Over the past dozen or so years, a tiny Gilroy nonprofit has made the most of volunteers to help bring back the region’s steelhead trout fishery, which had vanished from the Pajaro River Watershed because of agricultural and other pollutants dumped into streams and the river.
And counting fish is one way to help, according to Coastal Habitat Education and Environmental Restoration, or CHEER.
With the current steelhead trout spawning season in full swing, the ocean-going fish are returning home to find their way up miles of streams and creeks to shallow spawning waters in Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Counting the beautiful fish, which can grow to more than 30-inches in length, is part of the important work necessary to monitor their numbers and make sure the spawning runs and fish populations are robust and increasing.
If you’re interested, CHEER is looking for a team of “Trout Trackers” to report on the migrating fish. To participate in the fieldwork, volunteers must be 18 years of age or older or much be accompanied by and adult.
Cheer will host a “Tracking Training Event” on Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Gilroy Library, 350 W. Sixth St., Gilroy.
For information, call CHEER at (408) 497-3037 or email
He****@Ch**********.org
.
The group’s website is at, www.cheerupyourcreek@org.
