Melissa Schuster and her team of

Operation Koi Rescue: The Untold Story

WRITTEN BY SHELLY BRANDON The heartwarming stories of animal rescues during and after disasters can be found everywhere—horses ridden out of fire threatened pastures when trailers couldn’t arrive fast enough, animal rescue groups making daily trips to leave out bags of food for cats and dogs unwillingly abandoned in an evacuation, and baby bears receiving lifesaving fish-skin grafts on their burnt paws. But what about the animals you haven’t heard about? What about the scaly pucker-faced fish swimming in ponds amidst the fire and ashes? Well, here’s their story, the story of Paradise’s Operation Koi Rescue.

Melissa Schuster and her husband Cliff Jacobson’s home at Chapelle De L’Artiste in Paradise sat on a breathtaking piece of land with a chapel, gatehouse, historic outbuildings, and a beautiful koi pond. After the fire, Melissa stood on the steps of that chapel, looked around and said to herself, “It’s enough.” Even though all the other structures, including their home, were gone, the fact that they still had their lives, their land, their pond, and the resiliency of the community of Paradise around them meant they would not just survive but flourish. That large surviving pond proved to be a sanctuary for the community. What began as friends helping friends, evolved into something much bigger than they expected.

Following the fire, their friend Scott Lotter asked Cliff to help him rig up a tank to rescue the koi at his pond. So, Cliff picked up a 500-gallon tank from his company, attached an aerator in order to allow the fish to breathe properly, and helped Scott and his son Dustin secure it to the bed of a pickup truck. They wrote Koi Rescue Team on the back of it in jest and unknowingly began a mission that would reach all the way to U.C. Davis Veterinary School. After rescuing Scott’s fish, the community heard about the work they were doing and soon, Scott, Dustin, Cliff, and Randy Hays traveled to over 100 ponds throughout the Paradise area, netting up and saving hundreds of koi. Some of the fish went to the U.C. Davis Veterinary Center, where they were able to house them until they could be reunited and rehoused with their owners.

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Those koi, that had nowhere to go, were placed in their new home at Melissa’s pond.

During this time, the town of Paradise was under evacuation orders, so the Koi Rescue Team had to obtain special permission in order to get in and rescue fish at various ponds. They also had to set up and maintain a generator to power the aerator at Melissa’s pond in an effort to maintain a healthy environment for all the koi being placed. Melissa says, “People are very attached to their koi. The koi recognize voices and even come when called. They’re very social animals.” The pond originally contained about six koi before the fire, and today, that population has bloomed to over 300 rescued fish. Melissa says people often come, sit, and visit with their koi in their new watery home. “We are delighted that we’ve been able to help.”

Their efforts to help fire-endangered koi have earned them the respect of the U.C. Davis Veterinary community and following the Berry Creek fire, they were called upon to reactivate the operation, saving an additional 150 fish. Along with the koi that were rescued and rehomed at the pond, Melissa says they’ve also brought in some turtles and bullfrogs saved by the rescue team’s efforts.

When she’s not tending the koi, Melissa is extremely active in the Paradise community, including working with Hopee Plaza, Chamber of Commerce, Paradise Arts Alliance, Blue Zones, and Mosquito Vector Control. Closer to home, she and her husband have just started rebuilding along with breaking ground and beginning a long dreamed of family enterprise on the property, The Burnt Barn Distillery. She also hosts several glamping tents at Chapelle De L’Artiste which include access to the pool and koi pond. So, in time, come, sit at the edge of the pond, toss in some koi food, listen to the waterfall, and watch the hawk who has also returned to the property to raise her next set of fledglings in one of its resilient oaks. This is community. This is Paradise.