NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Vic and I have been so busy writing about (and eating) heritage turkey and homegrown apples that we’ve neglected some other intriguing topics. We’ve also been involved with steelhead trout and pumpkins recently.

Let’s tackle the trout first. No, we weren’t fishing for them. Nor were we eating them, although they are delicious. Vic and I were working with the Southern California chapter of Trout Unlimited to help find funding to restore Trabuco Creek as habitat for the Southern California steelhead trout. George Sutherland and Drew Irby are spearheading the effort to return steelhead to Southern California streams. After 20 years of donating time to this project, they are really close to realizing their dream of seeing steelhead once again in Orange County.

Native Americans in this area speared steelhead over thousands of years as these magnificent ocean-going trout swam back upstream to spawn. Before the arrival of the Spanish padres, these fish were found in winter storm-fed creeks from Santa Barbara to northern Baja. Even as recently as the 1950s, members of the Acjachemem tribe speared trout up to 32 inches long in the Trabuco/San Juan Creek watershed.

But you all know what modern development has done to Southern California streams. During the mid-part of the 1900s, creeks were straightened and channelized, lined with concrete, and dammed. That spelled death for steelhead. Their numbers have declined 99% since the late 1800s. This highly endangered species was thought to have been extirpated from Orange and San Diego counties. Then a few fish were sighted in San Mateo Creek in 1991. They were in San Juan Creek this spring. They’ve been found in creeks and streams in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties as well.

The Southern California steelhead is a species that is distinct from the northern Pacific steelhead. Southern steelheads are more genetically diverse than northern steelhead, and differ from their northern cousins in several ways. While Southern California steelheads tolerate warmer water than their northern cousins, they still require the cooling shade that is provided by canopy trees. They mature more rapidly and migrate to the ocean at a younger age. Some spend their entire lives in fresh water, and will mate with those that return from the sea. Unlike salmon, they don’t die after spawning, but return to the ocean.

Southern steelheads are not as particular as northern steelheads about which stream they migrate back up for spawning. The species has managed to survive by migrating up whatever stream is full during our winters with their highly variable rainfall. This trait may be the saving grace for the southern steelhead. Once a Southern California stream is restored for their use, they will be able to use it.

The Southern California steelhead was listed as an endangered species in 1997. All they need for a comeback is removal of barriers or construction of fish ladders, plus a clean coastal ocean environment and restoration of riparian corridors along stream banks. That means removing nonnative plants such as giant reed (Arundo donax), and replanting with native canopy trees such as willows, sycamores and white alders. When stream banks are degraded by growth of Arundo, the trees are crowded out and the water heats up too much. That’s where the Orange County Conservation Corps comes in.

The Corps is committed to removal of Arundo in Orange County. If we can find funding, we will not only keep our Corps members employed, we will be able to restore habitat for steelhead and many other species. Over the course of our wanderings in the San Juan and Trabuco Creek watersheds, Vic and I have come across arroyo chubs, red-legged frogs and two-striped garter snakes, all of which are in decline in Orange County due to loss of their stream habitat. Vic and I both signed on as volunteer biological monitors for this important restoration project.

Today’s column is also about genetic diversity in pumpkins. Last Friday, Vic and I headed down to San Diego. Vic was in pursuit of a bar-tailed godwit that had been reported, and we wanted to see our 21-month-old twin granddaughters. Our daughter-in-law, Nicole, was taking the girls on a twins club outing to The Pinery’s pumpkin patch in Escondido. While Vic searched in vain for the godwit, I petted goats and sheep—or “doggies” as Allison excitedly called them. We went on a hayride, wandered through a corn maze, and picked pumpkins. Lauren was able to heft a little pumpkin, and carried a number of them about, but Allison was satisfied to just pat them.

Most of the pumpkins we saw were either field pumpkins that are best suited for making jack-o’-lanterns, or smaller pie pumpkins. However, I was intrigued with the heirloom pumpkins. Just as heritage breeds of livestock are old breeds that are being replaced by a limited number of modern breeds, heirloom fruits and vegetables are old varieties that are being replaced by modern hybrids.

Vic and I are committed to preserving genetic diversity, so we buy heirloom fruits and vegetables when we can find them. This helps promote their survival. I picked out a Long Island cheese pumpkin, a flattened, tan, heavily ridged pumpkin that was reminiscent of Cinderella’s coach. I also chose a Queensland blue pumpkin, a beautiful flat pumpkin variety with glossy blue-gray skin that was brought to this country from Australia in the 1930s. I plan to save seeds from these heirloom varieties and grow them next year. I found a great recipe online for roasted kangaroo and Queensland Blue pumpkin that I might try, substituting buffalo for the kangaroo.

Squash and pumpkins fall into one of four species: Cucurbita pepo, C. maxima, C. moschata or C. mixta. It would be simple if some species were all winter squash and others all summer squash, but it isn’t that easy. What we call pumpkins can be one of several species. The species C. pepo includes varieties of summer squash such as patty pan, zucchini, and yellow squash, as well as winter acorn squash, delicata or sweet dumpling squash, Connecticut field pumpkins, baby bear pumpkins, and pie or sugar pumpkins. C. maxima includes hubbard and turban squash. C. moschata includes cheese pumpkins, Queensland blue pumpkins, kabocha squash and butternut squash. The least well known of the squash species is C. mixta. This species includes mainly cushaw squash.

As we face a world with rapidly changing climate conditions, we need to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible. From saving southern steelhead trout to eating heirloom pumpkins, we’re doing our bit. We hope you’ll search out some heirloom vegetables for your garden and dinner table.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].