North Coast
Cold-water rainforest rivers — and California’s best chance at salmon recovery.
From the redwood-fringed Smith River near the Oregon border to the working-landscape Russian, the North Coast holds the state’s most productive salmonid habitat. Twelve active CalTrout projects span dam removal, estuary restoration, juvenile monitoring, and watershed-scale advocacy. The Eel River — California’s third-largest watershed — anchors the work.
5
PRIORITY WATERSHEDS
12
ACTIVE PROJECTS
300
MILES SOON FREE FLOWING ON THE EEL
950
ACRES OF ESTUARY IN RESTORATION
NORTH COAST ON THE MAP
Twelve projects. Five watersheds.
One coastline.
Pins mark active CalTrout work — from the Smith River at the Oregon border
down to the Russian River in Sonoma County. Click any pin to read the project.
FEATURED WATERSHEDS
Three projects, one regional approach.
Each watershed has its own ecology and politics. Our regional team works
across all five with a coordinated science, restoration, and advocacy strategy.
Eel River
California’s third-largest watershed — 3,684 square miles across five northern counties. Soon: the longest free-flowing river in the state.
Eel River
California’s third-largest watershed — 3,684 square miles across five northern counties. Soon: the longest free-flowing river in the state.
Eel River
California’s third-largest watershed — 3,684 square miles across five northern counties. Soon: the longest free-flowing river in the state.
NORTH COAST PROJECTS
Restoration, from headwaters to
estuary.
All
Active
Complete
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Cedar Creek and Elder Creek Legal Protection
Read more →: Cedar Creek and Elder Creek Legal ProtectionSeeking the Clean Water Act’s strongest protection for Cedar and Elder Creeks, cold-water refuges steelhead need to survive…
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Woodman Creek Project
Read more →: Woodman Creek ProjectRemoved a century-old railroad barrier on Woodman Creek reopens up to 14 miles of habitat for steelhead, Chinook,…
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Baduwa’t Estuary Restoration
Read more →: Baduwa’t Estuary RestorationReconnected the lower Baduwa’t to more than four acres of floodplain to improve key salmonid habitat.
WHY THIS REGION
The southernmost stronghold for salmon, steelhead, and coastal trout.
California’s North Coast is the southernmost edge of the Pacific salmon range
— and the most ecologically productive corner of the state for native
salmonids. Cool fog, dense forest, deep-cut canyons, and a chain of coastal
rivers fed by winter rains and summer base-flows have sustained chinook,
coho, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout for millennia.
That productivity has come under enormous pressure. A century of logging,
road-building, water diversion, and dam construction has fragmented habitat,
warmed streams, and severed migration corridors. But the North Coast also
has California’s best opportunities to recover those losses — vast public
lands, intact tribal stewardship, the upcoming Potter Valley dam removal, and
22 partners working in the Eel River Forum alone. CalTrout’s regional team
works watershed-by-watershed to make every recovery dollar go further.
FEATURED INITIATIVE
EEL RIVER WATERSHED PROGRAM
A free-flowing Eel River, source to sea.
The Eel River epitomizes everything about salmon in California.
Spanning five northern counties and 3,684 square miles, the Eel is the
state’s third-largest watershed — and the restoration potential is
tremendous.
The Eel River epitomizes everything about salmon in California.
Spanning five northern counties and 3,684 square miles, the Eel is the
state’s third-largest watershed — and the restoration potential is
tremendous.
CalTrout’s science-based Eel River Watershed Restoration and
Conservation Program — built in partnership with the 22 public
agencies, tribes, and conservation organizations of the Eel River
Forum — is the blueprint for the transformation.
THREE MODES OF WORK
Science, advocacy, and community
— all year, every year.
SCIENCE
Post-dam-removal monitoring
In partnership with Caltech, MIT, the Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, The Klamath Tribes, CDFW, ODFW, and university researchers, CalTrout leads one of the most comprehensive post-dam-removal monitoring efforts ever undertaken in the
U.S.
ADVOCACY
Scott & Shasta water-use
agreements
CalTrout has facilitated landmark agreements between agricultural stakeholders and Tribal partners — developing long-term, locally driven solutions for water management and watershed restoration.
COMMUNITY
Shasta Big Springs Youth Days
CalTrout and CDFW host 600 students and 500 community members at the spring complex — learning about fall-run Chinook, local ecology, and traditional Karuk ecological knowledge.
SUPPORT WORK ON THE NORTH COAST