WATERSHED REVIEW 2020-21 SCIENCE. POLICY. ACTION.

PROTECT Science-based Solutions THE BEST Sound science informs our work Established as a scientific leader on fish and water issues in the state, California Trout roots its projects in research to drive innovative, science-based solutions to Strategies the state’s resource issues. Our 2017 State of the Salmonids II: Fish in Hot Water scientific report, written in partnership with UC Davis Center for Watershed Backed by Sciences, found that 45% of our native salmon, steelhead and trout will be extinct INTEGRATE WILD RECONNECT FISH AND WORKING Science HABITAT in 50 years if present trends continue. The report identifies climate change as LANDSCAPES the major, overarching human-caused threat affecting salmonids in California. S Advocacy and Legislation “Over a span of 49 years, CalTrout has come CalTrout has deep roots in using advocacy to create change to signify scientific From day one, we championed wild trout management and the concept of catch and release, spearheading efforts to enact programs and legislation to protect credibility, a strong STEWARD SOURCE RESTORE WATER AREAS ESTUARIES California’s trout resources. We work to build and maintain relationships with and respected voice on legislators and relevant agencies on key local, regional, and statewide issues statewide water and fish ranging from carbon sequestration policy to funding for floodplain-fish projects. policy, and an enduring On the Ground Action legacy of on-the-ground Greater impact, broader scope, and increased scale projects and measurable This Watershed Review is a summary of the work we’re doing today on behalf outcomes.” of native fish and healthy rivers which will have an impact for decades, even - Curtis Knight centuries. From headwaters to sea, we are removing barriers from Southern California to the Oregon border–Klamath, Scott, Matilija, Santa Margarita, Rindge. Reshaping how resources are managed in California with our innovative, science- Our project work is focused driven work in the Central Valley. And championing meaningful legislation on 5 key initiatives–strategies for our native fish and rivers. that science-based findings Enjoy reading about the impact your support has made possible for generations in the SOS II scientific report to come. identified as necessary to return California’s native With thanks, fish to resilience:

Protect the Best Salmon and Steelhead Strongholds and Wild Curtis Knight, CalTrout Executive Director Trout Waters

Integrate Wild Fish and Working Landscapes Fish and People

Reconnect Habitat Dams Out, Removing Migration Barriers

Steward Source Water Areas Water Security for Fish and People

Restore Estuaries Front cover: Mt. Shasta. Photo: Mike Wier The Land Sea Interface CalTrout Staff at 2019 Gala. Front cover: Shasta. Photo: Mike Wier 2 3 WILD TROUT WATERS

SOUTH COAST Protecting Anadromous Fish Populations PROJECT GOAL: Increasing genetic diversity of native rainbow trout and recovering PROTECT INCREASE endangered Southern California steelhead. IN NUMBERS OF NATIVE RAINBOW TROUT Southern steelhead represent the THE BEST southern edge of the species’ range and are critically vulnerable to Keep strongholds–places that still DECREASE climate change. CalTrout is leading have wild fish abundance–intact. IN NON-NATIVE the South Coast Steelhead Coalition AQUATIC SPECIES (SCSC) and the Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition in the Native Rainbow Trout Subpoulation FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: PROJECTS ACROSS Expansion Plan Project. SOUTHERN STEELHEAD 15 FIVE REGIONS Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus The goal is to increase anadromous populations, while preserving the TOP 3 THREATS ADDRESSED: genetic and geographic diversity of

LOW inland native rainbow trout that are of steelhead lineage and important for steelhead ALIEN SPECIES recovery. The four high priority rivers targeted for restoring anadromous steelhead FIRE MODERATE HATCHERIES populations are the San Luis Rey, Santa Margarita River, San Mateo Creek and San Juan Creek. As part of the SCSC, CalTrout is working to ensure anadromous fish HIGH populations can successfully migrate between the ocean and freshwater habitats. 1.9 Connecting these steelhead populations to each other and to the ocean will CRITICAL There are still places in California with abundant wild strengthen the regional population network and increase resiliency of the species. Preserving native trout populations can be achieved by translocating native trout fish–and we intend to keep them that way. Salmon and EXTINCT steelhead strongholds like the Smith River, California’s as embryos into suitable habitat and using managed breeding to maximize genetic signature stronghold river, and the Eel River, are places SCORE: 1.9 CRITICAL diversity. The end goal is not to maximize trout numbers, but to create stable and where sustainable wild fish abundance exist or is still small populations in geographically dispersed areas.

achievable. Likewise, there are iconic wild trout waters This will serve as ecological risk mitigation from sporadic local extinction caused that require near constant vigilance from myriad by severe environmental changes such as fire, drought, water quality or quantity of threats. Places like Hat Creek, Fall River, Owen’s alterations, non-native species competition, climate change and disease. In 2019, River, McCloud. For over 49 years we’ve been working CalTrout began project planning and development, and is working on a path forward to protect California’s iconic wild trout waters. Our for project funding.

commitment has never been stronger. Left: Adult and juvenile steelhead, Maria Ygnacio Creek. Photo: Mark Capelli Photo: Mike Hupp Middle: Coldwater trout. Photo: Kerwin Russell, RCRCD. Top: Rainbow trout. Photo: Mike Wier

