The research of FCP’s Carmel River Restoration team focuses on the ecology of steelhead and rainbow trout in the Carmel River. Our work in this system is geared towards providing practical information for management and conservation. Some of our active research projects include:
-Designing PIT tag antennas to improve detection capabilities in dynamic coastal streams.
-Monitoring movements around the Los Padres Dam to assess the effectiveness of fish passage infrastructure and to identify improvements for fish passage.
-Identifying environmental drivers that control population dynamics and influence population recovery. This includes estimating smolt production using PIT tags, studying the relationships between flow, temperature, density, and juvenile production, and developing a population life-cycle model to predict how proposed management strategies may influence the population.