Next meeting February 24, 2010 The next Chi Council meeting will be held at 3:30PM on Wednesday February 24, at the Ag Center, just off Lakeport Blvd at Highway 29. Please download a map if you need directions. For details of our January 27 meeting, please check the minutes. All interested parties are invited to attend the Council's meetings. For further information, to sign up for our email list, or to volunteer for the monitoring program contact chicouncil@lakelive.info. Observations may be sent by email to chicouncil@lakelive.info (either typed into the body of the message or as an attachment); or by fax to (707) 263 6224; or by snail mail either to Victoria Brandon, 15995 Lucy Circle, Lower Lake 95457; or Peter Windrem, 7460 Kelsey Creek Dr, Kelseyville 95451. Please remember that negative observations (no chi seen) are just as valid and important as positive ones, and that the minimum information needed for an entry into the database is date, creek, and approximate number of fish. Time of day, precise location, and additional comments about weather, predators, etc are all very helpful but not essential.

On Tuesday April 28, 2009 the Board of Supervisors presented the prestigious Conservationist of the Year award to the Chi Council. This honor, which is awarded on nomination of the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee and memorialized by listing on a permanent plaque in the lobby of the Courthouse in Lakeport, had not been given for the past ten years. Photos and story here.

 

LINKS

• New! Online Field Guide
• New! California Fish website
• Memorandum of Understanding
• Minutes
  
• Press Clippings
  
• Volunteer Information
  
• Maps
• Creek Descriptions
• Observation Locations
• Hobo locations
  
• Printable (pdf) Observation Form
• Digital (Excel) Observation Form
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• 2005 Results
• 2006 Results
• 2007 Results
• 2008 Results
• 2009 Results
• Life Cycle of the Hitch
• Interim Report by Chair Peter Windrem
• New! Probable Causes for hitch population decline
• New! massed hitch on Adobe Creek and hitch migrating with suckers
• Contact Us

   

  

The hitch, an ancient fish endemic to Clear Lake, live in deep in water most of the time, but every spring the adults work their way up the tributary creeks to spawn. In the words of biologist Rick Macedo, they used to "mass by the thousands," in an annual ritual "as spectacular as any salmon run on the Pacific coast . . . The tumultuous splashing . . . and the appearance of herons, osprey, egrets, and bald eagles . . . signify that the hitch are in." In recent years the population seems to have declined precipitously, for reasons that are still poorly understood. Streambed obstructions, predation by introduced fish, and food competition all have been suggested as possible causes for their diminished numbers.

At the present time the Council has formulated several immediate objectives:

• Coordinating and training volunteer population monitoring teams
• Establishing scientific protocols for the monitoring effort, and maintaining a database of the information learned
• Encouraging scientific research on hitch and their habitat
• Enhancing public awareness of hitch and their habitat
• Gathering and preserving information about hitch and their traditional uses by the native peoples of the Clear Lake Basin
• Sponsoring habitat restoration projects