CDFW Newshttps://wildlife.ca.gov/NewsCDFW Awards $14 Million for Salmon, Steelhead Habitat Restoration Projectshttps://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/cdfw-awards-14-million-for-salmon-steelhead-habitat-restoration-projectsSalmonTue, 12 Dec 2023 16:04:32 GMTCDFW today announced the selection of 26 projects that will receive a collective $14 million to protect, restore and enhance the freshwater habitats of salmon and steelhead in northern California.<p>The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today announced the selection of 26 projects that will receive a collective $14 million to protect, restore and enhance the freshwater habitats of salmon and steelhead in northern California.</p> <p>Trout Unlimited, Inc. was awarded more than $2 million for the Duffy Gulch Fish Passage Improvement Project in Mendocino County. This project will remove a railroad stream crossing along the Mendocino Railway and restore fish access to nearly three miles of high-quality spawning and rearing habitat in Duffy Gulch, a tributary to the Noyo River. The new crossing will be a 45-foot diameter steel arch that will allow fish passage and is capable of handling a 100-year flood event.</p> <p>All projects were awarded through CDFW’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program (FRGP). FRGP was first established in 1981 and since 2000, has included funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. The fund was created by Congress to reverse the declines of Pacific salmon and steelhead throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. This award also includes funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to help support the recovery, conservation, and resilience of Pacific salmon and steelhead.</p> <p>“California’s salmon continue to face the challenges of both past and present, through countless legacy impacts to fish passage and growing climate-driven threats to their seasonal cycles,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “In the face of these grim challenges, we find optimism and hope through projects like these, which will restore access to miles of river habitat and acres of floodplain, greatly improving the productivity and sustainably of fish populations.”</p> <p><strong>Other Awarded Project Highlights</strong></p> <p><strong>California Conservation Corps Watershed Stewards Program 2023</strong><br /> (Nearly $700,000 Awarded to California Conservation Corps Watershed Stewards Program in partnership with AmeriCorps)</p> <p>The California Conservation Corps Watershed Stewards Program in Partnership with AmeriCorps will enlist 44 Corps members throughout coastal California to enhance watersheds that support salmon, steelhead and other types of migrating fish through restoration and protection, community education and recruiting volunteers for hands-on projects.</p> <p><strong>Lagunitas Creek Coho Habitat Enhancement Plan</strong><br /> (Nearly $600,000 Awarded to the Marin Municipal Water District)</p> <p>This project will fully fund the design, permitting and environmental review for Phase 2 of the Lagunitas Creek Coho Habitat Enhancement Plan. Phase 2 consists of five enhancement sites located within Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County. This project has also been funded through CDFW Proposition 1 and Proposition 68 grants in collaboration with Marin Water and California State Parks since 2020.</p> <p>In response to the 2023 Fisheries Habitat Restoration Grant Solicitation, CDFW received 35 proposals requesting more than $23 million in funding. The proposals underwent a thorough technical review involving subject matter experts from CDFW and NOAA.</p> <p>The complete list of approved projects is available on the <a href="/Grants/FRGP/Funded">Fisheries Restoration Grant Program</a> website.</p> <p>###</p> <p><em><strong>CDFW Photo: </strong>Fish passage structure to be replaced.</em></p> <p><em><strong>Media Contacts:</strong><br /> <a href="mailto:matt.wells@wildlife.ca.gov">Matt Wells</a>, Watershed Restoration Grants Branch, (916) 216-7848<br /> <a href="mailto:steve.gonzalez@wildlife.ca.gov">Steve Gonzalez</a>, CDFW Communications, (916) 804-1714</em></p> State Agencies Partner to Support Salmon Populations While Supplying Water to Millions of Californianshttps://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/state-agencies-partner-to-support-salmon-population-while-supplying-water-to-millions-of-californiansSalmonMon, 09 May 2022 10:39:26 GMTCalifornia’s severe climate-driven drought is having a significant impact on the state’s water supply, but it’s also putting the state’s salmon population at serious risk. Managing California’s water needs during this water supply crisis means minimizing the impacts of drought and water management on the environment while meeting the health and safety needs of communities and supporting the economy and agriculture. DWR and CDFW are actively working to respond to drought and climate change impacts on native species and ecosystems.<p>California's severe climate-driving drought is having a significant impact on the state's water supply, but it's also putting the state's salmon population at serious risk.</p> <p>Managing California’s water needs during this water supply crisis means minimizing the impacts of drought and water management on the environment while meeting the health and safety needs of communities and supporting the economy and agriculture. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are actively working to respond to drought and climate change impacts on native species and ecosystems.