The public is invited to attend the Chi Council meeting today at 3:30 p.m. at the Lake County Agriculture Center.
The subject of the meeting will be the recent listing of the Clear Lake hitch as threatened. The hitch was added to the threatened list by the California Fish and Game Commission.
The Chi Council is a group of volunteers formed to protect and restore the Clear Lake hitch, a native fish of Clear Lake.
Chi is the Pomo word for hitch. At one time the hitch migrated up the tributaries of Clear Lake by the thousands and were an important food source for the Pomo Indians who lived on the shores of Clear Lake, but in recent years the migrations have dropped to a trickle.
In 2013 the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Fish and Game Commission to list the hitch as endangered. The Fish and Game Commission declared the hitch as a “threatened species” last month and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the petition.
Biologists from the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DWF) will be available to answer questions and make recommendations on restoring the hitch population.
The Lake County Agriculture Center is located at 883 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport.
