in deep in water most of the time, but every spring the adults work their way up the tributary creeks to spawn. In the words of biologist Rick Macedo, they used to "mass by the thousands," in an annual ritual "as spectacular as any salmon run on the Pacific coast . . . The tumultuous splashing . . . and the appearance of herons, osprey, egrets, and bald eagles . . . signify that the hitch are in." In recent years the population seems to have declined precipitously, for reasons that are still poorly understood. Streambed obstructions, predation by introduced fish, and food competition all have been suggested as possible causes for their diminished numbers.

At the present time the Council has formulated several immediate objectives:

  • Coordinating and training volunteer population monitoring teams
  • Establishing scientific protocols for the monitoring effort, and maintaining a database of the information learned
  • Encouraging scientific research on hitch and their habitat
  • Enhancing public awareness of hitch and their habitat
  • Gathering and preserving information about hitch and their traditional uses by the native peoples of the Clear Lake Basin
  • Sponsoring habitat restoration projects
Robinson Rancheria received a $250,000 Tribal Wildlife Grant to further these goals. For details, click here.

Participants in the volunteer monitoring effort are encouraged to visit the Volunteers page, where they will find instructions, advice, and scheduling information, and after the spawning migration begins, links to ongoing results.

The Chi Council also intends to make as much hitch-related scholarly information available to the public as possible, by posting it to this website. For a list of publications, visit the Chi Council Catalogue.

All interested parties are invited to attend the Council's meetings. For further information, to sign up for our email list, or to volunteer for the monitoring program contact chicouncil@lakelive.org.