Coastal Monitoring Program
Prospectus
By Sean P. Gallagher
Stream: Pudding Creek, Mendocino County, California
Background: Pudding Creek is a small coastal tributary in Mendocino County, California, that supports
populations of Coho salmon and steelhead. The Pudding Creek Salmon and Steelhead Life Cycle
Monitoring Station is a component of the larger Mendocino County Coastal Salmonid Monitoring
Project. Our goals are to estimate and characterize: 1) adult and redd (salmon nest) abundance, 2)
spawner: redd ratios to calibrate regional surveys, 3) marine and freshwater survival, 4) summer
abundance, 5) smolt production, and 6) life-history patterns. The Pudding Creek Life Cycle Monitoring
Station was conceptualized by Campbell Timberland Management and the Department of Fish and
Wildlife, with oversight from NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and in association with the
Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. The monitoring work began in fall 2005 and includes
methods such as adult trapping, spawning surveys, Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagging,
electro-fishing, and smolt trapping.
In 2011 we expanded the goal and increased our partnership by pairing the Pudding and Caspar Creek
(also a component of the larger regional monitoring project) Life Cycle Monitoring Stations in an eight
year Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) experiment. The BACI experiment is directed at determining if
adding large wood to a treatment stream (Pudding Creek) will increase salmon and steelhead freshwater
habitat and thus increase their abundance, growth, and survival relative to an untreated control stream
(Caspar Creek). The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited joined our group of partners on the BACI
study in 2011.
Other collaborators involved in this monitoring include two Humboldt State University graduate student
projects, the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, the USGS, Calfire, USFS, and NOAA’s
Stream Restoration Center. This broad coalition is critical for adaptive management of these endangered
salmon and trout. This project which began with just a few players has, with the help of our partners,
expanded in scope and extent to encompass goals that were not envisioned at the outset. We anticipate
expanding partnerships and efforts to increase understanding of Coho salmon and steelhead lifehistories and to aid in in their recovery in Pudding Creek and throughout the California coast.
We have produced annual reports since 2006 and presented our results at many scientific conferences
over the years. Some of our contributions are below.
Gallagher, S. P., S. Thompson, and D. W. Wright. 2012. Identifying factors limiting coho salmon to inform
stream restoration in coastal Northern California. California Fish and Game. 98(4): 185-201.
Moore, J. W., S. A. Hayes, W. Duffy, S. P. Gallagher, C. Michel, and D. W. Wright. 2011. Nutrient fluxes
and the recent collapse of coastal California salmon populations. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and
Aquatic Sciences. 68: 1161-1170.
Wright, D.W., S.P. Gallagher, and C.J. Hannon. 2012. Measurement of key life history metrics of coho
salmon in Pudding Creek, California. Pages 459-470 In Standiford, Richard B.; Weller, Theodore J.; Piirto,
Douglas D.; Stuart, John D, technical coordinators. 2012. Proceedings of coast redwood forests in a
changing California: A symposium for scientists and managers. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-238. Albany,
CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Laura Miller (Left) and Chris Hannon (Right), Campbell Timberlands Management Fisheries Technicians,
releasing male Coho Salmon at the Pudding Creek fish ladder, January 2007. Taken by Department
contract employee.
Campbell Timberlands Management Fisheries Technicians Joleen Ossello (foreground), John Caldwell
and Emily Lang measuring an adult Coho salmon at the Pudding Creek fish ladder, winter 2008. By
Department contract employee.
Campbell Timberlands Management Fisheries Technicians (Jake Smotherman right panel, and Joleen
Ossello left panel) working the fish ladder at Pudding Creek dam, December 2011. Taken by Department
contract employee.
Campbell Timberlands Management Fisheries Technician John Cadwell measuring a Coho salmon
redd (nest) on Pudding Creek, January 2007. Taken by Department contract employee.
Smolt (out-migrant) trap on Pudding Creek, spring 2012. Taken by Department contract
employee.
Coho salmon abundance in Pudding Creek, California 2001 to 2013.
The Pudding Creek watershed.