A nearly 500-yard side channel along Redding’s Riverview Golf and Country Club is being restored to improve habitat for salmon and steelhead in the Sacramento River, the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors (SRSC) announced. The SRSC is a coalition of irrigation and reclamation districts, mutual water companies, cities, partnerships and landowners connected to the Sacramento River from Redding to Sacramento. They said the project, scheduled to begin Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9-10, is designed to give young fish places to feed, rest and shelter from strong currents and predators as they migrate toward the ocean, while creating more spawning habitat for adult fish. Project leaders said sediment buildup and overgrown vegetation had turned the channel into a warm, stagnant area that was unsuitable for fish under most river flows. 

Other species and habitat restoration news:

• Tahoe Daily Tribune (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.): Experts explain what this year’s water flow conditions mean for Kokanee salmon spawn at Taylor Creek
• San Bernardino Sun (Calif.): More than 20 acres of riparian habitat are now protected in the Inland Empire
• Active NorCal (Redding, Calif.): They tore out an 8-foot dam on a Mendocino County creek. The coho salmon came back within a year.
• Winters Express (Calif.): Salmon comeback takes center stage Saturday