Lake County hears updates on Clear Lake hitch monitoring, conservation strategy and restoration work

Lake County officials on a recent meeting received a multi-agency update on monitoring, conservation planning and local restoration work to support the Clear Lake hitch, a fish listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.

The presentations came from Filippo La Luz of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fred Fira of the U.S. Geological Survey and Chris Childers of the Lake County Watershed Protection District. Angela DiPalma Dow, program coordinator for the County of Lake Water Resources Department, opened the item and noted local staffing investments: "There's been 2 positions allocated for Clear Lake Clear Lake Hitch programs in water resources," she said.

Why it matters: agencies reported mixed signals in population indices since 2017 — a pronounced low in 2022, a large uptick in some 2023 surveys and lower numbers again in 2024 — and emphasized that the causes remain uncertain. That uncertainty affects whether the species will recover and how to prioritize restoration, monitoring and grant-funded projects across the watershed.

State and county monitoring methods and results

Filippo La Luz, senior environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), summarized three monitoring approaches used by his agency and its partners: a visual adult-count survey in tributaries (21 fixed locations in Big Valley, started 2014), an electrofishing-based lake-edge sampling program (four fixed transects, started 2019) and mark–recapture work used to produce relative population estimates. La Luz cautioned that these surveys are indices, not absolute censuses, and that smaller, larval life stages are not routinely captured by current methods.

CDFW reported a record raw visual count of 2,548 fish in 2023 at the tributary sites, but the agency did not treat that single-year result as proof of sustained recovery. La Luz said the draft conservation strategy includes a draft population target composed of three criteria (visual count > 8,360; relative population estimate > 75,000; and ranking as the fifth most abundant fish in general surveys) that must be met for six consecutive years to be considered a reliable recovery signal. "The May 2024 draft that is currently on the website still has a lot of work that needs to be done," La Luz said about the strategy.

Federal in-lake sampling (USGS)

Fred Fira, research fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) California Water Science Center, described a complementary in-lake gill-net survey the USGS runs in summer after spawning when the population is more closed to migration. USGS indices show large year-to-year variation: relatively higher catch rates in early years and very depressed rates through 2022, a marked increase in 2023 and lower numbers again in 2024. Fira cautioned that the spike in 2023 has not yet explained by the available data and that survival of those 2023 fish into 2024 appeared poor.

Fira said additional landscape sampling in 2024 found substantial numbers of hitch in Lower Blue Lake, a finding that could indicate connected subpopulations outside Clear Lake and that motivated ongoing work using fish otolith chemistry and tagging methods to infer movements and sources.

County actions, community science and restoration priorities

Chris Childers of the Lake County Watershed Protection District described the district's first year of a 14‑site spawner-observation program and related local work: community science trainings (first sessions scheduled February 27 and March 5), rescue operations in stranded creeks, collaboration on PIT-tag pilot studies with tribal partners, contributions to CDFW electrofishing and USGS gill-net work, and local restoration projects including the Kelsey Creek fish ladder at Main Street in Kelseyville.

Childers reported that the district observed 23 adult hitch at some tributary sites in 2024 and approximately 2,000 juvenile hitch at Burns Valley Creek (the juveniles were observed near the creek mouth close to the lake). He said more district reports and GPS site coordinates would be posted on the county water resources website.

Funding, governance and strategy work

Presenters stressed multi-agency and tribal collaboration through a Clear Lake Hitch Task Force and several leadership summits hosted by local tribes. La Luz described efforts to formalize the task force, synchronize calendars, and create a prioritized project list for the 2027 funding cycle. The county reported more than $5 million in grant funding committed or targeted for hitch-related projects, and presenters flagged several pending and enacted legislative tools (Assembly Bill 1284, Senate Bill 310) that agencies say can facilitate co-management and cultural burning.

La Luz described a planned process to revise the May 2024 draft conservation strategy: monthly meetings, an outline and "red-flag" reviews of missing or inaccurate pieces, then a single-author rewrite and final review before sign-off. The draft strategy will be presented for stakeholder input, including agricultural and Fish and Wildlife advisory committees.

Public comments and local concerns

Members of the public and local supervisors asked about specific tributaries and infrastructure problems that strand hitch during floods. Several commenters urged prioritizing Coal Creek and other stormwater infrastructure upgrades to reduce repeated flooding and fish stranding; County staff noted a pending Blue Ribbon Committee / California Natural Resources Agency grant (Prop 4 line item) to identify high-priority stormwater infrastructure projects in the Clear Lake basin.

No new formal board actions were taken during the presentation. Presenters encouraged continued data synthesis, expanded citizen-science monitoring and use of tagging and otolith chemistry to resolve whether the 2023 increase reflected local reproduction or immigration from connected water bodies.

What's next

Presenters said ongoing items include: revising the conservation strategy with clearer objectives and timelines, continuing multi-agency task-force meetings, expanding community science trainings, completing district spawner reports and carrying out additional tagging and otolith studies to clarify movement and connectivity across the watershed.