The East Fork Scott River, running through the 6,094-acre Beaver Valley Headwaters Preserve, holds an outsized share of the Scott River watershed's remaining potential: roughly 20%, or 60 miles, of all modeled anadromous fish habitat in the entire watershed sits on this one tributary system. But generations of mining, grazing, and agricultural water diversions have left the East Fork's streams channelized and cut off from their floodplains, with fish passage blocked and summer flows running scarce just when fish need cold water most.

CalTrout is leading a restoration effort here alongside The Wildlands Conservancy, the Karuk Tribe, the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation, the Scott River Watershed Council, the Siskiyou County Office of Education, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA Fisheries. The plan reconnects historic floodplains and rebuilds aquatic habitat across three tributaries by adding side channels, alcoves, and large wood structures, replacing culverts and building new bridges to restore fish passage, and protecting fish at water diversions while enhancing groundwater recharge. A dedicated project on Big Mill Creek will reopen 1.4 miles of cold-water tributary habitat on its own.

A $2.9 million grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board, announced in March 2026, is advancing the project's most transformational piece: restoring roughly a third of a mile of aquatic corridor where two key tributaries converge, with construction expected to begin in summer 2027. A complementary $1 million Caltrans project addressing fish passage is scheduled to break ground even sooner, in summer 2026. The project also builds a lasting connection between the community and this landscape, with field trips set to bring more than 250 local students each year to experience the headwaters restoration firsthand, starting in late 2026.