A Fish Story That’s No Fish Story

Once upon a time, and for thousands of years, steelhead trout gamboled and bred in the dancing creek of Arroyo Hondo on the Gaviota Coast. By 1919, a tall train trestle and a beautiful open-spandrel arch bridge rose high above the stream bed near the ocean. Below these towering roadways, the trout continued traveling merrily to the sea and back again. 

Then, in 1949, a gigantic earthen berm, punctured by a large culvert, was built to carry four lanes of an improved Highway 101. The poor trout faltered. They had trouble swimming up the culvert and their numbers declined. Their frantic efforts to reach their spawning pools were foiled by the slick base of the long culvert.

In 2002 a shoal of fairy godparents, made of up of state and local agencies, raised money to build a series of baffles through the culvert. When these fish baffles were completed ten years later, the steelhead trout returned and once again frolicked in the creek running through the sylvan landscape of Arroyo Hondo Preserve.

But then, on the afternoon of October 11, 2021, a terrible fire erupted on the mountain ridge behind the Preserve. Fueled by strong winds, it hungrily consumed chaparral, grasslands and entire trees in a mad dash to the sea, which it reached in just three hours. At Arroyo Hondo, the Ortega Adobe and the barns were saved by the fire fighters, but the landscape was devastated by the fire called Alisal. With the riparian plants destroyed and the creek bed altered by subsequent debris flows, the trout were not able to return. 

In a few months, a miracle of rebirth began in the canyon. Though altered, the creek settled down, and shoots of trees, chaparral, wildflowers, and grasslands made their welcome appearance among the black skeletons of their ancestors. The trout, however, with their numbers already depleted due to environmental conditions worldwide, did not return. 

And then on January 7, 2025, in a land not too far away, a devastating wildfire burst forth in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County. By the time it was contained 24 days later, close to 7,000 structures had been destroyed and the landscape lay blighted and charred. The steelhead trout in Topanga Canyon survived the fire and huddled together in the ash-filled pools like desperate refugees of a war-torn country. They were alive, but they could not survive the upcoming mudflows and loss of riparian habitat. 

Two heroes raced to the rescue, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Resources Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. They removed the fragile fish from the canyon and provided a temporary home at the Fillmore Hatchery. It was clear, however, that these migrants could not stay. But where could they go?

Eighty miles away, along the Gaviota Coast, lay a stream that was lonesome for its own vanished trout. It had many pools and a fish ladder, but no fish. Could this be the answer for the Topanga refugees? Again, a shoal of fairy godparents convened and transferred over 200 steelhead trout to Arroyo Hondo Preserve on February 10. A delicate bucket brigade carried them high up the creek into various pristine pools. And then – they held their collective breath. Was this going to work?

February turned to March. Rains came. March turned to April and lush wildflowers and grasses enlivened the Preserve. And in the pools the fish now gambol joyfully as hatchlings frolic in the cool waters and a tentative new generation begins. And the hope is, that someday, the trout of Arroyo Hondo will have thrived and multiplied so that a portion can be returned to their ancestral homes in Topanga Canyon to live happily-ever-after. The End.

The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, which owns and operates Arroyo Hondo Preserve, together with a host of interconnected agencies dedicated to preservation of the environment and the denizens that inhabit it, has played an instrumental role in the rescue of the Topanga Canyon steelhead trout.

Founded in 1885, the Land Trust has preserved over 57,304 acres of landscape through purchase and conservation easements. Their efforts protect farmland and open space, provide educational programs, and offer free guided hikes, among other things. The Land Trust relies on public support to continue its work. 

For a list of ways to contribute, go to www.sblandtrust.org/ways-to-give

The beautiful Arroyo Hondo Preserve and its trail system is open on a reservation basis on the first and third weekends of each month. Visitors are asked to assist all preservation efforts by staying on the trails, out of the creek, and not bothering the animals. 

The host of fairy godparents that have rescued the endangered steelhead trout includes the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, Watershed Stewards Program, NOAA, and the Land Trust for Santa
Barbara County.