After nearly five years of desperate searching and scraping for money--the usual routine for Malibu real estate--wildlife officials believe they've found a new home for the beleaguered southern steelhead trout.
But like a lot of property acquisitions, it involves a tear-down.
This week, the National Park Service will begin demolishing one of several small barriers blocking the wily salmon-like fish from swimming up tiny Solstice Creek into the Santa Monica Mountains.
It's the first time the shovel will hit dirt to save the endangered fish in Los Angeles County, where thousands of steelhead once traveled from the mountains to the sea and back again in the area's streams and rivers.
There are at least 15 unique populations of steelhead along the West Coast, 11 of which have suffered serious declines in recent decades.
The southern steelhead is the worst off--one expert describes the fish's predicament as "grim"--and current estimates are that there are only a few hundred remaining between the Santa Maria River in Santa Barbara County and San Mateo Creek in northern San Diego County.
"We know that Solstice Creek by itself isn't going to recover steelhead," said Ray Sauvajot, a resource specialist with the National Park Service. "But this is the kind of project that can serve as a model for similar efforts across Southern California."
Park Service officials said the creek still has all the key ingredients the fish need. There's cool, clean, year-round water in the shady creek, besides plenty of insects for food. And nearly all of Solstice Canyon is protected from development by the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The only thing missing: steelhead.
Southern steelhead are rainbow trout, with a twist. Hatched in coastal streams, steelhead migrate to sea as adults and then, after one to four years, return to freshwater streams to spawn and die--although a few hardy fish manage a second round-trip. Historically, some adults caught in the region have reached lengths of 2 1/2 feet.
The problem with Solstice Creek is that steelhead can't reach it because of a series of obstacles, including two culverts, two small dams and a "concrete apron"--a road that plows through the stream rather than over it.
The Park Service is replacing the apron with a bridge and removing parts of the old dams. Between the park boundary and the ocean, Caltrans plans to renovate a culvert under Pacific Coast Highway to make it more fish friendly and to fix a culvert beneath Corral Canyon Road.
