CalTrout’s Regional Approach

While California Trout is headquartered in San Francisco, we have six strategically placed Regional Offices throughout the state: Central California, Eastern Sierra, Mount Shasta, North Coast, Northern Sierra, and Southern California.

Each office is staffed with knowledgeable conservationists who are:

1) Well-versed in local environmental, fish and water issues (along with the social, political and economic nuances surrounding them)

2) In close proximity to our on the ground, regional projects

3) Capable of leveraging their local knowledge and insight to assist with our Sacramento advocacy and policy work

4) Effective at building strong collaborative relationships with local partners to get work done

Eastern Sierra Region

CalTrout’s Eastern Sierra region – the plateau around Mono Lake and the Owens Valley – offers some of the state’s most sought-after trout angling.

Hot Creek, Walker River, Carson River, Owens River, Golden Trout Creek and many more waterways host rainbows and browns as well as Lahontan cutthroat, Kern River rainbows and our state fish, the California golden trout.

The area’s fisheries are threatened by logging, overgrazing and development.

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Mount Shasta Region

The northeastern corner of the state – the area surrounding Mt. Shasta – is sometimes called the “Golden Triangle” by anglers because of its many Blue Ribbon watersheds, including the McCloud, Upper Sacramento, Fall, Pit, Klamath Rivers and Hat Creek.

It’s also one of CalTrout’s most active regions with a wide range of projects including native trout recovery, hydro relicensing, dam removal, protection of Blue Ribbon waters and salmon & steelhead recovery.

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Northern Sierra Region

The Northern Sierra is home to some of the most important and diverse watersheds in California.

The Truckee and Carson Rivers, the tributaries of Lake Tahoe and other significant waterways provide unique habitats for native trout species, including Lahontan cutthroat, Paiute cutthroat trout and the Mountain whitefish.

The rivers and creeks on the western slopes provide water to 65% of California, but growing pressure from recreation, population and climate change are straining the region’s fragile trout, steelhead and salmon populations.

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North Coast Region

The northern third of the California coast is home to many of California’s formerly hyper-productive steelhead and salmon fisheries.

Unfortunately, agricultural diversions and silting from unsound logging practices have all but wiped out much of the salmon and steelhead population on the Eel River. And diversion of up to 90% of its flow has decimated Trinity River salmon and steelhead populations.

Other rivers face similar challenges.

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Southern California Region

At one time, Southern California was home to miles of steelhead spawning grounds – but dams, diversions, development and poor water quality have all but wiped out many of the area’s steelhead populations.

In concert with other groups, CalTrout formed the Southern California Steelhead Recovery Coalition in 2000.

With them, we’re working to reverse the decline of Southern California’s anadromous fish populations.

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Central California Region

The Central Valley and Central Coast regions are both managed from the Central California Office on the Russian River in Windsor just 10 minutes north of Santa Rosa. Central Valley projects are focused on restoration and management of floodplain habitats.  The Managed Agricultural Floodplain Habitat Study on Knaggs Ranch in Yolo Bypass (Between Woodland and Sacramento) is our flag ship project for the Central Valley.

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