N 



were obtained during this first year's operation to meet 

 requirements. 



OTHER ACTIVITIES 



Considerable difficulty was encountered at the Nim- 

 bus salmon and steelhead hatchery on the American 

 River. Water temperatures reaching a high of 66 de- 

 grees were encountered during the fall months, when 

 the early king salmon arrived in the river. High 

 temperatures resulted in heavy losses to fish and, in 

 some instances, considerable loss of eggs. A plan was 

 worked out whereby the salmon trapped at the hatch- 

 ery were taken to cold water holding ponds at higher 

 elevations and allowed to mature. Even though this 

 poses an additional burden and expense on the hatch- 

 ery's operation, it appears to be the only method of 

 obtaining eggs from the American River salmon. 



An attempt was made to develop a late-running 

 strain of salmon, one which would arrive in the Amer- 

 ican River later in the season after temperatures be- 

 came favorable. One million eggs were obtained from 

 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service trapping 

 facility at Keswick Dam on the Sacramento River. 

 Fry resulting from these eggs were liberated in the 

 river during the spring of 1958. 



Screens and Ladders 



An important development in the salmon and steel- 

 head programs was the invention of a vertical, cylin- 

 drical plate fish screen with a water jet-type cleaner. 

 This screen was developed at the Elk Grove Screen 

 Shop, and the first working model constructed on the 

 Granlee diversion from the Cosumnes River, Sacra- 

 mento County. Preliminar\' evaluation indicates that 

 it will solve some of the problems in screening very 

 large diversion canals. 



A total of 62 fish screens was maintained and oper- 

 ated by the department on salmon and steelhead 

 streams during the biennium. Nine new screens were 

 constructed and installed. 



Sandblasting facilities were built at the Red BlufT 

 and Yreka screen shops, and screen panels are now 

 cleaned by sandblasting at the end of the season. 



A major project aimed at the rehabilitation of Big 

 Chico Creek, Butte County, as a salmon and steelhead 

 stream got under way near the end of the biennium. 

 In June, 1958, a Division of Forestry honor camp 

 crew commenced the difficult task of constructing 

 fish passage facilities around Iron Canyon Barrier, a 

 jumble of huge boulders which have blocked migra- 

 tory fish in Chico Creek since about the time of the 

 San Francisco earthquake. The project, financed by 

 an allocation from the Wildlife Conservation Board, 

 will make 15 miles of spawning stream available to 

 salmon and steelhead. Overall direction and supervi- 

 sion of the project was provided b>' the department. 



A new tunnel-t\'pe fishway around the McCormick- 

 Saeltzer Dam on Clear Creek, Shasta County, neared 



/ 



Spawning silver so/mon at the Pudding Creelc, Mendocino County, egg- 

 faking station. 



— Fish and Game Photo 



completion at the end of the biennium. This unique 

 fishway is 434 feet long and is completely covered 

 over its entire length. It was bored through solid rock 

 most of the way. This ladder makes available an addi- 

 tional 25 miles of good salmon and steelhead spawning 

 stream. The Wildlife Conservation Board financed this 

 important work \\ith a total allocation in excess of 

 160,000. 



Small fish ladders \\ ere completed on Hutton Creek, 

 Siskiyou County, and Bolinas Creek, .Marin County. 

 Existing ladders on many other salmon and steelhead 

 streams were maintained by regional fisheries person- 

 nel, and repairs and modifications made as needed. 



A total of 21 barriers consisting of rocks, logs, or 

 debris was removed from salmon and steelhead streams 

 bv fisheries habitat improvement crews. The streams 

 on which this work was performed are listed in Table 

 32 in the Appendix. 



Logging Damage 



Considerable effort has been made to acquaint the 

 logging industry with the destruction of fish habitat 

 which has resulted from certain logging practices. The 

 department is also encouraging industry development 

 of a co-operative program to institute voluntary 

 changes in harmful logging practices. 



In order to learn more specificall>- what environ- 

 mental changes take place in northcoastal streams fol- 

 lowing logging, a systematic collection of gtream bot- 



