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Thread: What happens to fisheries after a fire?

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  1. #1
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    Default What happens to fisheries after a fire?

    For example, will all the fisheries the Dixie fire burned return to normal after a few years? Are they done forever? Thanks!

    NK

  2. #2
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    Default

    My most recent experience with this type of thing would be the stretch of the Stanislaus river where the Dardanelle fire went through. Fish were still there the next summer.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Natekursow View Post
    For example, will all the fisheries the Dixie fire burned return to normal after a few years? Are they done forever? Thanks!

    NK
    I'm thinking it depends a lot on the ensuing rainy season, slope stability, etc. and how much sediment and debris ends up in the river.

  4. #4
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    Default I appreciate your opptumisim, but with all the fires in California?

    Quote Originally Posted by Woodman View Post
    I'm thinking it depends a lot on the ensuing rainy season, slope stability, etc. and how much sediment and debris ends up in the river.
    Are we ever going to have any fishing left at all.

    I surely worry about the salmon and steelhead fishries that depend on access to the sea and rivers after spawning.


    Regards, Gene

  5. #5
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    Default What Happens After....??

    grnwtrs,.... While I share the concern, I'd like to think that there's enough left of riparian and forest resources to provide habitat for fish of all sorts. Actually, after the current fires are extinguished, there may not be a great need for a bunch of controlled burns. Arsonists/potential arsonists concern me, tho. Frankly, I can't recall a year in which a major wild fire didn't occur somewhere within this state. It does seem that there're more of them occurring at the same time now....

    There're some habitat restoration projects either in process or completed that are designed to benefit Salmon/Steelhead/Trout. From everything I read about freshwater diversion/management, ocean conditions and commercial trawl fishing, our anadromous fisheries are negatively impacted by those activities more than wild fires.
    "America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote."

    Author unknown

  6. #6
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    Darian, I surely hope you and your colleagues are right. But the number and magnitude of this seasons fires combined with the drought and the new "fish farming" in Europe and our northern neighbors will only add so much more pressure to our favorite game fishery.

    I hope I am really really wrong.

    This time of year I am usually getting ready for the Sept trip up to the Klamath, then prep for the Smith in Nov, and then southern Ore after Christmas, etc. Eagle lake was scraped again this year. My trailer is hoping for a trip soon.

    Regards, gene

  7. #7
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    Default What Happens to Fisheries After....??

    After re-reading this thread, I notice that the original object (wild fires) was expended to include a concern about "....fish farming...." It seems to me that hatcheries amount to fish farming and federal/state and local agencies plus private (commercial) entities already operate hatcheries and have been for decades. Whether all of their impacts are negative or not is still open for debate. I'm on the fence in this as I believe that unless habitat losses are reversed, there would be very few fish (Salmon/Trout/Steelhead) in our waters without hatcheries.

    Back to the impacts of wild fires on future fisheries. Woodman posted, "I'm thinking it depends a lot on the ensuing rainy season, slope stability, etc. and how much sediment and debris ends up in the river." There're many examples of debri/sediment choked streams/rivers in CA where very few, if any fish can survive. Large debri can be removed and sediment flushed out but how about the toxicity of rain on ash producing acid and washing into rivers/streams?? The Dixie Fire alone is busy making sure the entire Feather River drainage is going to be awash in this potential. Then the CALDR Fire and several fires in the far northern part of CA and southern Oregon will contribute to the problem.

    Of course, CA has experienced wild fires in the past and will continue to do so and fish have survived those....
    "America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote."

    Author unknown

  8. #8
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    Oct 2015
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    Santa Rosa, Calif
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    Default

    NK,

    That's a good question, however the fires have been coming and going for about a million years, so on that aspect I think we are OK. I see the biggest problem is drought, then you have both those combined together that won't end up well, just my 2 cents.

    Carl

  9. #9
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    Many are correct about fires occurring throughout many years in CA. However, the difference now is the increased use of fire retardant. According to a report from KQED fire retardant at 1 percent of the solution normally used to fight a fire is toxic to salmonoids. So yes we can expect detrimental effects from the retardants dropped this year. Here is the link to the article.

    https://www.kqed.org/science/1917995...-wildlife-grow

    I personally noticed that when fishing the Tuolumne river below Hatch-Hetchy a year after a large fire there, that the fish population was significantly reduced.

    From CBS CHANNEL 8 - Fire Retardant use by aircraft: 96,533 gallons in 2019. 172,079 gallons in 2020. 306,095 gallons in 2021 as of 9/1/21. That does not take into account additional retardant used by the ground crews.

  10. #10
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    Default

    Does anyone think the wild fires are going to ever be stopped in California?

    I wonder where a fly fisher could move to so they can have descent air quality to fish in most of the year?
    Bill Kiene (Boca Grande)

    567 Barber Street
    Sebastian, Florida 32958

    Fly Fishing Travel Consultant
    Certified FFF Casting Instructor

    Email: billkiene63@gmail.com
    Cell: 530/753-5267
    Web: www.billkiene.com

    Contact me for any reason........
    ______________________________________

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