On January 30, Governor Gavin Newsom released a plan for reversing the decline of native salmon and steelhead in California. This plan, California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, affirms that actions and policies long supported by TU, tribes, and fishing and conservation groups are key to recovery of native salmon and steelhead and their fisheries, and that strategic, sustained collaboration will be needed to implement these actions and policies.
The Way Forward for the Eel River
This month, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) released the initial draft of its plan to remove two old, fish-killing dams on the Eel River.
First of the Klamath dams comes down
Copco II, the first of four dams to be removed on the Klamath River, is nearly gone. Crews have been working hard this summer to remove the concrete structure and restore the river channel.
Extraordinary measures
TU and partners sue Pacific Gas and Electric to restore California’s third largest river and its legendary salmon and steelhead fisheries
Reconnecting the Klamath
The decades-long campaign Trout Unlimited and our Tribal and conservation partners have waged to restore the third most productive river for salmon and steelhead on the West Coast has taken a dramatic leap forward toward eventual dam removal.
Freeing the Eel
The Eel River is the last, best hope for recovery of wild salmon and steelhead in California. But two old, fish-killing dams on the Eel block access to over 200 miles of high-quality spawning and nursery habitat in the headwaters and, a major factor in the decline of anadromous fishes in California’s third largest watershed.
Striper hunting in steelhead country
Wild Steelheaders United shifts into turbocharge—and takes on a voracious predator
Small waters, big fish
Our Washington Coast Restoration Program, is working in coastal watersheds of the Evergreen State to remove or replace decrepit culverts and road crossings and other barriers to wild steelhead migration.
Business as usual won’t restore the Eel River
At one time, California’s Eel River once had incredibly abundant salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey fisheries. But dams, major water diversions, legacy impacts from clearcut logging, and illegal cannabis cultivation have compromised the Eel’s productivity for salmonids and lamprey.
Last best chance for recovery of Klamath salmon and steelhead
There is real hope for restoring the Klamath River and its fisheries, however. That’s because a multi-decade effort to remove the four dams of the Lower Klamath Project—in which Trout Unlimited has played a major role—is now close to the finish line.