North Yuba River Salmon Reintroduction Efforts Enter Second Year with Spawning, Fertilization of 350,000 Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Eggs

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 13:07:39 GMT

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and its partners have initiated a second year of spring-run Chinook salmon reintroduction efforts into historic habitat in the North Yuba River.

Roughly 350,000 spring-run Chinook salmon eggs were collected and fertilized recently at the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville. The eggs will be hydraulically injected into the North Yuba River’s gravel substrate next month, as was done successfully last fall.

The North Yuba River Spring-run Chinook Salmon Reintroduction Program is a multiagency, multifaceted effort to bring the state and federally listed threatened species back to its historic cold-water spawning and rearing habitat in the mountains of Sierra County. Access to this habitat has been blocked by two dams for almost a century.

Since launching in late 2024, the ambitious program has advanced several successful reintroduction methods.

Last fall, CDFW and its partners – including the Yuba Water Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and the U.S. Forest Service – conducted the first large-scale hydraulic egg injection in the North Yuba River, planting approximately 300,000 fertilized spring-run Chinook salmon eggs over a 12-mile stretch of gravel riverbed along Highway 49 just east Downieville.

In the months that followed, juvenile salmon were detected through both screw trap collections and snorkel surveys, confirming the method’s success and the river’s potential to support salmon at early developmental stages.

Building on that success, the program marked another milestone this spring with the release of 42 adult spring-run Chinook salmon from the Feather River Fish Hatchery into the North Yuba River.

This represents the first time in California that adult spring-run Chinook salmon have been reintroduced above a rim dam – a landmark achievement for salmon recovery in the state.

Acoustic telemetry has since detected the salmon moving throughout the system, and biologists expect them to spawn naturally this fall -- an event not seen in generations. Their offspring will be monitored alongside those from the hydraulic egg injections to compare survival and rearing outcomes.

“The return of adult salmon to the North Yuba River is an exciting milestone, but it’s just one piece of the larger reintroduction strategy,” said Michelle Forsha, Senior Environmental Scientist with CDFW’s North Central Region. “Our goal is to evaluate multiple approaches that can help reestablish a self-sustaining population in this watershed.”

The North Yuba River effort is part of a larger statewide initiative to return salmon to cold-water habitats upstream of dams and other barriers – work that is central to the long-term survival of salmon in California and a key priority of Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future (PDF).

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Media Contacts:
Michelle Forsha, CDFW North Central Region, (916) 618-3376
Peter Tira, CDFW Communications, (916) 738-9641

CDFW Awards $13 Million for Coho Recovery Projects on the North Coast

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:14:22 GMT

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today announced the award of funding to an initial 15 multi-benefit restoration and protection projects for North Coast coho salmon recovery under its Proposition 1 grant program.

The awards, totaling approximately $13 million, were made under CDFW’s 2021 Proposition 1 North Coast Coho Recovery Proposal Solicitation Notice. This solicitation was part of CDFW’s Cutting the Green Tape initiative to increase the pace and scale of restoration by making the permitting and granting processes more efficient. CDFW’s Watershed Restoration Grants Branch partnered with the North Coast Salmon Project on this solicitation, focusing on coho salmon recovery in North Coast watersheds.

“We have an opportunity to double down on coho recovery on the North Coast this year,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We’re focusing grant funding in watersheds aligned with our North Coast Salmon Project while moving forward in key areas to improve the overall process under Cutting the Green Tape.”

The approved projects complement CDFW’s ongoing initiatives toward species recovery and provide resilience to climate change, representing priorities outlined in the solicitation, as well as the California Water Action Plan, State Wildlife Action Plan, California EcoRestore, Safeguarding California Plan, the California Biodiversity Initiative and the fulfillment of CDFW’s mission.

Projects approved for funding through the Prop. 1 Watershed Grant Program include:

Implementation Projects:

Garcia River Estuary Enhancement Project ($2,838,211 to The Nature Conservancy)
Bull Creek Hamilton Reach Instream and Floodplain Habitat Restoration Project ($2,425,232 to California Trout, Inc.)
Mt. Gilead Water Conservation and Streamflow Improvement Project ($1,406,465 to the North Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council)
The South Fork Eel River Seasonal Fish Weir: Targeting segregation and removal of an invasive predatory fish to benefit recovering salmonids ($542,545 to California Trout, Inc.)
Large Wood Augmentation in High Priority Coho Salmon Habitat in Mendocino County ($884,048 to Trout Unlimited, Inc.)
Yale Creek Watershed Protection and Enhancement Project ($474,942 to Sonoma State University)

Planning Projects:

Eel River Arundo Eradication Planning Project ($52,087 to the Eel River Watershed Improvement Group)
Greene Off-Channel Habitat Enhancement Design Project ($452,869 to the North Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council)
Lagunitas Creek Coho Habitat Enhancement Final Design Plan ($869,178 to the Marin Municipal Water District)
Ten Mile River Habitat Enhancement Phase 2 Design ($694,651 to The Nature Conservancy)
Atascadero Subwatershed Streamflow Enhancement Planning Project ($85,568 to the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District)
Mill Creek Streamflow Enhancement Focused Outreach and Planning ($209,640 to the Coast Range Watershed Institute)
Sproul Creek Road Erosion and Fish Passage Barrier Assessment and Implementation Planning Project ($589,455 to the Pacific Coast Fish, Wildlife and Wetlands Restoration Association)
Navarro-Mill Creek Habitat Enhancement Project ($787,436 to The Nature Conservancy)
Indian Creek Aquatic Habitat Improvement Design Project ($397,785 to the Eel River Watershed Improvement Group)

General information about CDFW’s Prop. 1 Restoration Grant Programs, as well as a schedule for upcoming grant solicitations, once available, can be found at wildlife.ca.gov/grants.

Funding for these projects comes from Prop. 1 bond funds, a portion of which are allocated annually through the California State Budget Act. More information about Prop. 1 is on the California Natural Resources Agency website.

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Media Contacts:
Matt Wells, CDFW Watershed Restoration Grant Branch, (916) 216-7848
Jordan Traverso, CDFW Communications, (916) 212-7352

CDFW News

North Yuba River Salmon Reintroduction Efforts Enter Second Year with Spawning, Fertilization of 350,000 Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Eggs

CDFW Awards $13 Million for Coho Recovery Projects on the North Coast

Implementation Projects:

Planning Projects: