… [T]he Central Valley Salmon Ecology Group, a team of researchers that bridge academia and resource management facilitated by the Fisheries Collaborative Program (FCP) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has come up with a playbook for how water managers can tweak the timing, temperature and volume of releases to dramatically increase the odds of juvenile salmon surviving the perilous journey to the open ocean. The approach, called “facilitated migration,” is detailed in a paper published on July 3 by the Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecological Applications. … The paper’s authors present both a conceptual framework, which could apply to other species that migrate in highly modified environments, and practical steps spelled out in operational terms that water managers can understand and implement. The study shows that the approach can increase successful juvenile-salmon migrations by 40 to 400%.

Other anadromous fish news:

• Valley Ag Voice (Bakersfield, Calif.): Reclamation says it’s time for a new Delta strategy
• Ojai Valley News (Calif.): Feds seek to remove steelhead habitat protection in Piru Creek and Santa Clara River