4 PROTECT THE BEST

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH SOUTH COAST Fall River Wild Trout Monitoring and Genetics Program West Fork San Luis Rey Native Trout Protection Partnership Since 2013, team members from CalTrout, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences The West Fork San Luis Rey River in San Diego County has one of two known @Work and Fall River Conservancy, have collected and tagged 3,354 fish with Passive remaining native rainbow trout populations of coastal steelhead descent in extreme integrated Transponders (PIT). The PIT tags track fish movement, allowing us to Southern California. This population is in a remote canyon of the San Luis Rey River, monitor population trends and life history patterns to identify key habitat areas identified as a high priority steelhead recovery watershed in the Southern California The California Salmon & for protection. Fish tagging occurs twice a year, once after fishing seasons ends Steelhead Recovery Plan (NMFS, 2012). This project will remove non-native aquatic Steelhead Coalition in November and again before it begins in April. Researchers also collected small species that inhibit native trout survival, and perform genetic studies to identify The California Salmon & Steelhead samples of genetic data from fins. The genetic analysis has revealed that there are important trends in inbreeding depression. Non-native aquatic species removal by Coalition is a strategic partnership genetically-different sub-populations of rainbow trout in the Fall River. These sub- CDFW in 2019 was successful in reducing the number of bullhead and, coupled with between California Trout, The Nature populations encounter each other in the main Fall River system but are segregated sufficient rainfall that year, led to a more stable native trout population. Conservancy, and Trout Unlimited in spawning locations with very little gene flow between populations. This program to increase streamflows in California’s illustrates how CalTrout uses partnership, technology, and innovative science to SOUTH COAST North and Central Coast watersheds, improve fisheries management. San Mateo Creek Non-Native Removal with the goal of restoring and protecting SIERRA HEADWATERS One of the main threats to steelhead recovery is the presence of non-native aquatic wild salmon and steelhead and creating species that out-compete native species for limiting resources in the river, and water reliability for people. June Mountain Fuels Reduction Phase II prey on eggs and juvenile stages of native species. San Mateo Creek is inundated CalTrout, June Mountain Ski Area, and Inyo National Forest are working together with non-native aquatic species including bass, crayfish, bluegill, bull frogs, black The Coalition is working towards a to remove beetle-killed whitebark pines and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire bullheads, green sunfish, and carp. The Regional Water Quality Control Board is California where water management in the Rush Creek watershed. By mimicking the effects of the natural fire regime, performing eDNA studies to identify invasive species and locations. CalTrout will supports the water supply needs of mechanical thinning is clearing out patches of dead forest and understory and pursue public outreach to control source populations upstream to enhance habitat people and the recovery and protection Inserting PIT tag into fish. Photo: Val Atkinson producing less dense and multi-aged pine stands. The healthier forest benefits the throughout the lower watershed. of salmon and steelhead. By leveraging June Lake community, California’s iconic biodiversity, recreation opportunities, and the combined strengths and expertise downstream water users. This project is now in its second phase to thin out patches to advance the innovative science, of dead forest, for a total of 216 acres of forest treated. on-the-ground projects, policy reforms, and collaborative approaches SIERRA HEADWATERS needed the Coalition is restoring and Owens River Protection protecting wild salmon and steelhead and creating water reliability for In 2013, CalTrout helped negotiate the Mono Basin Settlement, ending decades of people. The work is demonstrating lawsuits and strife over how much water could be diverted from four key Mono Lake that growing demands for water can tributaries to serve Los Angeles water users. Today, we are continuing to ensure full be balanced through innovation implementation of the settlement to protect the Upper Owens River headwaters and partnerships that dynamically and Mono Basin fisheries; actions include upgrading Grant Dam and the subsequent deploy water to benefit people delivery of long-term flows, as well as an extensive monitoring program. and nature. SOUTH COAST Sespe Creek Restoration at Rose Valley Lakes The Rose Valley watershed is a spring-fed tributary to Sespe Creek located in Los Padres National Forest (LPNF). Sespe Creek is the longest stretch of undammed Dead Whitebark Pine. Photo: Mike Wier river in Southern California, designated as a Wild and Scenic River and is critical habitat for endangered Southern California Steelhead. The Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition (SCRSC), led by CalTrout, prioritized restoration projects in the Sespe Creek watershed and is leading an effort to understand what a restoration project at the Rose Valley Recreation Area would entail. We will provide LPNF with robust actionable information to support future planning decisions at this location. Restoration of Rose Valley Creek will achieve ecologic, biologic and public recreation objectives consistent with LPNF’s Forest Management Plan. This project, in addition to supporting the recovery of southern steelhead, increases native species resiliency to future disturbances, such as fire, drought, and threats or the disturbance from aquatic invasive species.

Rose Valley Lakes. Photo: Mike Wier Upper West Fork San Luis Rey River Pool. Photo: Sandra Jacobson Russian River Steelhead. Photo: Will Boucher 5 6 SALMON AND STEELHEAD STRONGHOLDS PROTECT THE BEST

NORTH COAST Adult Salmonid Sonar Monitoring Program protect the CalTrout has been using a SONAR system to estimate abundance of spawning Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead on the South Fork Eel River with support from best the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Steelhead Report and Restoration Card Program. The DIDSON SONAR System, located 10 miles above the South Fork confluence with the Eel River, records video of fish as they migrate upstream to their spawning grounds. SONAR technology allows us to more accurately monitor salmon which, under past survey techniques, might have been undetectable. Advocacy & Project partners include CA Department of Fish and Wildlife, CA State Parks, and the California Conservation Corps. Legislation

NORTH COAST into Action

NORTH COAST South Fork Eel River Protection NORTH COAST Restoring Salmon and Steelhead Habitat in the This salmon and steelhead stronghold represents the best opportunity to restore wild PROJECT GOAL: fish abundance. Situated at the center of the Emerald Triangle, Northern California’s Smith River Protection Redwood Creek Watershed hotbed of cannabis cultivation, the South Fork of the Eel River has been impacted by Tucked in the far northwest corner MILES excessive water diversions in many of its tributaries. Improving streamflows is critical of the state, the Smith River remains 0.8 Improving habitat for all juveniles salmonids in the entire to protecting key life-stages for coho salmon and steelhead survival. CalTrout is one of California’s healthiest, most OF ENHANCED STREAM FLOW ALONG 282-square-mile Redwood creek watershed. working with the State Water Board and other state agencies, our Salmon and pristine rivers and is a critical salmon RESTORED CREEK SEGMENT Steelhead Coalition, and water management experts to develop a water policy and and steelhead stronghold. Working The Prairie Creek Restoration Project is located 3.5 miles upstream from the ocean water management program for the SF Eel River and North Coast region that will ensure alongside Smith River Alliance, and marks a very important location in the lives of salmon and steelhead in the protection of native salmonid populations and other public trust values while providing CalTrout is defending the watershed 18 ACRES Redwood Creek watershed–this site is the last downstream opportunity to provide reasonable water supplies for domestic water uses as well as for irrigated agriculture. from nickel mining, pesticides from OF ADJACENT FLOODPLAIN floodplain rearing habitat in the system. The project is a collaborative effort with lily-bulb farming, and highway MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH WILL BE RECONNECTED Save the Redwoods League (League), California Trout, the Yurok Tribe, the National construction (101, 199), among other Park Service, California State Parks, NOAA Restoration Center, NMFS, State Coastal Hat Creek Restoration and Cultural Protection threats. We have advocated for, and thanks to the help of our supporters, FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: Conservancy, CDFW, USACE, and local consultants. This legendary fishery is the birthplace of CalTrout and where we continue to protect succeeded in designating the Smith its wild trout waters. Hat Creek’s spring-fed flows also produce a unique water CALIFORNIA COAST as an Oregon Outstanding Resource CHINOOK SALMON Prairie Creek runs through Redwood National and State Parks and is one of the most chemistry that contributes to high ecological productivity. Hat Creek rests atop an Water. We will remain forever vigilant Oncorhynchus tshawytscha immense lava field known as the Modoc Plateau where volcanic flows overlie marine pristine redwood watersheds remaining in California; and is critical habitat for in monitoring threats and advocating sedimentary rocks. As groundwater filters through these rocks, it picks up nutrients threatened Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead, as well as coastal cutthroat to protect the North Fork Smith that otherwise wouldn’t exist in a run-off dominated system. This recipe of constant trout. The coho population in Redwood Creek is one of the largest within its range, and watershed. LOW flows, stable temperatures, and abundant nutrients grows fish, bugs, and aquatic almost all of the coho derive from Prairie Creek. Between this location and the ocean, plants at extraordinary rates. The Hat Creek Restoration Project is critically important however, habitat conditions for salmonids are extremely poor. At the site the creek NORTH COAST MODERATE to sustaining California’s cold-water biodiversity and wild trout populations. We are 2.9 has steep banks and below the site treeless flood control levees confine the creek in continuing to maintain and steward the land. After the extensive restoration completed McCloud River Protection HIGH an orderly channel. Both settings leave little room for juvenile salmonids to access in 2017, Caltrout is working to secure another large grant from the Pacific Forest and The McCloud and Shasta dams have off-channel floodplain habitat that provides shelter from high flows and rich habitat Watershed Lands Stewardship Council to carry out additional habitat restoration work degraded the McCloud watershed’s CRITICAL to feed and grow prior to outmigration to the ocean. in partnership with the Pit River Tribe, CDFW, and PGE. This work leverages years pristine habitat, blocking salmon and of scientific data collection to continue restoring Hat Creek’s unique spring-creek steelhead migration and diverting EXTINCT Working closely with the League, CalTrout is leading a team to design and implement ecology and wild trout fishery. over 80% of the McCloud River’s restoration of Prairie Creek and tributaries to provide floodplain connectivity, and emerald green waters for hydropower. NORTH COAST SCORE: 2.9 HIGH increase wetland and native vegetation. This project site marks the most unique We aremain vigilent in opposing any position of being able to improve habitat for all juvenile salmonids in the entire Eel River Forum attempts to raise Shasta Dam. 282-square-mile Redwood creek watershed. The restoration of Prairie Creek is a part The mission of the Eel River Forum is to coordinate and integrate conservation and of the League and National Park’s visionary development of a new Redwood National recovery efforts in the Eel River watershed to conserve its ecological resilience, restore and State Park Visitor Center. At this World Heritage Site, restoration of critical its native fish populations, and protect other watershed beneficial uses. These actions are floodplain habitat for threatened Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead will also intended to enhance the economic vitality and sustainability of human communities be showcased for visitors from around the world. in the Eel River basin. The Eel River Forum, led by CalTrout and comprised of 22 public agencies, tribes, non-profit conservation organizations and other stakeholders, released the Eel River Action Plan. CalTrout and partners are now taking action on the priorities

