CNDDB staff had the opportunity to join Ben Ewing, the Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, and Lake County District Fisheries Biologist, to conduct a backpack electrofishing survey on a northern tributary to Indian Valley Reservoir. The electrofishing gear would stun the fish long enough for a second person to scoop it up with a dipnet and place it in a bucket of water. The collected fish would then later be identified and measured. This area had never been sampled by CDFW, so our findings were useful in setting a baseline for the stream.
We collected and released largemouth bass, California roach, speckled dace, and incidentally detected a foothill yellow-legged frog. A CNDDB query showed that the last time someone searched and found foothill yellow-legged frog was in 1994. Being able to update this 25-year old occurrence was an exciting bonus.
Thank you, Ben, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us!