Mendocino Coast Regional Salmonid Monitoring

The purpose of this Agreement is to continue this monitoring for three consecutive years. Activities include conducting salmon and steelhead spawning ground surveys and life cycle monitoring following the overall design and strategy outlined in Adams et al. (2011), to provide estimates of adult and juvenile salmonid abundance, and freshwater and marine survival rates. This work will be achieved in collaboration and partnership with CDFW, Lyme Timber Company, Mendocino Redwood Company, The Nature Conservancy, and other partners.

The CMP methodology provides population level estimates of salmonids and monitors status and trends at evolutionarily significant regional scales. Central California Coast Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) evolutionarily significant unit (ESU), California Coastal Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) ESU, and Northern California steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) distinct population segments (DPS) are all listed as either threatened or endangered under Federal or State Endangered Species Acts. Recovery plans call for long-term population assessment and monitoring that address viable salmonid population indicators of abundance, productivity, spatial structure, and diversity. Delisting will depend on whether important populations have reached abundance thresholds (Spence 2008), thus spawner escapement is a primary measure of recovery.