California's biggest lake is in crisis. Now tribes are coming back to save its sacred fish

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred Jose “Moke” Simon III recalls as a child in the ‘70s watching the creeks that flow into Clear Lake in Northern California turn black with fish — a fish found only in these waters — as they made their springtime run.Someone would call from the neighboring reservation with the news: “The hitch are running!” Everybody would grab their ice chests and pile into cars.“They ran so thick in the rivers, you didn’t even need a pole,” said Simon, now chair of the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians.“You’d just get in there and splash them out of the river, or catch them in your shirt.”But those days are gone.

As Clear Lake faces mercury contamination, toxic algal blooms and predatory invasive fish, the Clear Lake hitch — known by local tribes as the chi — are in serious trouble.Another fish unique to the watershed, the Clear Lake splittail, is already extinct.After years of advocacy and on-the-ground work to save the fish, the seven tribes around the lake signed an agreement with state agencies and local governments Friday to formally co-manage the troubled body of water.

Nearly two centuries after Europeans took over these lands, it’s a literal watershed: the first agreement governing a watershed since the state launched an initiative to bring 7% of California’s lands and waters under the care of tribes.The tribes hope it will turn their ad hoc emergency work — which has coincided with an increase of chi in the lake — into a lasting strategy to protect the fish.“I really hope it’s going to solidify the long-term success and vitality of this fish for the next seven generations,” Simon said, who described the signing as the most government agencies he’s ever seen come together in the region.Climate & Environment The new plan aims to bring at least 7.5 million acres ...