Mountain biker and ecologist Jason Fitzgibbon, along with CalTrout, talks about the rescission of the Roadless Rule, federal public lands, mountain biking, and Southern Steelhead in the Santa Ana Mountains of Southern California…
Southern Steelhead in the Santa Ana Mountains
Not much more than a few generations ago, thousands of broad-shouldered, silvery steelhead would make their way up some of Orange County’s coastal watersheds each winter, migrating from the sea to navigate several miles of uninterrupted freestone streams toward their headwaters and spawning habitat in the Santa Ana Mountains. And for millennia prior, these fish had made that journey up and into these mountains seeking cool, clear water, flowing calmly over a gravel bottom – the perfect place to deposit and fertilize their eggs, and a relatively safe refuge for developing the next generation of girthy ocean-goers.
Now, as a result of over a century of urbanization, stream bed channelization, impoundment, water diversions, and habitat fragmentation, California’s southern steelhead can no longer reach the vast majority of suitable spawning habitat in the Santa Ana Mountains. As such, the species has become virtually extirpated from the range and is now one of the most imperiled salmonids in North America.
Federal National Forest Land
Here in Orange County, only two watersheds remain that very infrequently experience running steelhead, one of which has become the primary focus of efforts to restore southern steelhead populations in the region: the San Juan Creek watershed. Designated as Critical Habitat by the federal government in 2011, San Juan Creek and its tributaries flow for over 20 miles from the steep, west-facing slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains to their Pacific Ocean outlet in Dana Point…