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Watch
the MOVIE!:
live footage (with sound!) of hitch migrating and spawning!
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Read
the outstanding Lake County News article
about the April 2 2011 field trip.
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Next
meeting February 22, 2012
The
next Chi Council meeting will be held at 3:30PM on Wednesday
February 22, at the Ag Center, just off Lakeport Blvd at Highway
29. Please download a map if you need
directions.
For
details of our January 25 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) 279-8710; or by snail mail to Chi Council,
PO Box 1081, Kelseyville, CA 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.
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The Chi
Council is a coordinated resource management and planning group dedicated
to the study, protection, and restoration of a viable population of
Lavinia exilicauda chi (the Clear Lake Hitch) within a healthy
watershed ecosystem. Details of the Council's goals, guidelines and
organizational structure are stated in the August 23, 2004 Memorandum
of Understanding (updated August 23, 2009)
which formally established it as an entity.
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
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Quagga
Mussel Alert!
By
action of the Board of Supervisors, all vessels launching
into any Lake County waters must participate in the county's
mandatory band and sticker program, with inspection and decontamination
if necessary. Local residents must renew their stickers annually,
visitors monthly. More
info
Or
call the Mussel Hotline,
263 2556
to
volunteer as a Quagga Ranger, contact dlcodling@gmail.com
To
report possible violators or suspected contamination call the
Sheriff at
263 8656 or 911
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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.
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Penalty
for launching without a valid sticker has been raised to
$1000
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