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Restore consistent access for salmonids to upper Alameda Creek and open more than 20 miles of stream to Chinook salmon, steelhead, and other native fishes such as lamprey.
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Planning
65% Planning and Design
100% Planning, Design, and Permitting
Implementation
PG&E
Alameda Creek is the largest local tributary to the San Francisco Bay and historically produced the largest numbers of Chinook salmon, lamprey, and steelhead in the South Bay. It is also the ancestral lands of the Muwekma Ohlone people. In 2022, former barriers at the BART weir and inflatable bladder dams in Fremont were made passable by fish due to newly constructed fish ladders by the Alameda County Water District. This incredible opportunity for salmonids to migrate throughout the Alameda Creek watershed is the product of decades of hard work to improve fish passage by a myriad of partners in the longstanding Alameda Creek Fisheries Work Group, including the Alameda County Water District (ACWD) and Alameda County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, Alameda Creek Alliance (ACA), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Zone 7 Water District, Alameda County Resource Conservation District, Trout Unlimited and the National Marine Fisheries Service, among others.
CalTrout staff have engaged in the Fisheries Work Group since 2019 and are thrilled to add our skills to address the hard work of barrier removal and restoring ecological function further up in the watershed. We have assisted local partners and trained volunteers to conduct spawning surveys along Alameda Creek since 2022.
The current remaining barrier on mainstem Alameda Creek is in Sunol Valley near the 680 freeway. It is created by a major gas pipeline, owned by PG&E, that is covered in a protective layer of concrete which protrudes up into the creek, making it impassable to fish during most streamflows. This past winter, there was sufficient water in the creek to allow fish to swim over the pipeline. But as California’s cycle of drought and deluge continues, resolving this barrier to fish passage will ensure fish access upstream regardless of their species, life stage or size, and if it’s a wet or dry year.
The pipeline will be lowered approximately 17 feet beneath the creek bed, so it no longer protrudes above the creek. The design plans are being developed by McBain Associates Applied River Sciences, a crucial project partner that CalTrout has worked with for many years in our North Coast and Mount Shasta regions.
As the project lead, CalTrout will coordinate all project partners for permitting and grant funding applications as we continue to build an implementation plan. CalTrout will lead the implementation effort and post project monitoring. McBain Associates is responsible for the technical designs for the project. Also involved in the project are PG&E, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC, the landowner), DeSilva Gates Aggregates (leases the land on one side of Alameda Creek from SFPUC for quarry operations), Hanford ARC, Alameda Creek Alliance, and more. If all goes according to plan, we expect project implementation to begin in summer 2025 and the fish will have access into the highest quality habitat remaining in the watershed in and upstream of Sunol Regional Park.
Alameda Creek flows by and through hundreds of Bay Area residents’ backyards. This project will help build an even greater appreciation for the salmon and steelhead that have traveled all the way from the ocean.
McBain Associates
PG&E
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
DeSilva Gates Aggregates
Hanford ARC
Alameda Creek Alliance
Bay Area
Work with partners to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards through stream study focused on watershed health and endangered coho salmon recovery at Walker Creek Ranch in Marin County.
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Assess streamflows, water temperatures, habitat usage, and migration of adult and juvenile tagged coho salmon in Walker Creek to identify factors potentially limiting their recovery. We will use this...
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Work with partners to fill key data gaps in monitoring Alameda Creek tributaries to inform future management and restoration to assist recovery of steelhead and Chinook salmon in the watershed.
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As part of an expansion to research on Pescadero Creek, a PIT antenna on Butano Creek will track steelhead and coho salmon on their annual spawning runs and will provide us with important information...
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Increase outreach overall to youth, members, fly clubs, and others about our efforts in the Bay Area and statewide.
Learn Morearray(1) { [0]=> string(8) "Planning" } array(1) { [0]=> string(23) "65% Planning and Design" }
Improperly managed livestock grazing can damage streambanks, limit riparian vegetation and increase sedimentation. This can result in a loss of habitat complexity, increased stream temperatures, and decreased spawning habitat conditions. Severe grazing in meadow streams can cause down cutting resulting in meadows drying out and reductions in streamflow.
