August 23, 2010

Fish Surveys
by Colleen Ferris and Ali Pons

Bull Trout caught on the Middle Fork of Cold Creek

This past week was the last Hooray for our fish surveying field work in the Cold Creek Drainage.  Andrea, Adam, Ali and I made up the NwC "fisheries crew" this past week and we surveyed Frozen Creek and Middle Fork Cold Creek.

Last week consisted of lots of bushwhacking to get to the reaches of stream that we needed to electro shock survey; the streams had a lot of overgrowth in and around the stream channels. At one point on Frozen Creek, Andrea, Ali and I charged a wall of Pacific Yew and came out on the winning side with only minor flesh wounds. Two days went into surveying separate reaches on Frozen Creek that were above and below a large culvert. Our findings were interesting; we caught Brook Trout below the culvert and only Cutthroat Trout above. On a separate survey, Adam and volunteer Dave McEvoy fly fished to survey Middle Fork Cold Creek because it was too large to electro-shock; I went along as the official netter. The species we observed and caught were Cutthroat Trout and Bull Trout. Getting paid to fly fish is hard work but someone's got to do it.

Colleen in front of the Frozen Creek culvert

Ali measuring the stream gradient

Adam and Colleen fly fishing on the Middle Fork of Cold Creek

Dave McEvoy fly fishing on the Middle Fork of Cold Creek

The week ended with the Grizzly Triathlon. The adventure race consisted of three parts: Mountain biking up to the Elk Creek Trailhead, Hiking Elk Creek Trail and Bear Hair Collection! The athletes were Andrea and I; we had a great adventure mixing recreational fun with Field work and obtained lots of good Bear hair Samples for the NCDE Grizzly Bear DNA Project.

Grizzly Triathlon at Elk Creek Trailhead

This is the last week the interns will be working for NwC. It has been a great experience with fantastic people that make everyday working in the Swan worth it. As we return to each of our homes, jobs, and Universities we all hope to visit this magical valley in the near future. 

ABC’s signing out -
(Ali, Brooke, Colleen)