Winter Break Update

Over the break I went to five locations: Santa Clara River (two locations), San Francisquito Canyon, Bouquet Creek, and Soledad Canyon. I not only looked for fish, I also took pictures of the location sites so I can asses the changes before and after El Niño. The only place I found fish was under Bouquet Canyon Bridge in the Santa Clara where the Valencia Wastewater Treatment Plant releases its water. There were several species of fish in the small pond but most were too big in size to be considered stickleback. Due to scheduling conflicts and unavailability of the lab I was not able to complete water quality probe training which I was not happy about considering we have already had a few big rains. My next steps are to collect water and sand samples for evaluation through Dorothy’s microplastic project, and to follow up on some tips as to other locations the UTS may be present.