Top: Prairie Creek. Photo: Mike Wier. Left: Coho salmon. Photo: Justin Garwood outlined in the plan to recover the Eel River watershed and its native fish. 7 8 Over the last 150 years, California’s population has INTEGRATE ballooned to over 40 million people and the state’s 17 rivers and landscapes have been irrevocably altered. PROJECTS ACROSS As a result, wild fish populations have suffered, with FIVE REGIONS WILD FISH 45% of the state’s native salmonids on a trajectory toward extinction in the next 50 years if current trends TOP 3 THREATS ADDRESSED: continue. For our native species to not just survive but AND WORKING thrive, we must incorporate a scientific understanding of natural process into our management of working landscapes. We are investing in innovative ways to LANDSCAPES balance landscapes to support both wild fish and AGRICULTURE human interests. URBANIZATION Achieve native fish abundance in California’s RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT altered landscape. Manage our working landscapes to support both wild fish and human interests. Central Valley. Photo: Mike Wier INTEGRATE WILD FISH & WORKING LANDSCAPES

NORTH COAST Endangered Species Recovery Program Reform CalTrout looks to use its organizational capacity, regional expertise, and clout to influence federal, state, and regional managers to pursue our common mission and vision to protect our valued public trust resources, our prized fish communities, and water resources that are at the foundation of California’s vast ecological and economic wealth. The expenditure of millions each year in public funds is a huge responsibility, and must be done strategically to achieve effective outcomes. By participating in numerous regional and state-wide committees we promote our mission of water and fish resource stewardship. These include: leading the California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead toward reform of state and federal grant programs for recovery of Endangered Species Act listed species; working with National Marine Fisheries Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife to implement their Endangered Species Recovery Plans; and MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH participating in the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program Peer Review Committee. Solutions that Balance the Needs of Ranchers PROJECT GOAL: NORTH COAST and Fish Elk River Recovery Program 14 RIVER MILES Working with landowners to increase irrigation efficiency while The Elk River in Northern California has had a contentious past. At the center of Coho salmon. Photo: Nick Bauer OF SPAWNING AND REARING enhancing flows for salmon and steelhead. the mid-90’s Timber Wars and the era of heavy clear-cutting, the Elk’s river system HABITAT RESTORED was left with a legacy of degradation that is still causing problems for landowners Parks Creek is a critical tributary to the Shasta River in the Mid-Klamath Basin. and native fish. CalTrout sees an urgent need to address the most pressing problems The Shasta River was historically one of the most productive salmon streams in the watershed–both ecologically and socially. By working with local interests 18 ACRES in California. Groundwater from cold, nutrient-rich springs provided nearly and agencies and leading technical studies, our goal is to recover the Elk River OF ADJACENT FLOODPLAIN ideal aquatic habitat conditions that supported large Chinook and coho salmon from the current severe water quality and sediment impairment, nuisance flooding conditions, habitat degradation, salmonid population reduction, and community WILL BE RECONNECTED populations. But more than a century of aquatic and riparian habitat degradation strife that resulted from years of excessive timber harvesting. along the Shasta River and its tributaries—including Parks Creek—has resulted in FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: dramatic declines in wild salmon populations. MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH SOUTHERN OREGON/NORTHERN Little Shasta River - Hart Ranch Fish Passage CALIFORNIA COAST COHO SALMON CalTrout’s Parks Creek Flow Enhancement and Fish Passage Project is working Oncorhynchus kisutch with the Cardoza Ranch to enhance flows and restore critical spawning and rearing and Flow Enhancement habitat for salmon and steelhead throughout the watershed. The project is essential The 4,500-acre Hart Ranch, a key landowner in the Little Shasta River watershed, for recovering salmon populations throughout the Mid-Klamath Basin because is irrigated primarily by open ditches from the 1800s. In partnership with UC Davis LOW degraded flows, water quality, and habitat conditions continue to limit spawning Center for Watershed Sciences, CalTrout is working with the Hart Ranch to improve and rearing in vital cold-water tributary streams. water use efficiency and restore cold, nutrient-rich flows back to the Little Shasta, MODERATE balancing the needs of livestock and wild fish. Overall, the project results in an additional 1.5 cfs of water instream for fish and optional dedication of the Hart Ranch’s With cooperation from the Cardoza Ranch, the Project will result in enhanced flow HIGH entire water right (approximately 20 cfs) for increased flow during critical salmonid of a minimum of 2.98 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water instream by moving the 1.7 life stages, such as spring out-migration. Enhancing flows at the right time of year will CRITICAL point of diversion 2.8 miles downstream and will also keep water instream due to result in connecting more than 10 miles of the Little Shasta River with the mainstem. Elk River Valley. Photo: Mike Wier increased irrigation efficiency by using California Public Resources Code § 1707. EXTINCT Additionally, the Project will also remove a major fish passage barrier, providing SCORE: 1.7 CRITICAL access for state and federally listed coho salmon to over 14 miles of critical spawning and rearing habitat.

