1 water bond in 2014 and the $205 million Prop. The public has expressed its support by approving the $7 billion Prop. While more funding must be secured for the multi-million dollar endeavor, Jacobson expressed optimism that the project was in the homestretch and pointed to growing momentum behind this and similar steelhead trout projects along the California coast. It took over from Trout Unlimited, which had been working on the project since 2004 and raised $2.4 million to get the project started. Since California Trout took the lead in 2017, it has raised $2.1 million for the project. The second barrier is beneath a nearby array of five bridges where the Trabuco Creek passes under Interstate 5 and adjacent roadways – the waterway there has been turned into an ascending concrete channel that is also too steep for steelhead to traverse. The first barrier confronted by steelhead trout is 4 miles from the ocean, where a concrete- and rock-lined portion of the creek beneath a Metrolink railroad bridge suddenly climbs 30 feet, making fish passage impossible. Orange County’s prime waterway to upstream spawning grounds, the Trabuco Creek tributary to the San Juan Creek, features two such impassable obstacles a half-mile apart.
“The reason they’re endangered is that they can’t complete their lifecycles,” said Sandra Jacobson of California Trout, an advocacy group that coordinates habitat restoration.
That’s primarily because the rivers and streams they traditionally used in Orange and San Diego counties have been obstructed by manmade barriers. Twenty percent or less of those rainbow trout then seek ocean water downstream and transform into the larger, silvery steelheads as they adapt to the saltwater.īut Southern California’s steelheads are endangered, with limited access to spawning grounds once they get south of Malibu Creek. The oceangoing fish return to freshwater to spawn as part of a dramatic and almost magical cycle, in which their offspring are often rainbow trout. After nearly two decades of efforts, the endangered steelhead trout appear on the verge of returning to Orange County streams and rivers.
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