The Eel River Recovery Project is sponsoring two events this weekend to celebrate Eel River fish, aquatic life and restoration.

On Saturday, there will be a field trip to the upper Eel River to look for spawning steelhead. On Sunday, there will be a series of presentations at the Willits Hub at 630 South Main St.

The Saturday field trip will depart from the Willits Hub at 9 a.m. and will travel to the upper Eel River, Soda Creek and Lake Pillsbury via Upper Lake. Soda Creek is the largest tributary to join the Eel River within the Potter Valley Project, and it does so just one mile downstream of Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury.

The creek is on Mendocino National Forest and the group will visit a restoration site that resulted from a cooperative effort funded by Trout Unlimited and implemented by BioEngineering Associates of Laytonville.

After touring the restoration site, the walk will go further up Soda Creek to see spawning steelhead, if they are present. Just 15 minutes from Soda Creek is the grassy plain above Lake Pillsbury for lunch and to likely see several hundred Tule elk.

On Sunday, doors will open at the Willits Hub at 9:30 a.m. for coffee, bagels and fresh fruit, and presentations will begin at 10. The event will allow people from Willits and residents of nearby areas to drop in throughout the day to listen to experts on fisheries, aquatic life and restoration in an intimate setting.

The ERRP collects data all over the Eel River basin and fisheries. Biologist Pat Higgins, ERRPs managing director, will give presentations at different times. Topics will include fall Chinook salmon, Sacramento pikeminnow dive results, basinwide temperature patterns and using aquatic insects to understand stream health.

Longtime Mendocino County fisheries biologist Park Steiner will summarize findings of his 30 years of work on the upper Eel River and provide results of recent salmon surveys within and below the Potter Valley Project and in Tomki Creek.

Dr. Mary Power is a faculty member at UC Berkeley in the Department of Integrative Biology and the faculty director of the Angelo Reserve on the upper South Fork Eel River near Branscomb. Power will talk in the late morning about UC research in the Eel River basin, which includes assisting the ERRP with toxic cyanobacteria monitoring. Her husband, UC Berkeley professor of geology Bill Dietrich, will also present a summary of findings from the National Science Foundation Critical Observatory Zone project that has been going on for several years.

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In the afternoon, two accomplished restoration practitioners will share photos that show very successful Mendocino County stream-side or riparian restoration projects. Evan Engber of BioEngineering Associates will talk about restoring river banks and stream channels using large amounts of live willow and strategic amounts of large rock, including projects within the Eel River watershed. Former watershed coordinator and retired river guide Craig Bell will follow with a slide show demonstrating riparian restoration, using bioengineering, of seven miles of the lower Garcia River, a southern Mendocino coastal river.

Also in the afternoon, film maker Shane Anderson will show a clip of A Rivers Last Chance, a movie about the Eel River he is releasing soon, and talk about his craft. There will be wild caught rock fish served for dinner from 4 to 6 p.m. to celebrate the wild Eel River and the reinvigoration of the Willits Hub. There is no charge for admission to either of the ERRP weekend events, but donations will be accepted.

More events are planned to help support crowdfunding, which continues through April 15, to raise one years rent for the Willits Hub building. Several Willits based groups will be located there, and the ERRP also intends to establish an office. Follow ERRP on Facebook, or go to eelriverrecovery.org for agenda details and to learn about other activities. Donate at everribbon.com/ribbon/view/64018. For more information, call Robin at (707) 459-0155.

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Willits goes wild for Eel River fish and aquatic life - The Willits News