The Parks Creek Flow Enhancement Project resolves water conflict in the Mid- Klamath Basin and Siskiyou County by providing win-win engineering solutions that balance the needs of farmers and fish and wildlife.

Left: Chinook salmon in bubbles. Photo: USFWS. Top: Parks Creek. Photo: Pusher HQ CalTrout board tour of Little Shasta River Flow Enhancement. Photo: Mike Wier 11 12 INTEGRATE WILD FISH & WORKING LANDSCAPES

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH BAY AREA Scott Valley Sustainable Groundwater Management Bay Area Outreach and Education Partnership Throughout the dry summer months in the Scott Valley, low flows negatively With the launch of our new region, we have leveraged existing and created new @Work impact water quality for the surrounding tribal communities and endangered partnerships to conduct outreach about the benefits of healthy watersheds and the salmonids. Climate change is anticipated to make dryer and warmer conditions condition of native salmonids. We are educating students, partners, fly clubs, and and consequent effect on listed salmonids the new normal. The project will pilot donors about steelhead and CalTrout’s approaches to conservation through local Outreach and Education a solution to improve groundwater conditions within the Valley, to enhance demonstration projects and partnerships. Our California Academy of Sciences CalTrout is proud to partner with streamflow, and improve water quality in critical locations of the mainstem Scott partnership has resulted in the creation of a steelhead exhibit, and is educating their organizations and museums that River. The project builds on an existing collaboration between local landowners, middle school Teen Advocates for Science participants about the salmon life-cycle, provide us the opportunity to educate the irrigation district, the Resource Conservation District, UC Davis, and CalTrout, entomology, and fly casting. Working with the Walker Creek Ranch Outreach and and inspire the local community and and engages the tribes to build a solution that addresses all stakeholder needs. Education program we are training naturalists in stream ecology to engage students, future generations about California’s As a member of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act technical advisory, and providing equipment and resources. Our partnership with Bay Area Youth Fly wonderful native fish and their habitat. CalTrout will use this project work to inform the groundwater sustainability plan Fishers is educating and inspiring our next generation of angler conservationists. currently under development for the region. BAY AREA MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH Walker Creek Coho Salmon Research and Monitoring Shasta River Hidden Valley Ranch On-Farm Water Efficiency Tomales Bay is the southernmost extent for wild, endangered, Central California The Shasta River is a cold-water refugia for coho salmon but has been historically Coast coho salmon and is fed primarily by Lagunitas Creek and Walker Creek. While impacted by agriculture diversions. This project seeks to balance water needs for Lagunitas Creek is a productive habitat for salmon and steelhead, coho salmon in farms and fish by improving water efficiency at Hidden Valley Ranch, located near Walker Creek were considered extirpated nearly two decades ago. Hatchery fish the Shasta River. Infrastructure improvements include reducing water loss from are now reintroduced by California Department of Fish and Wildlife every year, and ditch evaporation, installing efficient water exchange pipelines, and returning up despite some signs that a few coho do return to spawn, it is unclear if the habitat Scott River. Photo: Mike Wier to 2.5 cfs of cold water in the Shasta River using California Water Code 1707 for conditions could allow them to become re-established without this annual stocking. instream dedication. Additionally, the project will reduce fish stranding by Understanding this question is key to ensuring coho salmon thrive again in replacing an improved, solar-powered fish screen. Tomales Bay.

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH By partnering with key stakeholders, we are researching and monitoring Walker Shasta River Safe Harbor Policy Initiative Creek to understand the factors affecting and potentially limiting coho salmon recovery. A coho salmon life cycle modeling effort, led by NOAA Fisheries, has Bay Area Youth Fly Fishing at Golden Gate Angling The Shasta and Scott rivers have historically acted as nurseries supporting Casting Pond. Photo: Mike Wier begun in Spring 2020 and this research will fill key data gaps and inform this effort the entire Klamath River salmon population and generating the large majority as it expands. of returning adults. A key strategy in this recovery is working with public and private land owners to secure flows during peak spawning periods in exchange for regulatory assurances. Using tools and policies like voluntary Safe Harbor Agreements and California Water Code Section 1707, we are finding legal solutions for landowners that want to support salmon recovery efforts but might be Blair Hart reviewing flow enhancement work on Hart discouraged by regulatory roadblocks or fear of litigation. Specifically, in the Ranch with Mt. Shasta/Klamath Director Drew Braugh. Photo: Drew Alvarez Shasta Valley we are working to secure 10 Safe Harbor Agreements that will result in habitat restoration, in-stream flow dedications and water management and efficiency improvements in the Upper Shasta River.CalTrout’s key role in the context of Klamath Dam removal is to restore the most important salmon spawning and rearing tributaries in the Mid-Klamath.

BAY AREA Securing South Bay Stream Flows for Steelhead In the South Bay, CalTrout is actively engaged with partners in the Fisheries and Habitat Collaborative Effort (FAHCE) to ensure that stream flows are adequate to support steelhead survival year-round on Coyote and Stevens creeks and the Guadalupe River. Over twelve years into this process, we are focused on implementing release of sufficient streamflows from reservoirs that ensure steelhead are afforded adequate passage opportunities at key times of the year to complete their life cycles.

Walker Creek. Photo: Nick Cedar Walker Creek Ranch students. Photo: Nick Cedar

13 14 INTEGRATE WILD FISH & WORKING LANDSCAPES

CENTRAL VALLEY SOUTH COAST SOUTH COAST Floodplain Salmon Habitat and Food Web Practice Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve Steelhead Southern Steelhead Coalitions Standard Development Habitat Improvement CalTrout leads two steelhead coalitions in Southern California We are working with multiple partners to develop practice standards for winter water The Santa Margarita River offers one of the best opportunities compromised of over 45 federal, state, local agencies, tribal management in Sacramento Valley rice fields that produce benefits for fish, birds to re-establish a steelhead population in coastal Southern nations, environmental organizations, and fly clubs. The and agriculture or, as we like to say, “fins, feathers and farms”. We are integrating California. This project will increase the positive impact and South Coast Steelhead Coalition is based in San Diego and our scientific understanding of floodplain food web productivity, fish habitat multiple benefits of downstream fish passage barrier removal covers San Diego, Orange and Riverside Counties. The Santa needs, water management and agricultural practices into a set of methods that the projects by improving upstream steelhead habitat in the Santa Clara Steelhead Coalition is based in Ventura and focuses programs like the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service or the California Margarita Ecological Reserve through invasive vegetation and on the Santa Clara River. The conservation goal is to recover Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation can use in their payment incentive non-native aquatic species removal and localized sediment anadromous Southern California steelhead populations in programs. We are working with Audubon, Ducks Unlimited, Point Blue Conservation, reduction within a three-mile section of the Santa Margarita high priority rivers through fish passage barrier removal, the California Rice Commission and other groups to create a multi-species “fins and River to its headwaters. An extensive non-native aquatic non-native species removal, improved habitat, preservation feathers” practice standard that combines bird habitat work with a “fish food” practice species removal effort was performed in fall 2019 with state of wild native trout, and outreach. to drain floodplain-derived fish food from farms on the “dry side” levees to fish and federal agencies and NGOs in collaboration with the populations stuck in food-starved leveed river channels. American Conservation Experience crews. This electrofishing Fremont Weir, west side. Photo: Mike Wier field work revealed the extent to which this part of the river CENTRAL VALLEY has high levels of exotic species. Flood Infrastructure Retrofits By integrating a 21st-century scientific understanding of how river systems function into the management and operation of California’s outdated water infrastructure, we can create a system where both human systems and the ecosystems on which they depend become more resilient to a changing climate. This project seeks to update flood and water infrastructure and operational practices on the Sutter and Yolo bypasses to add fish benefits (enhance adult fish passage; facilitate long-duration floodplain inundation to create rearing habitat for endangered salmonids; increase floodplain fish food production) to the flood protection, agricultural and waterbird habitat benefits already provided by these managed floodways..

