Salmon at the Heart of Nature
4th Friday Lecture
September 25, 2009
ShareThis! The American River has changed significantly in the past 150 years, and salmon and steelhead populations have decreased. In fact, in many streams, only 10 percent of fish returni to our rivers to spawn than what they have historically.
Dr. Tim Tim Horner, a hydrogeology professor at CSUS, and a team of grad students are combing through the river beds and testing the waters to solve the mystery of the disappearing fish.
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This decrease possibly could be related to numerous things, including: ocean conditions, global warming, commercial or recreational fishing, delta water demands, mining, sediment input, water diversions, water quality, dams and water releases, water temperature, hatchery practices or habitat reduction. All of these issues were discussed to help put the problem in context for our own American River as well as the stressors responsible for the population decline.
Working together with many local organizations, CSUS faculty and students have helped characterize the ideal habitat for salmon and steelhead to spawn. This set of physical conditions can be used as a target to guide local restoration projects. Several projects have started to address the problem by creating more habitat and/or restoring degraded parts of the river.
Dr. Horner shared stories about these restoration efforts and future strategies to help bring the fish back.
About the Speaker
Dr. Tim Horner graduated from The Ohio State University in 1992, and joined the Geology Department at CSU Sacramento in Fall 1993. He specializes in groundwater/surface water interaction, and teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in sedimentology, field geology and hydrogeology.
He received the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008. Much of Tim's time is devoted to habitat assessment and in-stream monitoring work on local rivers, with special emphasis on salmon and steelhead spawning gravels.
Tim and his students are frequent partners on local stream restoration projects, and have collected information about the health and habitat suitability of the American River system.
Music
This lecture was opened with music by Lake of the Pines Wood Flute Circle - LOPING WOLF for short - a group of friends bitten by Flute Fever (There is no known cure). LOPING WOLF was formed out of a desire to play flutes and a need to know about the "Spirit of the Flute" after listening to two-time Grammy winner, Mary Youngblood. Read more about them at http://www.lopingwolf.com/
Return to the Archives Main Page
Or visit another lecture in this series:
| Sep. 25, 2009 - | Salmon at the Heart of Nature |
| Oct. 23, 2009 - | Journey of Discovery: California |
| Jan. 22, 2010 - | Tending the Wild: Native Americans and the Land |
| Feb. 26, 2010 - | Mysteries and Magic of the Vernal Pool |
| Mar. 26, 2010 - | Marvelous, Mysterious Mars |
| Apr. 23, 2010 - | Restoring the Mesopotamian Marshes |
Many Thanks to our 2009-2010 Sponsors
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Marion Friedman |
49er Printing |
Unity of Auburn |