California Department of Fish and Wildlife crews work to rescue and relocate endangered steelhead trout put at further risk after the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles County. The trout are now in Arroyo Hondo Creek on the Gaviota Coast.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife crews work to rescue and relocate endangered steelhead trout put at further risk after the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles County. The trout are now in Arroyo Hondo Creek on the Gaviota Coast. Credit: Courtesy photo

Following the devastating Palisades Fire in Los Angeles County, California Department of Fish and Wildlife crews were in a race against the clock to rescue endangered steelhead trout before rain caused mudslides to wash out their creek. 

After a daylong rescue operation, Fish and Wildlife personnel rescued 271 Southern California steelhead trout, a nearly extinct population, just before mudslides washed large amounts of ash and sentiment into Topanga Creek.

The trout have now been relocated to their new home in Santa Barbara County, in the Arroyo Hondo Creek on the Gaviota Coast. 

“These fish are incredibly rare and incredibly endangered,” said Kyle Evans, CDFW environmental program manager. “Historically, they used to be in every creek and stream drainage throughout Southern California, even south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and now they only have access to a fraction of their historic habitats.”

The steelhead trout have been under the Endangered Species Act since 1997. Evans said Topanga Creek had the biggest population of steelhead trout that far south.

As they watched the Palisades Fire running through Topanga Creek, Evans said, they knew they would have to act quickly before it rained and mudslides killed the fish in the creek. 

With help from the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, the California Conservation Corps, the Watershed Stewards Program, the Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board and California State Parks, CDFW staff set out on Jan. 23 to rescue the trout.

Kyle Evans, left, environmental program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, addresses crews for the trout rescue mission.
Kyle Evans, left, environmental program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, addresses crews for the trout rescue mission. Credit: Courtesy photo

Crews spent one long day trying to capture and rescue fish before a rainstorm that weekend. Evans said they had about 50 people who broke up into teams and went around to different parts of the creek to get as many fish as possible. 

Teams used backpack electrofishers which give the fish a bit of a shock, just enough for them to come up to the surface, allowing teams to scoop them up with nets. 

Before going to Arroyo Hondo, the trout stayed at the Fillmore Trout Hatchery until Feb. 10.

Evans said they looked for a location that had good quality water, lots of trees for shade, food for the trout, and where other fish weren’t already living because there’s a risk of disease when different populations mix.

Wildlife crews move fish out of Topanga Creek.
Wildlife crews move fish out of Topanga Creek in LA County. Credit: Courtesy photo

“We had been monitoring Arroyo Hondo since before and after the Alisal Fire, and unfortunately, the Alisal Fire did remove all of the fish that previously were on Arroyo Hondo. It wiped out that population,” Evans said.

“Since 2021, it has recovered, and it was kind of primed and ready to handle a new population of fish.”

Evans said that so far the fish are doing well in Arroyo Hondo and will likely stay there for the next few years. It will likely take Topanga Creek three to five years to recover before it can support steelhead again. 

The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, which manages the Arroyo Hondo Preserve, declined Noozhawk’s request to comment on this story. 

— Noozhawk staff writer Rebecca Caraway can be reached at rcaraway@noozhawk.com.