Lake County, state and federal scientists report mixed Clear Lake hitch results; task force, community science and grants advance conservation work

Lake County and state and federal partners reported mixed monitoring results and stepped‑up coordination on Clear Lake hitch conservation during a presentation to the Lake County Board of Supervisors.

The presentations on the species’ status, led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Lake County Watershed Protection District staff, reviewed long‑term survey methods, described a high but short‑lived increase in 2023 that did not continue in 2024, and laid out near‑term actions including a revised conservation strategy, expanded tribal and agency coordination, community science training and additional monitoring studies.

The Clear Lake hitch (a fish listed as threatened under California law in 2014) is the focus of a local emergency proclamation the board adopted in February 2023 and renewed in 2024. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the hitch as threatened and is accepting public comment during a 60‑day period.

Filippo La Luz, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, summarized CDFW’s visual and electrofishing surveys. He emphasized the surveys’ limitations — they are indices, not absolute censuses — and said they do not detect larvae hatched that same year: “we currently do not have a method to, well we don't have a study, to observe larval fish that are hatched in that year.” CDFW’s…