Solving complex resource issues while balancing the needs of wild fish and people.
LEVEL OF CONCERN: HIGH
California Coastal Chinook salmon are vulnerable to extinction in the next 50-100 years if coastal stream conditions continue to deteriorate.
From 2012-2016, poor ocean conditions, historic drought, record high temperatures, and exploding marijuana cultivation have had significant negative impacts on CC Chinook salmon, so much so that NMFS concluded that endangered status was likely in the future for the DPS.
Scroll down for more information about the California Coast Chinook salmon. To read the full species account, click here.
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Click here to learn about CalTrout’s overall “Return to Resilience” plan to save California’s salmonids from extinction.
The CC Chinook ESU includes salmon that spawn in coastal watersheds from Redwood Creek (Humboldt County) to the Russian River (Sonoma County). In general, small coastal streams within this range can support CC Chinook salmon as long as they have open estuaries during peak migration times (fall through spring). In the Eel River watershed, CC Chinook salmon could historically access habitat up to natural boulder roughs on the upper mainstem Eel River, but they are currently blocked from accessing this habitat by Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury (Lake County).
Climate change is likely to lead to increased temperatures and reduced snowpack in the headwaters of the Eel River, which will make managing the release of cold water from dams and reservoirs to support salmonids even more difficult in the future.
Scott Dam, Coyote Valley Dam, and Warm Springs Dam reduce water quality and quantity across the CC Chinook salmon range. The timing of water transfers from the upper Eel River into the Russian River watershed at Pacific Gas & Electric’s Potter Valley Project reduces habitat suitability for Eel River salmonids.
Historical and current land use practices related to logging and its associated road construction, such as erosion and removal of large woody debris habitat, continue to increase the vulnerability of CC Chinook salmon. This is especially true in smaller watersheds.
Many tributaries are facing increasing frequency of water withdrawals and overdraft due to increasing demands of irrigation to support expansion of vineyards and marijuana cultivation.
Problem: Two dams completely block access to over 100 miles of quality spawning and rearing habitat.
Goal: Conduct surveys above Lake Pillsbury to quantify the amount of habitat historically available to salmon and steelhead pre-dams and use the findings to guide the relicensing process and options.
Result: A solution to the dams that balances the needs of wild fish and people.
Problem: Hundreds of miles of tributaries are impassable– key salmon spawning grounds cut off by a myriad of barriers.
Goal: Remove the barriers! Two down, over a dozen to go.
Result: Salmon and steelhead have access to hundreds of miles of natal spawning habitat.
Problem: Consistent flows of cold water are diverted to an exploding legal and illegal cannabis industry. Compounded by four years of drought, some headwater streams now run dry.
Goal: Quantify flows required for fish survival. Use data to influence state policy to better regulate and guarantee streamflows for wild fish.
Result: Salmon and steelhead have enough water in the South Fork Eel to rear in summer and thrive.
Problem: Years of degradation have compromised the estuary.
Goal: Restore tidal marsh lands and passage into tidal slough channels.
Result: Salmon and steelhead rear in high quality habitat growing big and strong before entering ocean.
Conservationists can now point to the largest dam removal project in the U.S. as a success story. The ecosystem of Washington’s Elwha River has been thriving since the removal of its hydroelectric dam system. Recent surveys show dramatic recovery, especially in the near shore at the river’s mouth, where the flow of sediment has created favorable habitat for the salmon population. A new generation of salmon species, some of which are endangered, are now present in the river. Some hope that the restoration of the Elwha River will become a shining example for the removal of dams across the U.S.
PG&E’s Potter Valley Project consists of two dams on the upper mainstem of the Eel River that block access to important high elevation habitat. These dams are coming up for re-licensing next year—a once in 50 years opportunity. CalTrout is working with Humboldt State University to assess habitat conditions above the dams—specifically how many miles of spawning and rearing habitat there is, and how many fish can be produced. Established science will legitimize and empower our demand for improved fish passage as a condition of re-licensing this dam.
Visit the Eel River Recovery Keystone Initiative page to learn more about our work headwaters-to-sea approach to bringing the Eel’s salmon and steelhead back to historic abundance.
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The Matilija dam on the Ventura River has long been on the list of obsolete dams and now, new innovative removal plans are garnering broad support. CalTrout is working with Patagonia, Surfrider Foundation, the Matilija Coalition, and Ventura County on a funding plan to get the dam removed and habitat restored for critically endangered Southern steelhead. Funding was awarded in December 2016 through California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Proposition 1 grants program to advance the project to 65% design phase and complete the environmental and permitting requirements over the next 3 years. As part of the Matilija Coalition, we were also awarded a $175K grant from the Open Rivers Fund, a program operated by Resources Legacy Fund and funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
CalTrout and partners are currently pursuing more funding opportunities to fuel the Matilija dam removal project. We are committed to this long-term effort. Support our work and help steelhead return home.
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In 1918, the first dam was finished on the Klamath River, blocking hundreds of miles of spawning and rearing habitat for steelhead and salmon. In the following years, three more dams were built.
Now, nearly a hundred years later, a deal has been signed, the funding is in place, and the dams are coming out in 2020. Now we must plan for years of habitat restoration. The removal of these four dams on the Klamath River will open up fish passage to over 400 miles of historic spawning habitat, allowing the salmon and steelhead to return home!
Read more about the Klamath dams and the long battle for their removal in the Winter 2015 issue of The Current.