CENTRAL VALLEY Nigiri Project Now in its eighth year, this managed floodplain project continues to expand withmore than 10,000 acres planned in the Yolo and Sutter Bypasses. Working in partnership with DWR, CDFW, landowners, and the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences among many others, the science-based program has demonstrated that productivity created by shallow inundation of floodplains on dormant rice-fields is critical to supporting the food webs on which self-sustaining populations of fish, particularly endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, and wildlife in the Central Valley depend. In this next phase of the project we will leverage the floodplain research and pilot projects to influence state and federal water policy in order to expedite construction of multi- benefit water infrastructure improvements at the landscape scale. Santa Margarita River. Photo: Sandra Jacobson

CENTRAL VALLEY Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields In its third year, the FFFFF initiative conducted its first landscape-scale effort to reactivate floodplain food webs by flooding over 5,000 acres of rice fields in the Sacramento Valley. Capitalizing on our research showing that floodplains produce food resources 150 times greater than in the river, we worked with our partners to grow food on the flooded farm fields and transfer those resources back to the river where fish can access them. Fish in the river at the floodplain outfall and up to a mile downstream grew 3-5 times faster relative to fish immediately upstream of the floodplain delivery point. This science-based approach to managing California’s resources demonstrates that with innovative management practices, there is potential to boost the depleted food resources in Central Valley rivers and help recover endangered fish populations. Now entering its fifth year, the project will expand to include multiple floodplain drainage cycles, an additional floodplain delivery point, and up to 15,000 acres of farm fields under floodplain management. We will continue to study the impacts of floodplain management on river ecosystems, and add more fish food hot spots that turn the food-scarce Sacramento River into a “string of pearls” of foraging habitat for juvenile fish. Zooplankton surveys. Photo: Mike Wier 15 16 NORTH COAST

PROJECT GOAL: Removing Scott Dam–A Chance of a Lifetime RECONNECT Improving water security for the Russian and Eel River basins 1 MAJOR FISH BARRIER while improving conditions for native fish. REMOVED TO HONOR OUR MULTI- PARTNER AGREEMENT The Eel River once saw salmon and steelhead runs of as many as one million fish HABITAT annually. Today, in part due to highly reduced flows and major habitat alteration from the dams, the Eel River’s wild salmon and steelhead runs are dramatically Give salmon and steelhead access to RIVER MILES reduced. The Potter Valley Project in the upper Eel River watershed consists of two 288 dams, one of which, Scott Dam, is the only complete barrier to fish migration on the diverse habitat by removing barriers OF OF SALMON AND STEELHEAD HABITAT TO BE RESTORED mainstem Eel, blocking nearly 300 miles of native fish spawning and rearing habitat. and getting obsolete dams out. CalTrout is part of an effort that brings all parties involved to the table to support an agreement that ideally includes the decommissioning and removal of Scott Dam FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: and Cape Horn Dam. PROJECTS ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 15 FOUR REGIONS SUMMER STEELHEAD Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus CalTrout, along with Two-Basin Solution partners, Humboldt County, Sonoma Water, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, and the Round TOP 3 THREATS ADDRESSED: Valley Indian Tribes, have submitted a plan to the Federal Energy Regulatory

LOW Commission (FERC) on how the Potter Valley Project on California’s upper Eel River MAJOR DAMS could continue to operate after its current license expires in 2022. The project is URBANIZATION RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT MODERATE currently owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The plan submitted to FERC will improve conditions for fish in the Eel River by removing Scott Dam HIGH while increasing water supply reliability for communities in Mendocino, Marin, and 1.9 Sonoma Counties. These communities rely on water diverted from the Eel River into CRITICAL There are thousands of dams in California, most of the Russian River watershed through the Project’s operations.

which were built and are operated for water supply EXTINCT and food protection benefits with little consideration Although the proposed project plan submitted to FERC is a significant step in the for their effects on fish. As a result, native salmon and SCORE: 1.9 CRITICAL effort to realize a two-basin solution, the process for securing a new license for the steelhead have lost large amounts of their habitat. PVP is still in the early stages. The Report’s Project Plan must be studied further, including analyzing the effects of removing Scott Dam on the communities around Dams and barriers block migration upstream to high Lake Pillsbury, tribal interests, recreation and other activities on the Eel River. quality habitat and restrict migration of juvenile fish to Removal of Scott Dam, will allow Eel River salmon and steelhead to once again the ocean. We are working to remove barriers and get access critical headwaters habitat. This plan will move forward in a way that that obsolete dams out to give native salmon and steelhead improves water security for Russian River water users while significantly improving access to the clean, cold water of their native conditions for native fish. spawning and rearing habitats once again. I-5 Trabuco Fish Passage Barrier. Photo: Mike Wier Left: Photo: Conrad Calimpong. Top: Scott Dam. Photo: Kyle Schwartz 18 RECONNECT HABITAT

