What’s That Fence In the River?

This week on the EcoNews Report hosts Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River and Tom Wheeler from EPIC discuss an experimental installation in the South Fork of the Eel River. Guests Marisa McGrew from the Wiyot Tribe's Natural Resources Department and Gabe Rossi and Philip Georgakakos, both research scientists with UC Berkeley, tell us all about the collaborative effort to install and manage a weir in the river. The primary purpose of the weir is to remove invasive pikeminnow from the river system and keep them away from prime rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead farther upstream.

Weir technology is ancient, it is a floating fence that allows researchers to monitor and manage fish populations as they migrate upstream into a trap. Native fish are released and invasive pikeminnow are removed from the river. A camera also monitors downstream migration to capture as much data as possible.

This collaborative project includes a large number of partners and community members named in the episode, and researchers are especially thankful to the landowner, Lost Coast Forest Lands, who is providing access to this site.

Click here to watch a video and learn more about this exciting project. (https://vimeo.com/832438472).

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