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January 2015
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SPOTLIGHT
On Wednesday, December 10, Save Mt. Diablo’s Executive Director Ron Brown was honored at the annual holiday breakfast held by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla. Since coming to Save Mt. Diablo in 2000, many acquisitions have added to the protected lands around Mt Diablo. But only about half of the wilderness has been preserved with the rest at risk of
ECRWSS
PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID DANVILLE, CA PERMIT NO. 70
See RON BROWN page 6
This photo of Mt. Diablo taken by Scott Hein, is of North Peak after a winter storm from the flats between Mitchell and Donner Canyon in Mt. Diablo State Park. Officially in winter now, we may be graced by one of these beautiful scenes on the mountain. To help protect the open space on and around Mt. Diablo, visit Save Mt. Diablo’s website at www. savemountdiablo.org. In this season of giving, every gift to SMD protects habitat and hiking trails for us and for future generations.
Native wildlife report:
Steelhead and Rainbow Trout visit local waterways
Postmaster: Dated Material
By James Hale
Sentinel Newspapers, Inc. 390 Diablo Road, Ste. 145 Danville, CA 94526 925-820-6047
The rainbow trout is California’s most abundant and diverse trout, occupying many of the state’s cold streams and lakes. Its dominant visual characteristic from which the name “rainbow” is derived is the light red lateral band along its sides. Except for a few inland subspecies, the distinctiveness of the varied rainbow populations has been largely diluted through widespread intermingling among the respective strains and the extensive plantings of hatchery-reared fish. J o h a n n J u l i u s Wa l b a u m first described the species from an individual collected in 1792 from Kamchatka. In 1836 John Richardson named an anadromous fish Salmo Gairdnerii from the East Bay Area.
Anadromous adult fish spawn in freshwater, then the young fry migrate to saltwater to mature. In 1855 Dr. H. Gibbons of the California Academy of Natural Sciences (Steinhart Aquarium) described a new trout species, Salmo iridia, based on some fiveinch fish caught in San Leandro Creek. This became the official description of rainbow trout, which were assumed to live in streams. In 1855, Ayres described Salmo rivularis, a form he believed was a “distinct” species from specimens he collected in either Mt. Diablo or Walnut Creek. Recent genetics and taxonomy have shown that all these fish are conspecific (the same species), Coastal Rainbow Trout -Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus, with both resident rainbows
and anadromous Steelhead. Rainbow trout and Steelhead have been transplanted and introduced worldwide to the eastern United States, New Zealand and other countries for first class sport fisheries. Between two and four years of age the Steelhead and the Coastal Rainbow Trout become sexually mature and spawn for the first time. In the Walnut Creek Watershed, Steelhead enter the creek and its tributaries to spawn from October through March. Unlike salmon which die after spawning, Steelhead may return in successive years to spawn. Except for the difference in the number of eggs they lay (up to 12,000 for the Steelhead versus
This month’s Special Section:
New Year, New You pages 8 - 9
about 1,000 for creek -resident Coastal Rainbows), spawning is essentially the same. The female scoops out a redd or nest with her caudal fin (tail) in the streambed of gravel with good water flow for oxygenation. She deposits the eggs, 2 -12 inches deep, as the male fertilizes them with milt after which she covers the eggs with loosened See TROUT page 5