For three years the Sacramento River has been off limits to salmon anglers, and the silence on the water said everything about how bad things had gotten. That ended this week. … The numbers behind the reopening are the encouraging part. Restoration work has helped bring more than 21,000 salmon back to spawn, and those fish produced an estimated 500,000 juveniles. Up near Redding, crews are dropping large rocks and whole trees into the river to slow the current and build the sheltered water where young salmon can put on size before making the run to the Pacific. Roger Cornwell of the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors described the goal plainly: hold the fish longer so they leave bigger.

Other salmon news:

• San Mateo Daily Journal (Calif.): Commercial salmon fishing returns to Pillar Point Harbor after three-year closure
• California Department of Water Resources: News release: Gravel project supporting Feather River Salmon habitat
• CBS Sacramento (Calif.): Video: Rebuilding salmon habitat across Northern California