FORTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT 49 



The present applied steelhead and salmon management program of 

 the bureau includes removal of log jams, abandoned dams, and other 

 obstructions ; rescue of fish from drying streams ; construction of fish- 

 ways; and stocking with hatchery fish. The activities of the biological 

 staff in connection with these phases of the program are described 

 elsewhere in the report. Some of the more important special fact-finding 

 investigations carried on during the biennium are summarized herewith. 



For some years the Bureau of Fish Conservation has carried out counts 

 of spawning runs of steelhead and salmon at various stations. Such 

 counts provide a basis for legislative and management programs and 

 for recommendations in connection with proposed large dams. The fol- 

 lowing stations were operated during the past biennium : 



Station Stream County River system 



Klamathon Racks Klamath River Siskiyou Klamath River 



Fall Creek Fall Creek Siskiyou Klamath River 



Shasta Racks_. ...Shasta River Siskiyou Klamath River 



Sweasey Dam Mad River Humboldt Mad River 



Benbow Dam Eel River, South Fork Humboldt Eel River 



A graduate college student employed as a student biologist completed 

 a study of the efficiency of natural propagation of steelhead and king 

 and silver salmon and the factors affecting it. This study was carried 

 out in the Prairie Creek drainage, Humboldt County. 



Another study which in part complements the above was started at 

 Fall Creek, Siskiyou County, in 1949 and continued during the biennium. 

 In this study different numbers of king salmon are allowed to enter and 

 spawn in Fall Creek each year. The resulting offspring are then counted 

 on their downstream migration to the Klamath River. From known 

 numbers of parents and known numbers of offspring we hope to deter- 

 mine the most effective number of king salmon for a spawning tributary 

 such as Fall Creek. 



INLAND TROUT 



Although the great majority of the trout caught by anglers in Cali- 

 fornia as a whole still result from natural propagation, the hatcheries 

 of the State play a very important role in supplying fish to a number 

 of waters incapable of producing satisfactory angling through natural 

 propagation. 



In this program it is one of the principal functions of the biological 

 staff to make the necessary initial surveys of waters and then to check 

 them as necessary in order to keep stocking and other management 

 practices in tune with existing conditions. The records and policies for 

 each managed water are kept current by means of a state-wide system 

 of "hatchery management binders". These are permanent records in 

 loose-leaf binder form kept at each hatchery, with duplicate copies at 

 the district office, which show the essential survey data for the managed 

 water, a summary record of past stocking, and the basic stocking and 

 other management policies as determined in conference between the 

 district biological and hatchery staffs. 



Special investigations dealing with the inland trout fisheries carried 

 on by the biological staff include studies of hatchery diets and fish 

 diseases, test water programs, and studies of important individual bodies 

 of water. These are described elsewhere in this report. 