</p> <p>Scientists and fish biologists from DWR and CDFW have a long history of working together to protect and support California’s salmon populations. Collaborating through shared projects, funding, and research efforts, DWR and CDFW are identifying critical challenges facing salmon and using the best available science and technology to find ways to promote salmon health and survival.</p> <p>The state has embarked on dozens of projects to ensure the success of California’s salmon populations. These projects include restoring critical habitat for salmon and other fish species, improving salmon migration corridors to and from the ocean, and increasing monitoring efforts to better track the status of populations and devise new strategies to improve their status.</p> <p>Among the recent highlights:</p> <ul> <li>In April, DWR and CDFW staff began work to remove vegetation from a key migratory path for adult spring-run Chinook salmon in the Sutter Bypass that runs parallel to the Sacramento River southwest of the Sutter Buttes. Each year, from February through June, salmon migrate through the East Borrow canal of the bypass on their way to spawning grounds near Chico. Waters are warmer in the bypass because of the severe drought and changing climate, and that has resulted in extensive overgrowth of aquatic vegetation that impedes adult salmon migration. DWR and CDFW scientists are working together to clear this migration pathway and ensure improved mobility and water quality for migrating adult spring-run Chinook salmon returning to their spawning grounds. A video of the project is available on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz45brfKfM" target="_blank">DWR YouTube channel</a>.</li> <li>Further up the Sacramento River, returning salmon will find a new side channel with gravel suitable for spawning and riverbank vegetation to help reduce water temperatures. The warming climate and dry conditions are leading to increased river temperatures that can have fatal consequences for salmon. The new side channel was designed by DWR engineers and constructed by a tribal contractor near Anderson at a location where DWR and CDFW scientists observed numerous salmon taking advantage of the calmer waters to spawn. The side channel doubles as a place where juveniles can grow and thrive after hatching and emerging from the gravel. Similar activities to improve spawning locations through the application of suitable gravel have occurred in the Feather River, the Sacramento River’s largest tributary, and more are being planned.</li> <li>Also underway along two tributaries of the Sacramento River in Tehama County is an enhanced research and monitoring project for spring-run juvenile salmon in Mill and Deer creeks by CDFW biologists under funding by DWR. These are two of a handful of streams in the Central Valley that still support the unique yearling-type juvenile salmon, which remain in the waterbody after hatching for nearly a year before beginning downstream migration and are believed to be the only salmon from these two streams that survive drought conditions and eventually return to spawn. Yearling-type juvenile salmon were plentiful in streams across the Central Valley prior to dam construction and were likely a key factor in the resiliency of Central Valley salmon populations.</li> <li>A major multi-agency effort is underway to assist migration of winter- and spring-run adults and juveniles around dams on the Upper Sacramento River and tributaries so they can access historical spawning and rearing-habitat that has been inaccessible for decades since dam construction. This summer, DWR and CDFW will participate in an effort with multiple agencies, tribes and interested parties to test a system intended to collect juvenile salmon as they make their way downstream – a critical component of the assisted migration process. This and other similar relocation projects are being considered as one of many ways to help ensure Central Valley salmon persist through the extended droughts predicted for California’s future.</li> <li>State, federal, and university scientists are working to uncover new information and develop new actions to support and protect California’s salmon. For the last two years, scientists observed that many baby salmon are dying before they hatch, or shortly thereafter, and discovered the cause was a thiamine deficiency in their parents resulting from a shift in the ocean food web, a phenomenon recently observed in a number of fish populations around the globe. While a simple thiamine bath has proven effective in alleviating this deficiency in hatchery fish, naturally spawning salmon in the rivers continue to be heavily impacted. Last spring, DWR and CDFW began thiamine treatments on the large number of adult spring-run salmon that pass through the Feather River Fish Hatchery but are released back into the river to spawn in an effort to help this already drought-stricken salmon population weather the period of altered ocean conditions.</li> </ul> <p>These projects are a few examples of many long-term collaborations among federal, state, local, non-governmental, tribal, and academic partners that have joined forces to support salmon survival.</p> <p>To learn more about collaborative projects protecting salmon populations, check out the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ec90d4a7ba744688973d9073d9b75aed" target="_blank">DWR website</a> highlighting these efforts and more. Additional projects will be featured throughout the summer.</p> <p>###</p> <p><em>Photo of Chinook salmon spawning in the Feather River courtesy of the Department of Water Resources.</em></p>