NORTH COAST MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH Cedar Creek Barrier Removal Klamath Dam Removal Partnership Cedar Creek has approximately 9 miles of high-quality salmonid habitat currently Klamath Dam removal stands out as one of the most promising salmon recovery @Work inaccessible to South Fork Eel River Chinook, coho, and steelhead populations. opportunities in the history of California Trout. Since 1917, the four Klamath Dams Migration into the watershed is blocked by an 8 foot high concrete dam left behind have blocked access to hundreds of miles of salmon and steelhead productive when the Cedar Creek Experimental Fish Hatchery was decommissioned after the habitat. It has diminished the productivity of the Klamath River and its tributaries, Klamath River Renewal 1964 flood. The proposed Cedar Creek Hatchery Dam Removal Project will build blocked spawning grounds, and blocked off cold source water. Beyond loss of habitat, Corporation on previously developed planning documents, including the fish passage analysis Iron Gate Dam now serves as a giant heat sink that creates water quality problems, The Klamath River Renewal conducted by Ross Taylor and Associates and CalTrout’s 2018 proposal, which including toxic algae blooms. The decommissioning and removal of the Klamath Corporation, or KRRC, is a private, contained conceptual designs for the Hatchery Dam decommissioning. CalTrout Dams not only makes economic sense, but would greatly benefit the Klamath-origin independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) is currently preparing engineering designs and construction plans for the removal salmon fisheries and all other Klamath Basin public resources that have been organization formed by signatories of of the fish barrier, which, once implemented, will allow migration into Cedar Creek adversely affected by these dams over the past century. CalTrout is working with the amended Klamath Hydroelectric in perpetuity during all life stages for Chinook, coho, and steelhead. The engineering more than 20 conservation partners and tribes to facilitate a FERC license transfer to Settlement Agreement, or KHSA. design phase is evaluating alternative water management approaches, along with KRRC followed by the removal of the four dams and restoration of the river. how to delineate the concrete dam and abutment structures for demolition and KRRC is part of a cooperative effort removal clear down to the natural bed elevation, and is analyzing the potential to re-establish the natural vitality destabilizing action on the abutment structures and bedrock canyon walls from of the Klamath River so that it can removal of the concrete dam and abutments. support all communities in the basin. Signatories of the amended NORTH COAST KHSA, including California Trout, Cochran Creek Fish Passage and Channel Restoration the States of California and Oregon, Cochran Creek’s connection to Humboldt Bay has been severely degraded by human local governments, Tribal nations, activities over the past 165 years, reducing the quantity and quality of the tidal dam owner PacifiCorp, irrigators, and several conservation and fishing freshwater and estuarine salmonid rearing habitat. This project’s primary goals are Cedar Creek. Photo: CDFW to improve fish passage to sustain anadromous populations of coho, steelhead, and groups, appointed KRRC to take coastal cutthroat trout, as well as to enhance and expand tidal, brackish, freshwater ownership and oversee removal of and riparian habitats on Cochran Creek and Quail Slough. Specifically, the Project four hydroelectric dams on the river. will replace an existing top-hinged tide gate with a fish-friendly side-hinged tide KRRC’s work is funded by PacifiCorp gate with an adjustable opening to enable migration for adult and juvenile fish. customer surcharges and California Additionally, the project will restore 930 feet of new stream channel/backwater Proposition 1 water bond funds. habitats, 0.6 acres of floodplain, and 0.4 acres of riparian habitat on Cochran Creek.

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH Battle Creek - Eagle Canyon Fish Passage Battle Creek is an important watershed because of the year-round influence of cold- water springs. Historically, this habitat allows a diversity of Chinook salmon and steelhead to develop, but these species are now extirpated from the watershed and in danger of extinction because of fish passage barriers from development. This project will open access to more than 8-miles of spring-fed spawning and rearing habitat for Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon by removing a fish passage barrier located upstream of the Eagle Canyon Dam in the North Fork of the Battle Creek watershed.

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH Scott River South Fork - Floodplain and Instream Restoration The South Fork of the Scott River has been significantly altered by historic mining and timber operations. The restoration project has already installed large-wood habitat features in the river and removed approximately 1,900 cubic yards of leftover mining materials. The project is continuing to restore floodplain connectivity, increase instream complexity and cover, and promote riparian vegetation. These critical habitat enhancements will improve spawning rearing conditions for juvenile Battle Creek. Photo: h20 designs coho salmon in the South Fork Scott River.

Iron Gate dam. Photo: Mike Wier Copco 4. Photo: Mike Wier 19 20 RECONNECT HABITAT

MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH SOUTH COAST Scott-Barr Mill Creek - Fish Passage and Channel Restoration Rindge Dam Removal Scott-Bar Mill Creek is a tributary of the Scott River, which consistently generates Since the construction of Rindge Dam 90 years ago, Southern California steelhead some of the largest return of wild coho in the entire state. However, habitat for have been blocked from reaching high quality spawning grounds in upper Malibu coho within the Scott River basin has been degraded by numerous human threats, Creek, which is classified as a high-priority watershed for steelhead recovery. including legacy mining, timber management, and agricultural water diversions. Rindge Dam also has degraded downstream conditions from capturing sediment This project will restore fish passage to critical cold-water over-summering habitat and altering the natural streamflow. The three planning objectives are to: establish for juvenile salmon and steelhead. The project is also critically important in the a more natural sediment transport regime, re-establish habitat connectivity context of salmon recovery throughout the larger Mid-Klamath Basin. Four Klamath for terrestrial and aquatic species, and restore aquatic habitat in Malibu Creek dams are scheduled to be removed in 2021, which will improve water quality in the canyon. A conceptual removal plan was described in the Army Corps draft mainstem Klamath River, reduce disease and increase the number of returning Feasibility Study, and has been in the works since the 1990s. The Feasibility Study adults looking for suitable habitat conditions in historic spawning and rearing will be completed in 2020. CalTrout is collaborating with California Department streams. Spawning and rearing tributaries to the Klamath, like the Scott River, act of Parks and Recreation to evaluate the most effective path forward for Rindge as salmon nurseries for the entire basin. Dam removal.

SOUTH COAST SOUTH COAST I-5 Trabuco Creek Fish Passage Project Harvey Diversion Fish Passage One of the most significant barriers to southern steelhead migration is the Harvey Diversion is a total barrier to the migration of endangered Southern Interstate 5 (I-5) Bridge Array on Trabuco Creek, a major tributary to San Juan Creek. California steelhead. The diversion is located on Santa Paula Creek, a tributary Pauma Creek Canyon & Hwy 76 fish passage barrier The concrete-lined channel runs below an array of five highway overpasses and of the Santa Clara River, and is need of immediate remediation. This project will spans for a quarter of a mile. CalTrout is developing designs for construction of a reconnect high-quality spawning, rearing and forging habitat for all development fish-passage friendly structure that has high potential to contribute to recovery of stages of the steelhead lifecycle. In 2019, this project received $1.1 million from the endangered Southern California steelhead. Once the fragmented habitats are CDFW under the Prop 1 and Prop 68 funding bonds to complete the final design reconnected, the impacts are unlikely to reoccur and will leverage upstream fish phase, develop and secure all permits. This will set the stage for the construction project to successful remediate a federally and state identified fish passage barrier passage barrier removal in the public lands of the Cleveland National Forest. Sandia Creek fish passage. Photo: Mike Wier This project will integrate into large-scale channel infrastructure water supply through cooperative community effort and persistence. and flood control projects in South Orange County. SOUTH COAST SOUTH COAST Santa Margarita River - Sandia Creek Fish Passage Matilija Dam Removal The Santa Margarita River offers a prime opportunity to reestablish a steelhead Matilija Dam on the Ventura River is obsolete and was condemned more than population in Southern California. The Santa Margarita River historically 50 years ago. Yet it remains, completely disconnecting the upper watershed and supported steelhead and still has natural channel characteristics necessary for blocking critically endangered Southern California steelhead from reaching miles migration and propagation of the species. However, fish passage barriers have of headwater habitat. CalTrout is part of the Matilija Coalition and has had amazing prevented steelhead from accessing upper reaches of the river that contain good recent success in securing funding for dam removal planning and studies and spawning and rearing habitat. Removal of the fish passage barrier at the Sandia Matilija Dam. Photo: Mike Wier lower watershed infrastructure upgrades, including the $13 million grant award Creek Drive bridge and replacement with a new bridge will provide juvenile and from CDFW to replace the Santa Ana Bridge. This project and the eventual removal adult steelhead access to 12 miles of upstream habitat. CalTrout will complete the of Matilija Dam will allow the Ventura River’s human and ecological communities final design phase in 2021 and is working to secure funding for implementation. to become more water and climate resilient in a future that holds increased uncertainty from the impact of droughts, floods and wildfires. SOUTH COAST Santa Clara River Floodplain Restoration SOUTH COAST This project is addressing the invasion of Giant Reed (Arundo Dorax), Tamarisk Highway 76 - Pauma Creek Fish Passage and other non-native species in the lower Santa Clara River floodplain and Harvey Diversion. Photo: Russell Marlow The Pauma Creek rainbow trout have a direct route to the ocean but are blocked by is re-establishing native riparian plant and animal communities. Through a total fish passage barrier at Highway 76 crossing the Pauma Creek tributary to systematic and continual effort, this project will restore approximately 30 acres of the San Luis Rey River. The San Luis Rey is a high priority steelhead recovery river riparian habitat in the Santa Clara River floodplain. This project is part of a lower and has the most southern native rainbow trout population of steelhead lineage watershed-wide plan to control invasive species and restore floodplain processes in the United States. Their re-connection with the ocean is a feasible design and in the Santa Clara River between Sespe Creek and Santa Paula Creek and is a implementation project on a state highway bridge being pursued by Caltrans. Due to cooperative effort among several Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition members. the critically low numbers of steelhead in Southern California, and the contribution Project activities are led by CalTrout and Santa Clara River Conservancy with that resident rainbows can make to anadromy, the Pauma Creek and WF San Luis support from University of California–Santa Barbara’s RIVRLAB, and the National Rey trout populations are critical resources for steelhead recovery. Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Rindge Dam. Photo: Mike Wier

