California’s two primary salmon species, Coho and Chinook, have
experienced significant declines from historical populations.
Of particular importance is the Chinook salmon because the
species supports commercial fishing and related jobs and economic
activities at fish hatcheries.
The decline in salmon numbers is attributed to a variety of
manmade and natural factors including drought, habitat
destruction, water diversions, migratory obstacles created by
local, state and federal water projects, over-fishing,
unfavorable ocean conditions, pollution and introduced predator
species. Wetlands have also been drained and diked; dams have
blocked salmon from reaching historic spawning grounds.
Years of declining populations represent a significant economic
loss and have led to federally mandated salmon restoration plans
that complicate water diversions and conveyance for agriculture
and other uses.
The Delta is an “ecosystem in crisis,” with state and federal
water policies doing great harm to chinook salmon and steelhead
populations, seven environmental groups and a Native American
tribe allege in a letter to the State Water Resources Control
Board. Two of the state’s top water delivery systems, the
Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, are
“exacerbating conditions for endangered species at high risk of
extinction in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary” that violate
maximum fish take rates under the Endangered Species Act, the
May 16 letter states. The groups and tribe allege that the
State Water Project exceeded the annual loss limit for hatchery
winter-run chinook salmon. And they blame the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation for water releases that are killing more salmon and
steelhead than their permits allow.
A recent stormwater sampling effort in Eureka revealed a
troubling trend in area parking lots: Even in periods of
relatively light rain, high concentrations of salmon-killing
toxic compounds are being flushed directly into local creeks
and Humboldt Bay.The results come from a pilot project recently
conducted by Humboldt Waterkeeper. The organization collected
water samples from two Cal Poly Humboldt parking lots in Arcata
and from the Eureka Target and Costco parking lots. The water
samples were testing for a compound that has recently been
discovered to be particularly toxic to coho salmon, which are
listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The pollutant
in question, known as 6PPD, is used in tires to help maintain
their integrity. As tires break down from normal wear and tear,
6PPD is released and reacts to ozone in the air and transforms
into a compound known as 6PPD-q.
… For over a decade, a narrow faction within the State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has pursued a misguided attempt
to take as much as half of Lake McClure’s water and send it to
the Pacific Ocean. This effort, buried in the Bay-Delta Water
Quality Control Plan, is based on the hope of improving salmon
populations by a few hundred fish — with no credible guarantee
of success, and at a staggering cost – up to $672 million in
lost local economic activity and $167 million in local labor
income. … In contrast, MID has voluntarily restored
spawning and rearing habitat along the Merced, and we’ve
offered to provide new, real water – even in dry years – as
part of a durable solution. That solution is the Healthy Rivers
and Landscapes Voluntary Agreement (HRL). This comprehensive
approach, championed by the Newsom Administration, offers a
better path. It brings together local, state, and federal
partners to invest in habitat, flows, and long-term ecological
health – not just regulatory mandates. –Written by Stephanie Dietz, director on the Merced
Irrigation District Board.
A few years ago, scientists started identifying a potentially
major culprit in the dramatic decline of the coho salmon
fishery — a chemical known as “6PPD-quinone,” a byproduct of a
chemical used in automotive tires. Throughout the course of
their life, tires deposit the precursor of this chemical
everywhere they travel. This precursor degrades into 6PPD-q and
enters the water system, killing coho in particular — a
protected species under the Endangered Species Act — with great
efficiency. Now, a new study from Humboldt Waterkeeper,
conducted in Eureka and Arcata throughout the last few months,
shows that you don’t need a huge, dense car population to
generate potentially lethal concentrations of 6PPD-q — regular
old parking lots seem to do it just fine. … The
study comes at a time when the California Assembly is
considering legislation — Assembly Bill 1313 — that would
require owners of large parking lots to acquire
stormwater discharge permits and mitigate
their runoff.
Memorial Day weekend guests at Whiskeytown National Recreation
Area should be on alert for fast moving, deep and very cold
water, the park’s rangers cautioned. The Bureau of
Reclamationis releasing more water through Whiskeytown Dam and
into the park through June 24, boosting water levels. Expect
highest flows this week, peaking Thursday, according to an
announcement issued by the park. … Increasing the amount
of water flowing into Clear Creek and the Trinity River will
benefit fish species, including salmon, by
mimicking natural springtime runoff. These fish need a lot of
water, “particularly cold water if you are (a) Chinook salmon,”
the park said. Sacramento River spring-run Chinook live in
Clear Creek, and are under federal protection.
