Since they neeed to spend two years as juveniles in freshwater, rearing capacity in the upper watershed can be a major limiting production factor for CA's wild steelhead populations on the North Coast.
The number of pot grows in our North Coast watersheds has grown exponentially in just the last few years. These grows are putting a serious hurt on the amount of water left for fish in these these streams as water is being diverted to grow weed over a long dry summer in the heart of CA steelhead country.
The other serious issue with the grows on the North Coast is all the illegal grading taking place (see Dustins Youtube link--shocking). The soils in the North Coast watersheds are natuarlly highly erosive. Grading on steep slopes in these upper watersheds is seriously bad news when torrential winter rains inevitably come and whole hill-sides slough off filling in summer holding pools with sediment-- resulting in elevated water temperatures which reduces the available habitat for rearing juveniles.
Add in pesticides, and over use of fertilizers and you've got one alarming situation....
I happen to work in the same office building with a CDFW Game Warden so I get an insiders take-- What has happened in CA over the last few years is a big shift in how pot is illegally grown as a result of Prop 215. Used to be that cartels would stick to the deep back country (mostly on public land) and "gamble" with trying to pull off a big grow. These big grows were often busted but enough of them remained hidden until harvest time to make them profitable. Back country grows are still happening-- and still a big problem for fish and wildlife-- but now with the ease California's can get a precription for "medical" marijuana, these cartels (and other criminal organizations or simply folks trying to make a living on the North Coast) are buying up private property within the "Emerald Triangle" of CA where some of the killerest bud in the world can be grown ( warm days, cool nights, and no rain for months makes some happy weed plants)-- No more hiding out in the bushes all summer long then getting busted in October right before harvest.
Problem is with more and more folks getting in on the weed market, the price has gone down a bunch (supply and demand). To make up for it people are growing more weed-- right in our North Coast watersheds where the climate developes top dollar bud-- and in the process screwing those watersheds up royally for salmonids.
I believe the only way out of this mess is to legalize weed across the board in CA and the rest of the states. The only way to get these guys out of the upper watersheds is to make their business unprofitable. The only way to make weed unprofitable is to grow it on an industrial scale (in an environmentally sound way of course). The river bottoms in Humbolt should not be cow pastures they should be weed fields...
Increased angling pressure for declining numbers of returning adults really only has a negative impact on the quality of our days afield-- the impacts of C&R angling cannot compare to the impacts logging have had, and now pot growing is having, at the watershed level on the North Coast. See you on a North Coast river this winter. They are magical places. Matt
Last edited by matt johnson; 12-08-2013 at 10:29 PM.
Church of Wild Steelhead!
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Originally Posted by Bill Kiene semi-retired
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