21 22 RECONNECT HABITAT PROTECTING THE BEST THROUGH LEGISLATION AND ADVOCACY protect the BAY AREA best Searsville Dam Fish Passage For over a century, Stanford’s antiquated Searsville Dam has impacted towards a several billion-dollar natural The protection of our freshwater natural the local watershed and the greater Upcoming Legislation A Legacy of resources bond effort that voters would resources and the diverse ecology found San Francisco Bay estuary. The dam Due to the pandemic related-recession projections, the Senate and Assembly see on the November ballot. throughout California is a major reason remains a barrier to steelhead migration leadership, as well as the Newsom Administration and Department of Finance, Advocacy that our state attracts industry leaders and on San Francisquito Creek, greatly have put the collective kibosh on new funding allocations that do not directly However, with California responding to fosters the economic growth that makes reducing the amount of habitat that Advocacy remains a core tenant of relate to COVID-19, wildfire, homelessness or public health measures. This has Covid-19 and the related recession, the California the fifth largest economy in the is accessible and placing this anchor CalTrout’s mission. From our inception, drastically reduced the bill load for most legislators. legislature now predicts a budget deficit world. CalTrout will remind our legislative steelhead population at greater risk CalTrout lead the Wild Trout Program of $54.3 billion over the next two years, champions and the administration that of extinction and prohibiting its and played an instrumental part in and the administration has signaled cutting back on environmental protections recovery. CalTrout is partnering with forming the California Wild and Scenic LEGISLATION WE SUPPORT: SB 1292 that they will not entertain any new and lowering the funding for protection of Stanford University, local citizens Rivers Act. CalTrout is committed bond efforts this cycle. The numbers our natural resources is the wrong choice groups, and conservation partners to to having a presence in Sacramento The Nature and Parks Career Pathway and Community are bleak, but the administration, for California. find a way to provide volitional fish and always looks for opportunities Resiliency Act of 2020 the Department of Finance and the passage and eventually restore habitat to provide legal muscle for proactive Governor’s office are working with Cutting Green Tape Initiatives CalTrout is proud to support Senator Durazo’s AB 1296 which aims to build along San Franciscquito Creek with challenges to support freshwater natural resource agencies to prepare equitable access to opportunities working in the natural resource field and the removal of Searsville Dam. The conservation efforts in California. CalTrout has partnered with other leading a budget that only cuts non-essential for highlighting the importance of diversifying the workforce to make it more latest aspect of this is a public conservation organizations to work with programs and puts a pause on any representative of the state’s population. SB 1296 would ensure that communities outreach and education campaign Using our collective legislative agencies to identify inefficiencies that new expenditures. facing barriers to accessing and sustaining jobs are prepared to succeed in a to ensure adequate fish passage is approach, led by Staff Attorney need non-profit support to implement. We natural resources career. incorporated into future plans for Redgie Collins, we build on our on- are working with CDFW on the North Coast CalTrout’s focus will now be on ensuring operating Searsville dam in the the-ground experience, community Salmon Initiative to streamline restoration any State Agency cuts are temporary short-term. support, science, media, and advocacy permitting and grant administration in LEGISLATION WE OPPOSE: AB 3005 and we will work with our conservation experience to advance mission key North Coast watersheds like the Eel partners to advocate for keeping Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Leroy Dam and critical policies, programs and funding. River. We have also partnered with the essential programs funded through CalTrout continues this effort today by State Water Board on specific projects Reservoir Expediency Bill this pandemic and recession. Further, building relationships with legislators like instream flow implementation in the CalTrout prides itself on working cooperatively with a diverse group of partners CalTrout will protect key environmental and key legislative staff on statewide Shasta Valley to get more water instream and we do not take opposition stances lightly. However, after speaking with the regulations from proposed rollbacks conservation and by supporting, more quickly. These initiatives are timely, Author’s office, offering our initial letter of opposition, and talking with Santa and we will take this opportunity to opposing, and sponsoring key as many of these initiatives are aimed at Clara Valley Water District, we have decided to formally speak in opposition to advocate for removing the green tape legislative initiatives. saving conservation organizations and AB 3005. The bill sets a dangerous precedent for all future dam retrofit projects that hinders beneficial restoration agencies time and money. throughout California by requiring the regulatory agencies and the state board in California. to adhere to shortened timelines, exhaustive notifications, and unique appeals processes which ultimately does not allow the natural resources agencies the Redgie’s expertise lies Natural Resources Bond Preparing for Natural Resources in California water law Agency Cutbacks time and space needed to adequately protect public trust resources. The Water and is the CalTrout Against all odds, the legislature is District is an untrustworthy partner for conservation organizations and are lead for the Potter still discussing a Natural Resources In the likely event that we see cutbacks in therefore not credible advocates for the impact on public trust resources. AB 3005 Valley Project while key partner agencies due to the impacts of overseeing CalTrout’s Bond which would inject between $4 would legalize the same unilateral decision making and action process by Valley Policy and Legal and $8 billion in water and natural the recession caused by COVID-19, CalTrout Water District that has nearly led to the local extinction of steelhead in Coyote Departments. resources spending through Assembly is working with the legislature to identify Creek already. Bill AB 3256. CalTrout is in the heat of and implement forward thinking measures advocating for the passage of this bill that will lessen the burden on conservation Federal Focus and gearing up for a ballot initiative organizations. We are working with 2020 Policy Overview: CalTrout is excited to support a suite of bills aimed at protecting California’s which, if successfully passed through agencies to continue the past bond Conservation in the time public lands, especially considering the federal threats of delisting protected the California legislature, would be on spending measures and highlight grant public lands over the last four years. CalTrout is launching a campaign to support of Corona the ballot in November of 2020. CalTrout inefficiencies that will ensure that non- U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on and their is focused on supporting the massive profits like CalTrout will be able to continue As you might imagine, the legislature joint bill: Protecting Unique and Beautiful Landscapes by Investing in California restoration and barrier removal projects the important restoration work during this is reeling from the effects of the (PUBLIC) Lands Act. The PUBLIC Lands Act is a package of three previously Searsville Dam. Photo: Mike Wier that Sandi Jacobson is championing economic downturn. Covid-19 pandemic. California started introduced bills that would increase protections and access for over 1 million in Southern California and cementing the 2020/2021 legislative cycle with a acres of California lands, including nearly 600,000 acres of new wilderness and funding for the pioneering work Jacob budget surplus of $5.6 billion, a rainy- over 100,000 acres of new national monument. day fund of $18 billion, and a clear path Katz is pursuing in the Central Valley.

