Highlights

Military Veterans Help Rebuild Northern California Fisheries

Veterans are getting a chance to train and work on habitat restoration and fisheries monitoring through a project funded by NOAA. Partnering with California Conservation Corps and California’s Department of Fish and Game, we will offer the vets a year-long program of paid training and hands-on experience.

Veterans will spend the first half of the year on habitat restoration. We anticipate that the training and experience they receive will open pathways to new careers in natural resource management and habitat conservation.

The work will benefit fisheries, too. By autumn, the veterans will begin monitoring several river restoration sites in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Mendocino counties. These sites were designed to increase spawning and rearing habitat for populations of endangered coho salmon in accordance with the recovery plan developed under the Endangered Species Act. The restored habitat should also help boost populations of Chinook and steelhead trout.

The veterans will help collect ecological data at these sites to assess the effectiveness of habitat restoration practices. This will help us to improve our restoration techniques and be more successful with future projects. The program could also serve to set the stage for additional work in the future, as further opportunities arise for veterans to implement restoration projects.  

For more information about joining the fisheries crew, contact Tina Ratcliff with California Conservation Corps at 916-341-3123 or tina.ratcliff@ccc.ca.gov.

Posted September 5, 2012