Limited Chinook salmon fishing on sections of the Mokelumne,
Feather and American rivers is being reopened for the first
time in two years, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife announced Tuesday. … The Department of Fish and
Wildlife says salmon stocks throughout the state have been
harmed by multiyear droughts, causing
inadequate spawning and migration conditions, ocean forage
shifts and thiamine deficiencies. Thiamine, also called Vitamin
B1, is an essential nutrient for salmon and their reproduction.
Scientists have theorized that anchovies, which are often prey
for salmon, produce the thiaminase enzyme that breaks down
thiamine. It’s believed warmer climates have caused anchovy
populations to shift to ocean areas where river salmon go to
grow and find food before returning to their rivers to spawn.
… While the minimal season has been met with joy from many
recreational anglers who will finally have the opportunity to
fish for salmon, others believe the season should not have
opened. … The Sacramento River is the only viable source for
salmon since the San Joaquin was dewatered close to 70 years
ago, and there are four distinct runs on the Sacramento:
winter-run, fall-run, late fall-run, and spring-run. The winter
run was listed as threatened in 1989 and upgraded to endangered
in 1994 while the spring-run was listed as threatened in 1999
and is currently under consideration for upgrade to endangered.
… Opening the ocean season provides some relief for the
long-suffering businesses and coastal communities dependent
upon salmon, but until major changes are made in water
management to allow salmon to migrate safely from the spawning
grounds and the hatcheries, closed or curtailed seasons
designed to save face may be the new normal.
NOAA Fisheries will close or constrain fishing for salmon off
the southern Oregon and California coasts for the 2025-26
fishing season, citing “anticipated extremely low returns of
California Chinook stocks,” the agency announced this week.
Fishing will be allowed in between central Oregon and northern
Washington. The new provisions — which also establishes quotas,
landing limits and other management measures for salmon — were
recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council in April
and underwent public review and comment, according to NOAA.
Recreational fishing will also be limited under the new rule.
“This will reduce impacts to stocks of concern until they
rebound to levels that can support further fishing
opportunities,” the agency said in a notice.
After decades of efforts to boost Humboldt County’s threatened
steelhead trout population, the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife is ending operations at the Mad River hatchery.
The property will remain open for public access to the river,
facilities will be repurposed for office space, and trout
stocking in inland waters will continue. Officials state it’s a
combination of aging infrastructure, significantly costly
repairs and maintenance, modernization needs and low fish
production and returns. ”It operates on about $730,000
annual budget, we estimate it needs one million dollars
immediately, and the annual operating cost just to keep the
status quo. We’re looking at 10 million in immediate repairs
that need to be tackled, and long term to make it a reliable
hatchery going forward, we need about $30 million,” said
California Department of Fish and Wildlife information officer,
Peter Tira.
On Monday, AB 263 overwhelmingly passed the state Assembly. The
bill protects salmon populations in two key tributaries of the
Klamath River watershed by keeping minimum flow requirements in
place until the State Water Board can establish new long-term
flow regulations. The bill is now headed to the state Senate
for their consideration. … AB 263 was introduced in
partnership with the Karuk Tribe, California Coastkeeper
Alliance, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Association (PCFFA). The bill would maintain river flows
for at-risk salmon runs on two critical Klamath River
tributaries – the Scott and Shasta Rivers.
Governor Newsom today announced that the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is upgrading 21 fish hatcheries to
boost the state’s salmon and trout populations and protect
hatcheries from the impacts of climate change. The project
helps build the California salmon and trout supply, which are
central to the health of California’s biodiversity but also
indigenous peoples, communities, and the state’s
multimillion-dollar fishing industry. … The “Climate
Induced Hatcheries Upgrade Project” launched today was first
funded with $15 million in emergency drought funding in 2021.
Since that funding was allocated, CDFW has been working with
leading hatchery and hydrology consultants to identify specific
concerns with regard to water quality and quantity, fish
rearing and water supply infrastructure and operational
inefficiencies at the hatcheries.
