In days more wild, Peter Moyle says, the splashing of millions of chinook salmon tails would literally keep people awake at night in the Sierra Nevada.
Today, it's a far different story, acknowledges Moyle, a UC Davis fish ecologist. The salmon faces an upstream battle for survival as humanity's footprint becomes bigger in California.
Responding to this challenge, UC Davis will hold its first annual Cold-water Fish Day on June 10, kicking off an endowment campaign to support a new center and research on how to protect these fish and their watery habitats. More than 50 experts and supporters of California's salmon and trout and affiliated species will attend the event at the Putah Creek Lodge.
A sense of urgency motivates Moyle, who is a foremost authority on California's native fishes. He said that the Central Valley once boasted runs of 2-3 million salmon and steelhead a year. But runs of salmon are vanishing at an alarming speed from many of the rivers and streams that feed the Pacific.
"The chinook salmon in the Central Valley have decreased to less than 75 percent of their number in the 1950s," Moyle said.
California has already lost the pink salmon and bull trout, and its salmon and steelhead stocks are listed under both state and federal endangered species statutes.
"With growing human populations and global warming, we have a very short window of time to develop conservation strategies to prevent extinction," Moyle said. "UC Davis is uniquely placed and equipped to address these problems through a research center dedicated to cold-water fish."
California's cold-water fish include rainbow and cutthroat trout, chinook and coho salmon, and sturgeon and smelt. Salmon runs provide the nutrients that are the foundation of the food webs of plants and animals - from microscopic algae to bears and whales - in oceans, rivers wetlands and forests.
Cold-water fish grow and reproduce best in fast-moving waters cooler than 57 degrees Fahrenheit, Moyle said. A temperature rise of just a few degrees can be fatal. Yet many of California's cold-water fish habitats have warmed up from the effects of irrigation, dams, logging, gravel mining and urbanization.
The most serious issue facing cold-water fish is competition for water with humans, Moyle said, noting that the decline of salmon, steelhead, and other native California fish indicates a long-term failure of conventional restoration strategies. Finding better ways to bring back salmon habitats is one of the goals of the center, he said.
Beyond the science, the center also recognizes that salmon and steelhead are icons of California and the Pacific Northwest - important to both the region's culture and economy. Native American peoples consider salmon an integral part of their lives and a symbol of prosperity, culture and heritage. In Europe, Celtic mythology associates salmon with knowledge and wisdom.
Moyle said top priorities for the Center for California Cold-water Fish include establishing an endowed professorship in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, supporting more graduate students, and providing advice to regulatory agencies.
Joe Cech, professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology, said, "The creation of a fund to support research will enhance the university's ability to work with agencies and stakeholders to solve problems."
Other faculty members involved include Louis Botsford and Pete Klimley of wildlife, fish and conservation biology; Bernie May of animal science and Cooperative Extension specialist Lisa Thompson.
UC Davis will train people to develop and manage restoration projects beneficial to cold-water fish and ecosystems, said Debbie Elliott-Fisk, chair of wildlife, fish and conservation biology.
"If we can better understand what our native fishes require to complete their life cycles and remain abundant, we can find better ways to share the water with fish," she said.