The Current Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 16

PARTNER PROFILE

CalTrout and the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) have extended their partnership by establishing two key positions:

• The Peter B. Moyle and California Trout

Endowed Chair in Coldwater Fishes

• CalTrout-UC Davis Wild and Coldwater

Fish Researcher.

These positions were established to ensure that water resource issues with major policy and management implications continue to be informed by robust science. The findings from these collaborations have and will continue to inform broad-scale coldwater fish conservation strategies throughout California.

The Peter B. Moyle and California Trout Endowed Chair in Coldwater Fishes was established in honor of Dr. Moyle and the historical working relationship between CalTrout and UCD. Dr. Moyle’s research, teachings, and outreach are tied to California’s coldwater aquatic ecosystems, especially salmon, trout, and steelhead. These elements ensure that Dr. Moyle’s essential work to recover California salmonids and other fishes will carry on for decades to come, greatly influencing CalTrout’s work.

The CalTrout/UCD Wild and Coldwater Fish Research position establishes the basis for long-term science, specific to CalTrout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. This joint appointment between CalTrout and the CWS ensures that CalTrout has a dedicated full-time researcher at UCD working on issues important to the mission.

Recognized for his recent work on volcanic spring-fed rivers and coldwater fish habitat in northern California, Dr. Robert Lusardi has been appointed to this position and works closely with the Mt. Shasta Regional office on Shasta River coho issues. In this position, Dr. Lusardi will not only aide CalTrout in its scientific strategy throughout California, but he will also help identify regional priorities and link current Watershed Center researchers to CalTrout projects.

We work closely with Dr. Peter Moyle and Dr. Jeff Mount in UC Davis’ Center for Watershed Sciences to restore imperiled native trout throughout the Sierras and protect the Shasta River. CalTrout commissioned Dr. Peter Moyle and his team to author a comprehensive account of California’s salmon, steelhead and trout populations, SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis and is currently working on the updated, State of Salmonids 2016 Report to be released next year.

Other projects UC Davis is currently involved in include:

• Hat Creek and Fall River Restoration

• Mount Shasta-Cascade Regional Spring

Sources Assessment

• Shasta and Scott River Restoration

• Shasta Dam Raise and Salmon Re-

introduction

• Sierra Meadows Research and

Restoration Partnership (SMRRP)

• Osa Meadow & Kern River Rainbow

Restoration

• The Nigiri Project

• Pilot Floodplain Projects

• Santa Ynez River/Hilton Creek Litigation

UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences