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.
Adult winter-run Chinook salmon have been spotted in northern
California’s McCloud River for the first time in nearly a
century, according to the California department of fish and
wildlife (CDFW). The salmon were confirmed to be seen near Ash
Camp, tucked deep in the mountains of northern California where
Hawkins creek flows into the McCloud River. A video posted by
CDFW and taken by the Pacific states marine fisheries
commission shows a female Chinook salmon guarding her nest of
eggs on the river floor. … The Winnemem Wintu Tribe has
long fought the enlargement of the Shasta dam, which has
hindered salmon hatching by warming water temperatures above
the chilly range that salmon prefer to lay their eggs in.
More than 1,200 adult spring-run Chinook salmon meant to return
to the San Joaquin River ended up in the Tuolumne River
instead, prompting a five-part rescue operation. The fish were
originally released as part of the San Joaquin River
Restoration Program. But cooler, cleaner water and improved
habitat conditions on the Tuolumne appeared to draw the fish
off course, according to officials from the Turlock Irrigation
District (TID). … The salmon became trapped below the
historic La Grange Diversion Dam after spring flows receded,
isolating them in a plunge pool with limited oxygen and rising
temperatures. … Officials say the salmon were likely
drawn to the Tuolumne due to restoration work already
underway.
… As the salmon runs have declined for many reasons, one of
the strategies to reduce salmon smolt mortality has been
trucking the juvenile salmon to the delta to bypass the striped
bass. Stripers are spawning in the Sacramento River during the
spring salmon out-migration. Stripers love to eat baby salmon.
As with many things in life, the solution to today’s problem is
often the cause of the next issue. Trucking the juvenile salmon
directly from the hatchery on Battle Creek to the lower delta
or the bay does not allow the salmon to imprint on the
Sacramento River water. These fish did not know their way
home. The result was salmon wandering to freshwater creeks
flowing into the bay. … The solution to this has
been to set net pens in the Sacramento River to hold these
Coleman salmon smolts for a period of time to imprint on the
water. Then they are trucked down to the delta or bay.
Sycamore Pool in Bidwell Park will be closed starting
Wednesday, July 16, through Friday, July 18, for sediment
removal and cleaning According to the City of Chico, the pool’s
cleaning was delayed due to the migration of protected
Spring-run Chinook Salmon. The California Department of Fish
and Wildlife requested the city hold off on the cleaning until
after mid-June. Necessary permits were updated and expedited
for the sediment removal. City officials say that the pool has
accumulated more sediment than usual due to heavy winter rains
following the Park Fire, which washed debris into the pool. The
increased sediment has notably reduced the pool’s depth,
particularly on the west end. “At this time of year, we
are usually on a steady biweekly cleaning schedule at Sycamore
Pool,” said Shane Romain, City of Chico Parks and Natural
Resources Manager. “
… [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%.
The journey is over. The 310-mile First Descent paddle from the
headwaters of the Wood River to Requa, where the Klamath Rivers
pours into the Pacific Ocean, ended Friday when a group of
teenaged kayakers from tribes living along the the river and
its tributaries arrived at a spit at the river’s end. A
gathering of relatives, friends and other watched as the
kayakers broke through the fog and into
view. … Along with congratulating the young
paddlers and giving them words of encouragement, a recurring
theme was celebrating the removal of four Klamath River dams
and the return of salmon. Fittingly, the ceremonies, which
moved from the spit to the road in Requa, were adjacent to what
was intended to be a fish processing plant but is not operating
because of the lack of salmon. Speakers also noted that weeks
after the removal of the dams, salmon were seen beyond the John
C. Boyle Dam near Keno.
Ruby Williams’ birthday was not your average 18th. She
celebrated it on the Klamath River, with a group of young
people making a historic journey paddling from the river’s
headwaters in southern Oregon to its mouth in the Pacific
Ocean, just south of Crescent City, California. It marked the
first time in a century that the descent has been possible,
after the recent removal of four dams allowed the river to flow
freely. Williams, together with fellow paddler Keeya Wiki, 17,
spoke to CNN on day 15 of their month-long journey, which they
are due to complete on Friday. At this point, they had just 141
miles (227 kilometers) of the 310-mile (499 kilometer) journey
left to go and had already passed through some of the most
challenging rapids. … [Wiki said] “I think we’re all just so
grateful, knowing that the salmon can finally go from the mouth
to the headwaters, and that we can go from the headwaters to
the mouth too.”
Swimming past the California-Oregon border, a lost fish — one
of thousands — finds its way home after an exile of over 100
years. As swarms of salmon migrate north to Oregon along
the Klamath River, youth from across the region’s indigenous
tribes kayak south through northern California to the Pacific
Ocean — a 300-mile celebratory journey that would not have been
possible just a year ago. What’s changed? Beneath the fish
and kayaks lie the watery graves of four dams, built in the
early 20th century and dismantled over the past two years at a
cost of $500 million, the largest and most ambitious dam
removal in history. The return of salmon to the upper
Klamath River represents a victory for nature, an exhibition of
the century-long transition in how Americans view the
environment, and a signal achievement of the 1973 Endangered
Species Act.
Other dam removal and anadromous fish restoration news:
The Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville has wrapped up its
tagging operations for adult spring-run Chinook salmon.
According to the California Department of Water Resources,
around 7,919 salmon were tagged this season. Officials say the
tagging helps track the success of hatchery operations and
improve fish population management. The DWR and the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife also continued thiamine
treatments to address vitamin deficiencies in Chinook salmon,
enhancing their survival from egg to juvenile. The California
Department of Water Resources reported that more than
17,000 spring-run Chinook salmon returned to spawn this year,
marking the best return since 2013. Despite recent drought
impacts, the hatchery continues to meet and exceed production
goals.
Fishing fans, here’s your chance to cast a line for a good
cause—and maybe reel in some prize money while you’re at it.
The Eel River Pikeminnow Fishing Derby is now underway, running
from July 1 through August 31, and organizers are inviting
anglers of all ages to join in. The idea? Catch as many
non-native Sacramento pikeminnow as you can from the Eel River
system and submit your catch for a chance to win part of $2,500
in cash prizes. … So why target Sacramento pikeminnow?
Although they’re native to parts of California, pikeminnow were
introduced into the Eel River in the 1970s, where they now pose
a serious threat to native fish. As voracious predators,
pikeminnow eat native salmonids and lamprey—both already under
pressure from habitat loss, drought, and climate change.
Reducing pikeminnow numbers can help protect these struggling
native populations.
The Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Gold River has closed its visitor
center, parking lot and several fish ponds, also known as
raceways, due to maintenance and contract issues. The
California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the
closures in a Facebook post, stating that the temporary
shutdown would not affect hatchery operations. The facility is
located at 2001 Nimbus Road, just off Hazel Avenue. The
closures stem from needed repairs to the site’s heating,
ventilation and air conditioning system, along with “ongoing
contract negotiations,” according to the department. Fish
and Wildlife officials expect to reopen the public areas in
September, following what they described as the “slow summer
season.” The hatchery, which raises Chinook salmon and
steelhead for release into the American River, typically offers
public tours and school visits through its visitor
center.
The invasive two-inch wide golden mussel showed up near the
Port of Stockton last fall. Since then, it’s spread south,
extending to other waterways in the Delta and some in the San
Joaquin Valley. Now, eyes are looking north to Lake
Oroville, where the mussels could pose a large threat if
they’re introduced. The reservoir is the second largest in
California. … The mussels also pose a significant
environmental threat. Eric See is with the Department of Water
Resources. He said Lake Oroville feeds water into the Feather
River Fish Hatchery through small diameter piping. It raises
steelhead trout and chinook salmon. Chinook populations are
threatened, and the state is currently trying to bring them
back. If that pipe gets blocked, it cuts off water to the fish.
… The mussels could also create large algae blooms that can
kill fish and filter water, increasing aquatic weed growth.
That makes it harder for fish in the water to navigate and find
food.
In a move environmentalists are hailing as an important victory
for Chinook salmon conservation, the federal government has
agreed to decide this year whether the fish warrants federal
protections. By Nov. 3, the National Marine Fisheries Service
must decide whether so-called Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon
and Northern California Coastal varieties of Chinook salmon
warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act. By Jan. 2
of next year, feds must do the same for Washington Coast
spring-run Chinook salmon, according to a settlement agreement
from Thursday. The Center for Biological Diversity — joined by
the Native Fish Society, Umpqua Watersheds, and Pacific Rivers
— in February sued the service and two top officials after the
service failed to issue 12-month findings on the groups’
petitions to list the fish.
Dams and barriers placed on Alameda Creek have prevented
migratory fish from entering their native spawning grounds for
more than 50 years, but an $80 million effort to raze the last
significant obstacles and restore trout, salmon and other fish
to their historical habitat are now underway. A PG&E gas
pipeline is the last major barrier to restoring 20 miles of
upstream spawning habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead
trout and will be relocated and buried by a coalition that
includes the Alameda County Water District, PG&E and the
San Francisco-based nonprofit California Trout. … The
plan is to remove the concrete barrier and move the gas
pipeline 100 feet downstream and bury it 20 feet underground to
reopen the creek for migratory fish, according to California
Trout senior project manager Claire Buchanan. Construction
will need to move quickly in order to return the creek to its
natural flow by Oct. 31, ahead of the fish migration season,
Buchanan said.
A vitamin deficiency likely killed as many as
half of newly hatched fry of endangered winter-run Chinook
salmon in the Sacramento River in 2020 and 2021. These new
findings were published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. The deficiency of
thiamine, or Vitamin B1, is linked to
large-scale shifts in the ocean ecosystem. These shifts changed
the prey adult salmon consume before they return to West Coast
rivers to spawn, scientists reported. They said the longtime
loss of habitat and water has already weakened many California
salmon populations. Further declines from thiamine deficiency
or other impacts may lead to their extinction. The deficiency
syndrome can also affect salmon runs like the Central Valley’s
fall-run that once supported valuable commercial fisheries
across California. They have since dwindled to the point that
commercial ocean salmon fishing in California has been closed
for the last 3 years. … Anchovy manufacture an enzyme
called thiaminase that breaks down thiamine and can, in turn,
affect salmon that eat large amounts of the small fish.
The first recreational salmon season in California in three
years made such a big splash on its opening weekend that the
next three dates have been canceled. More than 9,000
Chinook salmon were taken statewide by 10,505 sport anglers
during the season opener on June 7 and 8, exceeding the harvest
limit of 7,000 fish for the summer season. As a result, the
remaining summer dates on July 5-6, July 31 through Aug. 3 and
Aug. 25 through 31 have been closed, the National Marine
Fisheries Service announced Monday. The opening weekend offered
“some of the best fishing many longtime anglers can remember,”
said California Department of Fish and Wildlife in a media
release. “We’ve seen so many pictures and heard many stories of
people enjoying their time on the water with family and
friends,” said director Charlton H. Bonham. “By all accounts,
the weekend was a huge success.”
California’s June 7-8 Ocean salmon season offered some of the
best fishing many longtime anglers can remember. Fast action,
quick limits and bustling harbors characterized the weekend
along much of the coast with a hot salmon bite reported as far
south as San Luis Obispo County. Excellent ocean conditions
from Crescent City all the way down to Avila Beach allowed
anglers to get out both days and try to catch the iconic sport
fish in ocean waters for the first time since 2022. … The
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) estimates
9,165 Chinook salmon were taken statewide by 10,505 anglers
aboard both charter vessels and private skiffs, achieving the
summer fishery harvest guideline of 7,000 Chinook. On
recommendation from CDFW and industry, the National Marine
Fisheries Service took in-season action today to close the
remaining summer dates of July 5-6, July 31-August 3, and
August 25-31.
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 unusual 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 all four
dams were taken 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.
