ShareThisBy ZEKE BARLOW
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
With a flick of his wrist, Joe Richey cast his black midge fly through the air, landing it in the cool waters of Piru Creek. As Richey teased the fly through the water, dozens of rainbow trout darted about, their steely skin occasionally reflecting the sun like mirrors falling through the current.
It's a scene Richey has come to love.
The avid fly fisherman has caught and released as many as 40 fish from the creek in a day, not just a remarkable feat for any fisherman but also an anomaly in Southern California, which is not a hotbed for trout fishing.
"It looks like a fish tank," said Richey, who owns a 112-acre ranch that the creek cuts through.
For decades, a constant flow of water has come down the creek from Pyramid Dam and created one of the best, most accessible fishing creeks in Southern California. Even in drought years, the 18-mile creek that flows between two dams was always flush with water.
But the water that's ample for the fish isn't so good for the endangered arroyo toad. After learning the artificial water flow was keeping the toad population down, officials started looking into returning the creek levels to more natural conditions, surging or shrinking with the seasons.
A group of fishermen that includes Richey is fighting to keep water in the stream so the great fishing stays in the canyon-lined walls of Piru Creek. The advocacy group California Trout is threatening to sue if too much water is taken from the creek.
Now groups with competing interests in the creek are taking sides, saying the issue pits fish against toads. Everyone seems to be struggling with the best solution for how to return an unnatural ecosystem to a more natural state.
The issue began in 1973 when Pyramid Dam was built as part of the State Water Project. As mitigation for the construction, officials agreed to release downstream at least 25 cubic feet of water per second to allow for good fishing. At other times, great gushes of water were released from the dam to let water out of Pyramid Lake. Over the years, Piru Creek became renowned among fishermen.
But when the arroyo toad was put on the endangered species list in 1994, everything changed. Under the Endangered Species Act, any agency or person responsible for the death of any listed animal can be held criminally liable. In 2002, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for enforcing the act, was alerted that exceptionally high water releases were washing away some of the toads' eggs.
Biologists found that years of constant flow also changed the composition of the river. A natural California creek is both wide and narrow, braided with few tall trees lining the banks, and a mix of sand and pebbles on the bottom. Piru Creek had turned into a channelized and deeper creek with trees that had grown tall from years of constant watering.
"It turned from a normal California stream into something that is a lot more like a stream you'd see in the Rockies," said Sam Sweet, a vertebrate zoologist at UC Santa Barbara who has studied the arroyo toad. "As a result, it was hard on all the native animals that depended on the stream."
In 2005, only 13 clutches of toad eggs were found in the river.
The next year, the Department of Water Resources, which owns Pyramid Dam, simulated a more natural water flow. It released only the same amount of water that came into Pyramid Lake. In 2006, 165 clutches were found, which Sweet said helps bolster the case for a more natural flow.
The dam release has mimicked a natural flow ever since, but the flow could still be changed back to the heightened releases. The State Water Resources Control Board has to sign off on the new flow, but fishers are hoping they won't, and if they do, they are threatening a lawsuit.
Jim Bloomquist, a consultant of Friends of the River, others say the natural flow is going to kill their beloved fish. They say the Department of Water Resources is required to release enough water for the trout in order to mitigate the effects of the dam. They also are hoping another endangered species might bolster their case, the steelhead trout.
Genetic tests have shown the trout in Piru Creek are related to the steelhead, but a trout is only a steelhead once it reaches the ocean. Because the trout can't get to the ocean because they are blocked by Santa Felicia Dam on Lake Piru, they aren't steelhead and not protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Richey hopes that whatever the outcome, there will still be some fish left in the creek for him to try to trick with his flies.
"I would like to see both the trout and the toad thrive together," he said between casts. "It'll be such a tragedy if they dry it up, because this is one of a kind around here."
