McCloud River Preserve Annual Research and Monitoring Reports

TNC allows for managed public use at the McCloud River Preserve so that the community can enjoy limited catch-and-release fishing. Approximately 1,500 visitors come through the preserve each year, the majority of whom are anglers fishing for rainbow and brown trout. Throughout the fishing season, TNC staff conduct research to facilitate science-based decision-making when it comes to maintaining the health and biodiversity of the Preserve and the surrounding area. For decades, TNC scientists have collected water quality data on the McCloud River in order to create a comprehensive picture of its overall health and to identify restoration needs. The data collected by our staff is shared with conservationists, public agencies, and landowners to help inform decisions about the management and stewardship of the McCloud watershed. Due to the longevity and continuity of our monitoring program on the McCloud, the annual report we produce has also become a valuable resource to scientific researchers concerned with watershed health more broadly. In addition to our water quality monitoring, each angler who fishes at the Preserve is asked to record information about the duration of their visit and their catch results for the day. This dataset is now over 20 years old, and we use estimated numbers of fish caught per hour as an index for relative trout abundance from year to year. Population monitoring helps us assess the general health of the McCloud trout fisheries over time, and we are able to use this data to gauge how trout have responded to wildfires, floods, and other landscape-scale changes. Our understanding of these complex relationships feeds back into our management of the Preserve and helps inform our management of other trout fisheries across California.