Placement Site Address: 1625 South
Main Street, Yreka, CA 96097
Yreka, California (CA 96097) - City Data Information Link
Mentors: Ben King, Environmental Scientist and Alma Nunez Gutierrez, Environmental Scientist
Field Leader: Andrew Bachteler, Fish and Wildlife Technician
Number of Corpsmembers at Site: 2
Number of Years Site has Hosted WSP Corpsmembers: 30
Service Hours:
8-hour days: 75%
10-hour days: 20%
>10-hour days: 5%
Housing Offered: No
Work Vehicle Provided: Yes
CM Time Spent in Field/Office:
In the field: 60%
In the office: 40%
Corpsmember Activities:
Screw Trap Monitoring: 15%
Data Entry: 10%
Volunteer Management: 10%
Education & Outreach: 8%
Habitat Surveys: 7%
H20 Monitoring: 5%
DIDSON Installation/Monitoring: 5%
E-Fishing: 5%
Spawner/Redd Surveys: 5%
Post-Restoration Monitoring/Maintenance: 5%
Biological Sample Analysis Lab Work: 5%
Field PIT Tagging: 5%
Snorkel Surveys: 5%
Commuting To/From Field Sites: 5%
Water Conservation Projects: 5%
Placement Site Objectives and Organizational Needs:
The Mission of the Department of Fish and Wildlife is to manage California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public. The Klamath Watershed Program (KWP) has been monitoring juvenile salmonids since 2000. KWP and other salmonid monitoring programs in our office are the sources of data critically important to management of Shasta River, Scott River, and Bogus Creek Chinook and Coho populations. With the removal of four large dams from the Klamath River in 2024, Corpsmembers are now directly involved in the monitoring of Chinook and Coho population trends as anadromous fish return to the Upper Klamath Basin for the first time in over 50 years. Corpsmembers learn to maintain historic monitoring programs (Scott River, Shasta River, and Bogus Creek) and participate in implementation of life cycle monitoring stations in new locations above Iron Gate Dam (Fall Creek, Jenny Creek, and Shovel Creek). This information helps the KWP in restoration permitting and project prioritization, along with water management in critical salmonid tributaries of the Upper Klamath basin.
Corpsmembers are integrated into the field team and participate in both data collection and data processing throughout the field season, contributing to CDFWs understanding of fish habitat status, trends and needs in key high production tributaries. On a typical workday in the fall, Corpsmembers will conduct spawning ground surveys on foot, or participate in install and maintenance or removal of SONAR fish counting station and participate in tangle netting, radio tagging of adult salmonids and mobile tracking of tagged salmonids. In the spring, Corpsmembers will learn to identify juvenile salmonids, sample them in traps (rotary screw traps, fyke traps, or incline plane traps), calculate trap efficiency from mark-recapture trials, and assist with data entry and annual report editing. During the peak of the spring juvenile outmigration season, Corpsmembers will handle several thousand to tens of thousands of juvenile salmonids daily depending on the tributary.
Mentorship Style:
At CDFW Yreka, Mentors work to develop and encourage Corpsmembers through regular monthly meetings, individual interactions, and service-related responsibilities. Mentors do their best to be available to Corpsmembers whenever they need to talk and or discuss ideas. Mentors have an open-door policy and make every effort to respond to Corpsmembers according to their schedules. Mentors expect Corpsmembers to reach out when they need assistance. Mentors use monthly meetings to individually confirm that Corpsmembers are happy and satisfied with their experiences in Yreka. Mentors also try to help integrate the Corpsmembers into a diverse team of fisheries technicians and make sure that Corpsmembers feel part of the team. Additionally, there are two Mentors here in Yreka increasing our availability and allowing Corpsmembers to engage with a diverse team.
Unique Characteristics of Placement Site:
Yreka CDFW has a long history (30 years) of WSP partnership and has a lot of learning opportunities to offer Corpsmembers. Located in a beautiful part of Northern California, Yreka is a small town close to a multitude of outdoor recreation opportunities and can provide a low cost of living for Corpsmembers on a stipend. Corpsmembers at this site could experience the challenges and rewards of serving in a community in need of education and outreach relating to natural resource management. Corpsmembers work with both the juvenile and adult phases of the life cycles of salmonid species and learn about the overall management cycle of salmon in the picturesque Klamath-Trinity basin. WSP Corpsmembers placed here will gain more hands-on experience with threatened and endangered salmonids than almost any other Placement Site. Our local watersheds are among the most productive in the basin yet offer challenging management scenarios in working with local stakeholders in an area where water is a limited and highly sought-after resource.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Desired in CM:
Ability to work long hours in very cold and very hot climates
Ability to walk, wade or swim several miles per day over unstable terrain and through rivers
Ability to work long days in an office or lab setting while using computers and microscopes
Knowledge of basic map and navigation principles for traditional orienteering