Human use of streams, lakes, and surrounding watersheds for recreation has greatly increased with population expansion. Boating, swimming, angling, off-road vehicles, ski resorts, golf courses and other activities or land uses can negatively impact salmonid populations and their habitats. The impacts are generally minor; however, concentration of multiple activities in one region or time of year may have cumulative impacts.
Development of towns and cities often negatively affects nearby streams through alteration for flood prevention, channelization, and water diversion, and increased pollution. The timing and magnitude of flows are altered by the increase in impervious surfaces such as pavement. Pollution from surface runoff, sewage discharges, and storm drains can degrade water quality and aquatic habitats.
Widespread and often severe instream mining impacts occurred mid-19th to early 20th century due largely to hydraulic mining. Many rivers were excavated, dredged, and hydraulically mined for gold, causing dramatic stream degradation. Instream gravel mining also removed riparian vegetation and spawning gravels and degraded riparian habitats. Such mining is now largely banned, but lasting impacts remain in many areas.
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Dams block access to historical spawning and rearing habitats. Downstream, dams alter the timing, frequency, duration, magnitude, and rate of change of flows decreasing habitat quality and survival.
This factor refers to hard rock mining, from which contaminated tailings, mine effluents, and toxic pollutants may have been dumped or leached into streams, mostly from abandoned mines. Mercury mining, used for processing gold in placer and dredge mining, left a lasting negative impact on wildlife.
Hatcheries and releases of hatchery reared salmonids into the wild can negatively impact wild populations through competition, predation, disease, and loss of fitness and genetic diversity. Hatchery influences are especially apparent to for anadromous species where dams blocked access to spawning habitat and hatcheries were established as mitigation. Inland trout can also be impacted with stocking of hatchery fish for recreation.
All anadromous salmonids depend on estuaries for rearing during a portion of their lives. Most estuaries in the state are highly altered from human activities, especially diking, draining, and sandbar removal between the estuary and ocean. Land-uses surrounding estuaries often involve extensive wetland reclamation, greatly reducing ecological function and habitat complexity.
Harvest relates to legally regulated commercial, tribal, and recreational fisheries, as well as illegal harvest (poaching). Over-harvest can have substantial impacts on fish populations, particularly for those with already limited abundance or distributions, those which are isolated or reside in discrete habitats making them easy to catch (e.g. summer steelhead), or those that attain large adult size (e.g., Chinook salmon).
Transportation corridors such as highways confine stream channels and increase sedimentation, pollution, and habitat degradation from storm runoff and altered streamflows. Culverts and other passage or drainage modifications associated with roads often block migration and restrict fish movements, which can fragment populations.
Many heavily logged watersheds once supported the highest species diversity and abundance of fishes, including anadromous salmon and steelhead. Improperly managed logging increases sediment in streams, increases solar input which increases stream temperatures, and degrades riparian cover. Stream habitat is also degraded by the extensive network of unpaved roads that supports timber extraction.
Non-native species (including fishes and other aquatic organisms) are ubiquitous across many of California’s watersheds; their impacts on native species through hybridization, predation, competition, increased disease transmission, and habitat alteration can be severe.
Wildfires are a natural component of California’s landscape. However, fire suppression, coupled with climate change, has made modern fires more frequent, severe and catastrophic. The transition from relatively frequent understory fires to less frequent, but catastrophic, crown fires can have a severe impact on fish habitat and wipe out populations with narrow habitat ranges.
Impacts from agriculture include streams polluted by agricultural return water or farm effluent; reduced flow due to diversions which can affect migratory patterns; and increased silt and pesticides in streams. Marijuana grow operations, legal and illegal, were considered in this metric.
As California’s population grows, rural development increasingly encroaches along or near streams. Resulting impacts include water diversions, groundwater pumping, streambed alteration (to protect houses from flooding, construct road crossings, etc.), and pollution (especially from septic tanks and illegal waste dumping).
Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.