Last year, we watched as the last of four dams were removed
from the Klamath River in a historic endeavor. Karuk and Yurok
citizens sighed in relief, grateful that decades of tribal-led
activism, scientific research and litigation had succeeded in
reopening 400 stream miles of spawning habitat for salmon and
other species. The tears of joy came just a few weeks
later, when research cameras showed the first of more than
6,000 fish traveling past the first dam site. Spawning salmon
were crossing into Oregon’s Spencer Creek, a tributary of the
Klamath, for the first time in 112 years. The salmon had
remembered the way, for it is embedded into their DNA just as
it is in our ancestors’ – a testament of shared memory and
spiritual connection between our people and the river. –Written by Russell “Buster” Attebery, chairman of the
Karuk Tribe, and Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok
Tribe.
A grassroots petition to save the Mad River Fish
Hatchery is gaining momentum, with nearly 2,000 signatures
collected as of Tuesday afternoon. Launched by local
fishing guide Tyler Belvin on Change.org, the
petition calls on state officials to reverse
the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s (CDFW) decision to shut down the hatchery this
summer. Located just outside of Blue Lake, the Mad River Fish
Hatchery has been part of the North Coast community for more
than 50 years. Belvin’s petition describes the hatchery as “a
cornerstone of our community,” emphasizing its role in
steelhead conservation, local recreation, and environmental
education. “Its closure would not only disrupt these crucial
activities,” the petition reads, “but would also significantly
impact recreational fishing and local traditions linked to our
river heritage.”
In a major change of plans aimed at rescuing California’s
struggling salmon populations, state wildlife officials have
done something never tried before: releasing millions of young
hatchery-raised Chinook salmon directly into the main stem of
the Sacramento River. This historic release of roughly 3.5
million juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon happened in mid-April
near Redding and Butte City. Typically, hatchery fish are
released into the rivers where their hatcheries are located,
like the Feather or Mokelumne Rivers. … This unprecedented
move comes as fall-run Chinook salmon numbers in the main
Sacramento River – the historical heart of California’s salmon
fishery – are at critically low levels.
Beside a restored creek in San Geronimo, California, birds soar
where birdies once were scored. Formerly home to an 18-hole
golf course, the 157-acre property has been rewilded into a
thriving nature preserve. The fairway, once groomed to
unnatural perfection, is now overgrown with tall grass and
wildflowers. … Vitally, the creek that runs through the
course’s front nine – no longer impeded by a dam – is seeing a
slow return of the endangered coho salmon. … With the
number of golf course closures outweighing openings every year
since 2006, some are rethinking the best use of these open
spaces. In states such as Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts,
and California, nature is now being allowed to run its course
to protect wildlife and protect against storms.
The migrations that make up the well-known salmon life cycle
have long been described as one way at a time. Juvenile salmon
hatch and swim down rivers to the ocean, where they grow and
mature before returning to the same river to spawn the next
generation. Turns out that many young salmon do things
differently, according to new research by NOAA Fisheries,
Tribal, and university scientists. The findings were published
in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment. They discovered that as many as 22% of
juvenile salmon in California and Washington streams swam
downriver to the ocean and then back up other rivers as many as
9 times. They reached rivers as far as 40 miles away along the
coast.
For the third consecutive year, commercial salmon fishing off
the California coast will be prohibited, although there will be
a limited opportunity for recreational anglers for the first
time since 2022. However, officials say data indicates the
industry could see a return in 2026. Angela Forristall, salmon
staff officer with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said
the decision to recommend closing the state’s commercial salmon
fisheries for the year followed a challenging debate among the
council and stakeholders from both the recreational and
commercial fishing industries. Forristall shared that there
were several versions of the recommendation that did open
commercial fishing briefly, but the data they’re seeing from
populations in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers says it’s
potentially too soon for major operations.
An agreement to build a waterway allowing fish to swim freely
past a dam on the lower Yuba River has moved forward as part of
an initiative that also includes returning a threatened salmon
species to another part of the watershed. Federal, state and
local agencies have partnered on the potentially $100 million
project and tout its goal of restoring access for a variety of
fish species to parts of the river system walled off for more
than a century. … But local anglers have raised concerns
about the project, fearing that the free-flowing bypass will
allow predatory fish, particularly striped bass, to access a
section of the river seen as a haven for certain species.
