Santa Rosa hosting fish habitat restoration conference

Restoration sites on Dry Creek, the Russian River, the Laguna de Santa Rosa and other local waterways will be among those featured during a series of field tours kicking off a four-day conference in Santa Rosa on the plight of California’s salmonid fish species.

Hundreds of fishery experts from a variety of government agencies, nonprofits and environmental organizations around the west are expected to participate in the 33rd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference beginning Wednesday.

The event is hosted by the Salmonid Restoration Federation with a theme of “planning for resilience,” a nod to the challenges posed to fish populations by climate change.

This year’s event includes an opportunity for the public to attend a Thursday night screening of an award-winning documentary film about the dismantling of many American dams and efforts to restore spawning ground access for fish.

“DamNation” will be shown at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, where much of the conference will be held.

Tickets for a 5:30 p.m. dinner are available at the door for $25 and include the film screening.

Those who wish to just attend the film screening are asked to make a recommended donation of $10, organizers said. The film’s producer will be available for questions.

The four-day Salmonid Restoration Conference is produced each year in different regions of California. It was last held in Santa Rosa in 2007.

It begins Wednesday and Thursday with tours and workshops on a host of subjects that are central to fishery management efforts underway throughout Sonoma County, where indigenous populations of coho and chinook salmon and steelhead trout are all at risk.

“It’s a big event for anybody who is involved in salmonid habitat restoration,” said Manfred Kittel, coho salmon recovery coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Game.

More information about the film is available at www.damnationfilm.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.