Hat Creek Youth Initiative

Student Blog Post: Lincoln Granillo

My name is Lincoln Granillo and I am 19 years old. I graduated from Fall River High School this past June. My interests are back breaking work like construction or farm work. In my free time, I play video games with my family members. The reason I joined the Hat Creek restoration project was because I needed a job and I wanted to try something new. I avoided using my brain in school, so I wanted to show that I could use it if I need to. My favorite activity this summer was the LWD inventory, or Large Woody Debris inventory, because the water kept me cool when I was working.

 LWD inventory is where we collect data on all logs in or above the water. We use a cloth tape measure to get the diameter and total length. We also established if it was a log or rootwad (a rootwad is the tree's root system). We needed to tell if the tree was unstable, pinned, ramped, or bridged. We also had to tell the orientation of the log like parallel, perpendicular, down, or upstream and the decay of the log. All this information was needed to tell the lifespan of each log in the stream. For example, a log that is ramped will probably be there longer than an unstable log.

Thanks to the knowledgeable Jeff Cook. He told us what a log was according to LWD inventory standards. This made it easier, so that not a whole lot of time was wasted on measuring every stick and log in the stream. Before we did LWD, I thought the log just made the stream ugly. Now I see logs are important, but we need to find a middle ground between an idealistic setting of clear clean water with fish everywhere and between a log providing habitat and spawning grounds for fish. Logs are important ecologically in two very big ways. One which is very important to the restoration project is fish habitat. Logs provide cover for fish from predators. The other would be to increase increase the speed of the water in the thalweg so that the sediment slug get pushed out of the water system faster. The sediment slug is bad because fish do not lay eggs in silt and there are few bugs that live in silt for the fish to eat.

This job has been a good experience. One, to myself to prove that I can process information and two, my field boss, Colby Tucker, is a cool dude because he gives me some responsibility. It is a good thing he is around my age because he can relate me. Meeting new co-workers and being able to successfully work in a group has been a rewarding experience.

Thanks, 

Lincoln Granillo

P.S. Keep reading the blog to find out about what the group is doing next!