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From headwaters to estuaries — every link in the chain.

We focus on restoring every component of a stream — so our watersheds are functional and vibrant, capable of supporting fish and people for generations to come.

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Photo: Emily Titus

The state of California’s streams

California’s rivers and streams are the arteries of our state.

They provide water for drinking, agriculture, commerce — and habitat for salmon, steelhead, and trout. Today, many rivers’ headwaters, floodplains, and estuaries are disconnected or degraded. CalTrout is working to fix that, identifying the highest priority streams that need our help and making large-scale restoration happen on the ground.

Without access to healthy headwaters, fish lose critical climate refuge from summer heat — and the impacts ripple downstream throughout the entire watershed, affecting not just fish but all water users. Disconnected floodplains cut fish off from the food web that fuels their journeys up and down rivers, reducing habitat diversity and eliminating the slow-water refuges they need to survive high flows while exacerbating extreme flood risks for human communities. Without healthy estuaries, young fish lack a place to transition from freshwater to saltwater and coastal communities are less resilient to flooding and other extreme weather events.

Our team is working across the state and across every link in the chain — from headwaters to floodplains to estuaries and all the stream in between — to recover California’s wild fish populations. We’ve been doing this work for more than 50 years, and we know how to solve large, complex environmental challenges.

Photo: Pusher, Inc.

Where Rivers Begin

Headwaters

Headwaters are where rivers are born — and where California’s water supply begins. While some headwaters have been cut off from downstream rivers by dams and other barriers (explore our work to Reopen Rivers), many remain connected but are no longer functioning as healthy ecosystems. Healthy headwaters have forests, meadows, and springs that capture, store, and slowly release clean, cold water to sustain fish, wildlife, farms, and communities downstream. But catastrophic wildfire, meadow degradation, and a changing climate have disrupted these natural systems, reducing their ability to support the watershed and its communities downstream. CalTrout studies and restores headwater landscapes to rebuild these natural processes, ensuring they continue producing the cold, reliable water that native fish — and millions of Californians — depend on.

Recent Successes

June Mountain Forest Health Project

By-Day Creek Forest Health Project

Upper Sacramento River Source Waters Science Study

active & Upcoming

Glass Mountain Meadow Restoration

McCloud Redband Trout Protection

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Recovery

Where Rivers Slow Down & Feed Fish

Floodplains

California’s floodplains were once among the state’s most productive ecosystems, generating the abundant food that fueled thriving wild fish populations, providing habitat diversity for aquatic wildlife, and slowing down water during floods so both fish and people could thrive. Over the past 150 years, levees and development have disconnected rivers from these seasonal wetlands, cutting fish off from the food they need to survive and reducing the habitat diversity they need to thrive. CalTrout is reconnecting rivers to their floodplains, restoring the natural food web that helps young fish grow stronger before migrating to the ocean, enhancing habitat diversity, and creating slow-water refuge for fish during floods — while also improving flood protection and groundwater recharge for surrounding human communities

Recent Successes

Prairie Creek Floodplain Restoration at ‘O Rew

Bull Creek, Hamilton Reach Floodplain Restoration

active & Upcoming

String of Pearls, Sacramento River Floodplain Restoration

Floodplain Forward Coalition

Fish Food on the Floodplains

Photo: Michael Wier

Where Rivers Meet the Sea

Estuaries

Estuaries, where freshwater rivers meet the ocean, are among California’s most productive ecosystems. These food-rich habitats give young salmon and steelhead the time and nourishment they need to grow stronger and adapt to saltwater before beginning life in the ocean. But development, altered river flows, and habitat loss have disconnected many estuaries from the natural processes fish depend on. CalTrout restores these vital transition zones so fish can successfully complete one of the most important stages of their journey while improving water quality, supporting coastal wildlife, and strengthening the resilience of California’s coastal communities.

Recent Successes

Baduwa’t (Mad River) Estuary Restoration

Pescadero Marsh (post-restoration monitoring)

active & Upcoming

Cannibal Island, Eel River Estuary Restoration

Elk River Estuary Restoration

Redwood Creek Estuary

WATCH · Restoration Amidst the Redwoods on Bull Creek

Watch our work in action.

Nestled in the world’s largest remaining old-growth redwood forest, Bull Creek is once again becoming a place where endangered coho can thrive, thanks to floodplain and habitat restoration completed in 2023.

Our work in action

Restoring and protecting streams across California.

From the coastal streams of the North Coast to the Upper Sacramento River basin springs to High Sierra mountain meadows, our stream restoration portfolio spans the state and leaves no link in the chain unaddressed.

Support Caltrout

We can’t take California for granted.

At CalTrout, our goal is to restore vibrance and abundance to California’s freshwater ecosystems, and to keep them that way for years to come. With the help of local and national partners, we are building a future where wild fish and flowing rivers remain a defining part of California.

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