Assemblymember Chris Rogers has introduced his bill, Assembly
Bill 263, which aims to protect salmon populations in the
Klamath River watershed while also providing local agricultural
operations with certainty regarding river flows. This was
introduced in partnership with the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, as
well as the California Coastkeeper Alliance. … Bill 263 would
allow specified emergency regulations adopted by the board for
the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds to remain in effect
until permanent rules establishing and implementing long-term
instream flow requirements for these watersheds are enacted.
According to Assemblyman Rogers, this measure is crucial for
protecting salmon populations in the Klamath River watershed
while providing certainty regarding river flows.
… President Ryan Walker of the Siskiyou County Farm
Bureau says farmers have concerns about the regulations and how
it could affect their profits.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to free fishermen from
regulatory red tape are tying up the very people he seeks to
unburden as thousands of small and medium-size operators begin
feeling the weight of the president’s NOAA wrecking ball.
“We’re seeing the whole system grind to a halt and fall apart,”
said Meredith Moore, director of the fish conservation program
at Ocean Conservancy, which has tracked the Trump
administration’s fisheries rulemaking since Feb. 1. …
Slash-and-burn downsizing, fishermen and experts say, is
eroding NOAA’s ability to perform basic functions — like
opening or closing a fishery, updating a fishery management
plan, completing a stock assessment or engaging with regional
advisory councils to ensure it’s following the latest science.
The management rules are effectively stop-and-go lights on the
fisheries highway. Without them, fishing boats remain dockside
and fishermen lose critical income.
This week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted
recommendations for ocean salmon fishing along the West Coast;
for an unprecedented third year in a row, the council has
recommended closing commercial fishing off the California coast
and allowing only limited commercial fishing in Oregon and
Washington. … (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations Executive Director Lisa )Damrosch told the
Times-Standard that commercial fishermen have been feeling the
effects of — and working to prevent — salmon population
collapse in the Sacramento Valley. She stressed the PCFFA’s
long-term goals of returning to a system of production
hatcheries, if Californians want to continue to divert water to
farming interests in Central and Southern California.
This week, a public federal process determined there will be no
commercial salmon fishing off California’s coast for the third
year in a row. It’s a grim milestone for our state. While
we will see some recreational ocean fishing, we’re at the
low-water mark. … For the salmon lovers among us, these
are dark times. But I see glimmers of hope. … Two weeks ago,
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed the
progress on California’s “Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier
Future.” It was an update on the strategy Gov. Gavin Newsom
released last year, which outlined dozens of key action items
the state must take to better support healthy salmon
populations. In the last year alone, state fish and
wildlife and its partner agencies have made critical headway on
nearly 70% of the action items set by Gov. Newsom. Another 26%
are already done. –Written by Charlton H. Bonham, director of the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The council overseeing U.S. Pacific coast fisheries issued a
new recommendation Tuesday for “very limited”
recreational salmon fishing through the end of 2025,
according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The decision allows for the first recreational ocean salmon
fishing in California waters since 2022. The recommendation
from the Pacific Fishery Management Council also
included keeping California’s commercial salmon
fisheries closed for the third year in a row.
… Salmon in California waters face ongoing issues from
drought, climate disruption, wildfires, algal blooms, shifting
food sources, habitat destruction and thiamine deficiency,
according to wildlife officials.
Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials
today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season
for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the
decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon
fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of
time this spring. This will be the first year that any
sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022. … The
decline of California’s salmon follows decades of deteriorating
conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year,
including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers.
For the seventh time in less than a decade, Oregon’s commercial
fishermen, governor and congressional delegation are asking for
federal aid to soften the blow of climate change on the state’s
ocean salmon fisheries. … Oregon’s commercial ocean
salmon fishermen caught about 18,000 Chinook between March and
October of 2024 — about 40% of the 10-year average. From 2011
to 2015, the average catch was closer to 75,000 per year,
according to John North, an assistant fish division
administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
More than 50% of Chinook were caught in Newport in 2024, while
southern Oregon fisheries struggled with low returns due to
drought and warming waters in the Sacramento and
Klamath rivers.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Partners have pulled together to support the recovery of
endangered Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon in the last few
years. However, the species still faces threats from climate
change and other factors. That is the conclusion of an
Endangered Species Act review that NOAA Fisheries completed for
the native California species. It once returned in great
numbers to the tributaries of the Sacramento River and
supported local tribes. The review concluded that the species
remains endangered, and identified key recovery actions to help
the species survive climate change. While partners have taken
steps to protect winter-run Chinook salmon, blocked habitat,
altered flows, and higher temperatures continue to threaten
their survival.
…Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board took
action to protect the salmon,
unanimously extending the region’s
expired emergency drought measures. Ground and surface
water for farms will be restricted for another year if flows in
the Shasta and Scott rivers dip below minimum thresholds. State
officials say these measures are likely to kick in next
year. Water board chair Joaquin Esquivel said action
is needed because “a fish emergency” remains on the rivers.
“Time isn’t our friend,” he said at a previous meeting in
August. “There is an urgency.” The water board also
is investigating the possibility of permanent requirements to
keep more water in the rivers, after the Karuk Tribe and the
fishing industry petitioned the state for stronger protections.
That decision, however, could take years.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Before dams were built on the upper
Sacramento River, flood water regularly carried woody debris that
was an important part of the aquatic habitat.
Deprived of this refuge, salmon in the lower parts of the upper
Sacramento River have had a difficult time surviving and making
it down the river and out to the ocean. Seeing this, a group of
people, including water users, decided to lend a hand with an
unprecedented pilot project that saw massive walnut tree trunks
affixed to 12,000-pound boulders and deposited into the deepest
part of the Sacramento River near Redding to provide shelter for
young salmon and steelhead migrating downstream.
Protecting and restoring California’s populations of threatened
and endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead trout have been a big
part of the state’s water management picture for more than 20
years. Significant resources have been dedicated to helping the
various runs of the iconic fish, with successes and setbacks. In
a landscape dramatically altered from its natural setting,
finding a balance between the competing demands for water is
challenging.
Butte Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River, begins less than 50 miles northeast of Chico,
California and is named after nearby volcanic plateaus or
“buttes.” The cold, clear waters of the 93-mile creek sustain the
largest naturally spawning wild population of spring-run chinook salmon in the Central Valley.
Several other native fish species are found in Butte Creek,
including Pacific lamprey and Sacramento pikeminnow.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various facilities, operations and benefits the water
project brings to the state along with the CVP
Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The Red Bluff Diversion Dam, its gates raised since 2011 to allow
fish passage, spans the Sacramento River two miles
southeast of Red Bluff on the Sacramento River in Tehama County.
It is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and operated and
maintained by the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.
Pelagic fish are those that live near the water’s surface rather
than on the bottom. In California, pelagic fish species include
the Delta smelt, longfin
smelt, striped bass and salmon.
In California, the fate of pelagic fish has been closely tied to
the use of the water that supports them.
The Klamath River Basin is one of the West’s most important and
contentious watersheds.
The watershed is known for its peculiar geography straddling
California and Oregon. Unlike many western rivers, the
Klamath does not originate in snowcapped mountains but rather on
a volcanic plateau.
A broad patchwork of spring-fed streams and rivers in
south-central Oregon drains into Upper Klamath Lake and down into
Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls. The outflow from Ewauna
marks the beginning of the 263-mile Klamath River.
The Klamath courses south through the steep Cascade Range and
west along the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to a redwood-lined
estuary on the Pacific Ocean just south of Crescent City,
draining a watershed of 10 million acres.
A bounty of resources – water, salmon, timber and minerals – and
a wide range of users turned the remote region into a hotspot for
economic development and multiparty water disputes (See
Klamath River
timeline).
Though the basin has only 115,000 residents, there is seldom
enough water to go around. Droughts are common. The water
scarcity inflames tensions between agricultural,
environmental and tribal interests, namely the basin’s four major
tribes: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk, Hoopa Valley and Yurok.
Klamath water-use conflicts routinely spill into courtrooms,
state legislatures and Congress.
In 2023, a historic removal of four powers dams on the river
began, signaling hope for restoration of the river and its fish
and easing tensions between competing water interests. In
February 2024, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
announced a “historic” agreement between tribes and farmers
in the basin over chronic water shortages. The deal
called for a wide range of river and creek restoration work and
modernization of agricultural water supply infrastructure.
Water Development
Farmers and ranchers have drawn irrigation water from basin
rivers and lakes since the late 1900s. Vast wetlands around
Upper Klamath Lake and upstream were drained to grow crops. Some
wetlands have been restored, primarily for migratory birds.
