Just 3.5 miles from where Redwood Creek meets the Pacific, juvenile salmon and steelhead faced a gauntlet: steep, incised banks upstream and flood control levees downstream squeezed out the off-channel floodplain habitat these fish need to shelter, feed, and grow strong enough for their ocean migration. The 125-acre site at Prairie Creek, a former industrial mill property, represented the last real opportunity in the entire watershed to restore that kind of rearing habitat before fish leave the system for good.

CalTrout partnered with the Yurok Tribe, Save the Redwoods League, Redwood National and State Parks, NOAA, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a restoration effort that took more than a decade of planning and five years of construction to complete. The work reconnected the creek to its floodplain, removed over 20 acres of asphalt left over from the old mill site, carved two new backwater ponds, and established more than 20 acres of wetlands, all while safely relocating over 15,000 aquatic animals during construction so they wouldn't be harmed by the work itself.

Construction wrapped in December 2025, backed by funding from Save the Redwoods League, the California State Coastal Conservancy, NOAA, the Wildlife Conservation Board, the USFWS Coastal Program, and state and federal grant programs, funding that also pumped real economic activity into the local Humboldt County community. Over 212,000 native plants were installed to complete the site's revegetation. And this project doesn't end with restored habitat: the land is returning to Yurok Tribe stewardship, with a three-year revegetation program funding the Tribe's Fisheries Department, and the site reopening to the public as the 'O Rew Redwoods Gateway, complete with accessible trails, a plaza, and a new segment of the California Coastal Trail connecting visitors to the redwoods beyond.