Volunteers document sharp drop in Clear Lake hitch detections in second year of community science program

Lake County Water Resources staff presented results from the 2026 Clear Lake Hitch community science spawner‑observation program, describing how 27 trained volunteers monitored 33 preselected sites countywide.

“Community scientists documented 1,152 adult hitch compared to 3,347 in 2025,” program technician Taylor Woodruff said, adding that district surveys began earlier and captured the full spawning run. Staff stressed the counts should be treated as a relative abundance index rather than an absolute population estimate because survey timing, fish movement and environmental conditions affect detectability.

Presenters described the program design: annual training, preselected repeat sites monitored once a week for 10 weeks, and QA/QC checks including district validation visits. Chris Childers, Lake County Water Resources program coordinator, noted the largest single observations were two counts of about 500 adult hitch at Adobe Creek Site 2 (March 9 and March 16), and volunteers provided photos that staff double‑checked in the field.

Supervisors and volunteers raised operational questions: could the community survey be expanded to 12 weeks or shifted earlier, should lake or creek water temperatures be recorded, and whether eDNA sampling could supplement visual counts in turbid or vegetated locations. Childers and Woodruff said district surveys already collect temperature and dissolved oxygen at 14 district sites and that eDNA or layered approaches could be discussed for grant funding and future plans.

Staff asked for continued volunteer recruitment and highlighted that the program supports restoration and barrier‑removal evaluation by providing before‑and‑after evidence to funders. “Maintaining consistent sites and sampling effort across years will improve the value of these data for evaluating long‑term trends,” staff said.

The Board took no formal vote on program changes but directed staff to continue outreach and to consider options for integrating additional data (ambient temperature, unofficial early observations) without compromising the survey’s standardized methodology.