In 1905, the federal government authorized construction of the
Klamath Project, a network of irrigation canals, storage
reservoirs and hydroelectric dams to grow an agricultural
economy in the mostly dry Upper Basin. The Project managed by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigates about 240,000 acres and
supplies the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake national wildlife
refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Water Management
Since 1992, federal mandates to restore populations of fish
protected by the Endangered Species
Act have led in some dry years to drastic cuts in
water deliveries to Klamath Project irrigators.
Water in Upper Klamath Lake must be kept above certain
levels for the endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers. Lake
levels and Klamath River flows below Iron Gate Dam also must be
regulated for the benefit of threatened coho salmon (See
Klamath Basin
Chinook and Coho Salmon).
Conflict
In 2001, Reclamation all but cut off irrigation water to hundreds
of basin farmers and ranchers, citing a severe drought and legal
obligations to protect imperiled fish. In response, thousands of
farmers, ranchers and residents flocked to downtown Klamath Falls
to form a “bucket brigade” protest, emptying buckets of water
into the closed irrigation canal. The demonstrations stretched
into the summer, with protestors forcing open the irrigation
headgates on multiple occasions. Reclamation later released some
water to help farmers.
In September 2002, a catastrophic
disease outbreak in the lower Klamath River killed tens of
thousands of ocean-going salmon. The Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations sued Reclamation, alleging the Klamath
Project’s irrigation deliveries had violated the Endangered
Species Act. The fishing industry eventually prevailed, and
a federal court ordered an increase to minimum flows in the lower
Klamath.
Compromise
The massive salmon kill and dramatic water shut-off set in motion
a sweeping compromise between the basin’s many competing water
interests: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the
Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The 2010 agreements
included:
Removal of four hydroelectric dams
$92.5 million over 10 years to pay farmers to use less water,
increase reservoir storage and help pay for water conservation
and groundwater management projects.
$47 million over 10 years to buy or lease water rights to
increase flows for salmon recovery.
Dam Removals
Congress never funded the two agreements, allowing the key
provisions to expire. The restoration accord dissolved in 2016.
The hydroelectric pact, however, was revived in an amended
version that did not require federal legislation.
The new deal led to the nation’s largest dam removal project ever
undertaken.
California and Oregon formed a
nonprofit organization called the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation to take control of the four essentially obsolete
power dams – J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate –
and oversee a $450 million dam demolition and river restoration
project.
Taking out the dams will open more than 420 miles of river and
spawning streams that had been blocked for more than a century,
including cold water pools salmon and trout need to survive the
warming climate.
Demolition crews took out the smallest dam in 2023 and the others
were scheduled to come down by the end of 2024.
The images of yellow heavy machinery tearing into the dam’s
spillway gates prompted a cathartic release for many who have
been fighting for decades to open this stretch of the Klamath.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” said Toz Soto,
the Karuk fisheries program manager. “This is actually
happening…It’s kind of like the dog that finally caught the car,
except we’re chasing dam removal.”
The Klamath Basin’s Chinook salmon and coho salmon serve a vital
role in the watershed.
Together, they are key to the region’s water management, habitat
restoration and fishing.
However, years of declining population have led to federally
mandated salmon restoration plans—plans that complicate the
diversion of Klamath water for agriculture and other uses.
Battle Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River in Shasta and Tehama counties, is considered one
of the most important anadromous fish spawning streams in the
Sacramento Valley.
At present, barriers make it difficult for anadromous fish,
including chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead trout, to
migrate. Battle Creek has several hydroelectric dams, diversions
and a complex canal system between its north and south forks that
impede migration.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
This issue of Western Water explores the implications for the San
Joaquin River following the decision in the Natural Resources
Defense Council lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation and
Friant Water Users Authority that Friant Dam is required to
comply with a state law that requires enough water be released to
sustain downstream fish populations.
Fresh from the ocean, adult salmon struggle to swim hundreds of
miles upstream to spawn — and then die — in the same stream in
which they were born. For the salmon, the river-to-ocean,
ocean-to-river life cycle is nothing more than instinct. For
humans, it invites wonder. The cycle has prevailed for centuries,
yet as salmon populations have declined, the cycle has become a
source of conflict. Water users have seen their supplies reduced.
Fishermen have had their catch curtailed. Environmentalists have
pushed for more instream flows for fish.
