The end of July brings us to the half way mark in the monitoring season at Bee Creek.

We were joined by James, a neighbour and friend who will become a regular ELSI volunteer and team member. Kelly-Anne and I showed James some of the changes to the creek sites since last year, most significant of which was the blockage at site nine with multiple trees which fell down last winter. Despite this and the clear drop in the water level there still remains a good sized pool where four trout were recorded.

The trout were well dispersed over the length of the creek this month and we monitored trout at each site. Site two which has a deepish run held five healthy Cutthroat.

Sculpins continue to thrive in the lower section of the creek. According to iNaturalist the smoothhead sculpin (Artedius lateralis) is not considered an invasive species. It is a native fish found along the northern Pacific coast, ranging from Russia and the Bering Sea to Baja California.

With half the season over we are seeing a moderate yet consistant average drop in the numbers of trout recorded.