Stream near Geyserville dam a model for fish restoration

<p>GEYSERVILLE — A spawning stream built by the state near the Warm Springs Dam in Geyserville should serve as a model to communities throughout California looking to restore steelhead trout and coho and chinook salmon populations, fishery advocates say.</p><p>The gravel streambed is surrounded by greenery and was built last summer by the Department of Fish and Game out of a ditch channeling fish coming from the Russian River into the Warm Springs Fish Hatchery on Dry Creek.</p><p>The goal was to show school kids and tourists an ideal fish-spawning habitat.</p><p>But Kent MacIntosh of the fisheries restoration group Trout Unlimited said similar habitat restoration efforts by California cities, counties and individuals on concrete drainage channels would help bring fish back to the state's waterways.</p><p>All you need to do is remove the concrete, put in woody debris and gravel and plant greenery along the creek, MacIntosh said.</p><p>"This is a showcase," MacIntosh said of the stream in Geyserville. "It is an example of what needs to be done everywhere."</p><p>He added, "If you restore the habitat, (the fish) will come."</p><p>Very few steelhead trout and coho and chinook salmon have been returning to California waterways to spawn.</p><p>At the Warm Springs hatchery, officials say only 1,250 of the 300,000 steelhead trout yearlings released two years ago have come back to spawn so far this year. That's well below the average of 4,500, said Brett Wilson, the hatchery supervisor.</p><p>Scientists blame a warming ocean and water diversions in part for the low numbers.</p><p>___</p><p>Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle</p>