PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA
Teresa Urrutia (left) and Melody Scarborough (right), recently hired biological science technicians for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Bluff office, kayak down Clear Creek with fish biologist Gabriella Moreno (center). (JOHN HEIL/USFWS)
‘DREAM JOB’ TAKES BIOLOGISTS TO FISHY PLACES USFWS RED BLUFF STAFFERS USE KAYAKS TO RESEARCH CLEAR CREEK SALMON, STEELHEAD By John Heil
I
magine taking a kayak out on the water all day as a full-time job. Well, that’s exactly what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staffers from the Red Bluff office do for a portion of the year. The work is critical for surveying Clear Creek for the presence of steelhead, rain-
bow trout and late-fall Chinook salmon nests known as redds. “We primarily use this information to try and evaluate the effectiveness of our ongoing restoration projects on the creek,” said Ryan Schaefer, a federal fish biologist. “These surveys give us a good idea where the fish are spawning and if they are using the gravel that we’re
putting in the creek to increase the available spawning area and hopefully help bolster salmonid populations. This is a great gig. There are days in this job when you think to yourself that I can’t believe they’re paying me to do this, and this is one of those days,” he said on a sunny, 70-degree day in February. Gabriella Moreno, a fish biologist
calsportsmanmag.com | JULY 2020 California Sportsman
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