Intermingled with the brouhaha regarding Dry Creek’s watershed is the occasional article on the subject of the welfare of our Salmon and Steelhead.  You might assume that anything suggested that has the potential to protect the gill-bearing denizens of our creek would have overwhelming support by the two-footed dwellers of the Valley.  But, the truth is, how you view protecting the fish and/or how protection is instigated, isn’t as simple as one might think.  The flow of water and riparian rights tend to complicate what would seem obvious.  The DCVA website will soon publish an interview with two members who find themselves on different sides of this issue.  In the meantime, you can educate yourself by checking out the newly published Sonoma watershed characteristics found on the website of the Southwest Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service.  The website is www.swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/default.htm Look on the Home Page under “Items of Interest” for “North-Central California Coast Salmonid Watershed Characterizations.  The website gives a summary of their work: 

      The NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to the stewardship of living marine resources through science-based conservation and management, and the promotion of healthy ecosystems. As a steward, NOAA Fisheries Service conserves, protects, and manages living marine resources in a way that ensures their continuation as functioning components of marine ecosystems. For the Santa Rosa jurisdictional area of the Services’ Southwest Region that means dealing primarily with salmon and steelhead in their freshwater component. 
      In order to ensure that the best science-based inquiries are conducted, comprehensive watershed inventories need to be available to staff biologists. To achieve that end, the Habitat Conservation Division is creating Watershed Characterization portfolios for each of the watersheds that fall within Santa Rosa’s regional domain (coastal streams in Mendocino County south to Monterey County inclusive and San Francisco Bay tributaries). Each portfolio provides statistics and maps that describe the watershed in detail. All the data portrayed is from publically available sources but it has been arrayed in such a manner as to provide a quick and thorough overview of the health and resources of each watershed.

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