23 24 Water is the lifeblood of California, fueling one of the most STEWARD productive agricultural regions in the world, supplying drinking 5 water for communities and sustaining diverse rivers and the PROJECTS IN THE SIERRA species that depend on them. California’s prominent source water HEADWATERS REGION SOURCE areas, the Sierra Nevada mountains and the greater Mt. Shasta area springs need restoration and protection. 40-60% of high Sierra meadows are degraded. When healthy, meadows store TOP 3 THREATS ADDRESSED: WATER water like a sponge and release it gradually, over the warm dry summer months. Unhealthy meadows lack this storage capacity. Restoring meadows not only increases water storage for people, AREAS but also protects wild trout streams like Hot Creek and Owens GRAZING River. The Mt. Shasta area spring rivers, some of the most iconic LOGGING Provide water security for wild trout waters, are fed by ancient underground aquifers and AGRICULTURE fish and people. offer a steady supply of cold, clean water. However, we don’t fully understand them. And you can’t protect what you don’t know.

Osa Meadow. Photo: Mike Wier STEWARD SOURCE WATER AREAS

SIERRA HEADWATERS Osa Meadow Research and Restoration Partnership As part of Sierra Meadows Partnership’s goal to restore 30,000 acres by 2030, CalTrout @Work undertook a restoration project at Osa Meadow in the Kern River Ranger District within Sequoia National Forest. The historic Kern River Rainbow trout habitat had California Environmental been in degraded condition for decades. CalTrout restored stream and meadow habitat and reconnected the incised stream channel to the historical floodplain. The goal was Flows Framework to create greater ecological resilience to combat climate change and other stressors One of the major factors affecting the and promote recovery of rainbow trout populations. Immediate results were observed, decline of salmonids in California the most notable being much improved connectivity between groundwater and is insufficient streamflow. In 2016, a surface water. CalTrout will continue to study the outcomes of restoration including group of scientists from California monitoring the cause-and-effect of meadow restoration on physical habitat, trout Trout, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, The abundance, water quality, and the ability of meadows to sequester greenhouse gases. Nature Conservancy, Utah State SIERRA HEADWATERS University and the Southern SIERRA HEADWATERS California Coastal Water Research INITIATIVE IN ACTION: Restoring Sierra Nevada Meadows West Walker Meadows Restoration Project, with funding in partnership Developing a new tool to better understand meadow Working with key partners, CalTrout seeks to restore the ecologic health and from the State Water Board, formed the California Environmental Flows restoration benefits. hydrologic resiliency of priority meadows within the headwaters of West Walker 60% River to increase and enhance habitat for Lahontan cutthroat trout populations. Framework (CEFF) OF CALIFORNIA’S WATER COMES FROM THE SIERRA NEVADA Sierra Nevada headwaters provide roughly 60% of California’s domestic water SIERRA HEADWATERS CEFF is a set of tools, products, and supplies and are home to the majority of California’s inland native trout species. Golden Trout Habitat Restoration guidance, for developing ecological Covering less than 2 percent of the overall Sierra-Cascade landscape, meadows add flow regimes in California. The Advancing the Sierra Meadows Strategy, CalTrout completed a Golden Trout resiliency to the hydrologic and ecological processes that sustain the headwaters of resulting ecological flow regimes Wilderness meadows assessment and prioritization. The goal is to restore the 40-60% several major California water sources. can then be used to establish OF THE SIERRA NEVADA ecological health and resilience of meadows and native golden trout populations environmental flow objectives that MEADOWS ARE DEGRADED within the Golden Trout Wilderness. We are exploring opportunities with Inyo However, of the roughly 190,000 acres of meadows throughout the greater Sierra balance the needs of fish and people. National Forest and other partners to pursue funding and advance restoration designs. Nevada, an estimated 40-60 percent (approximately 90,000 acres) have been FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: CEFF will help scientists better degraded primarily due to human activity. Collective research from the Sierra LAHONTAN CUTTHROAT TROUT understand how much water fish Meadows Partnership, led by CalTrout and funded through CDFW, has discovered Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi need and, importantly, when they that functional meadows switch from net carbon absorbers to carbon emitters when need it. they become degraded and unhealthy. Because wet meadow plants like sedges and rushes absorb more carbon than sagebrush and other dry meadow vegetation types,

LOW they act as carbon sinks.

MODERATE By considering both climate restoration and source water protection, this research addresses two of the most important threats to California salmonids as stated in HIGH the SOS II report. In summer 2020, CalTrout will begin piloting the Sierra Meadow 2.0 Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (SM-WRAMP) at Horse Meadow in CRITICAL the Sequoia National Forest. The SM-WRAMP provides standardized monitoring

EXTINCT protocols that are needed by land managers to determine restoration needs, evaluate restoration efficacy, and inform adaptive management actions. SCORE: 2.0 CRITICAL Golden trout, Volcano Creek, Golden Trout Wilderness. Photo: Jim Caya The goal in implementing the SM-WRAMP is to accelerate our understanding of meadow restoration benefits and allow us to better quantify and articulate the ecosystem services provided by healthy meadows to all beneficiaries. SIERRA HEADWATERS Native Rainbow Trout Recovery Plan Applying the Sierra Meadows Strategy, we completed an assessment and prioritization of meadow restoration activities in the Sequoia National Forest (SQF) to benefit Kern River rainbow trout and Little Kern golden trout populations. We are exploring opportunities with SQF and other partners to continue restoration plans, permitting, Left: Slinkard Lahontan cutthroat trout. Top: Pickel Meadow. Photo: Mike Wier and research in priority meadows. Hot Creek. Photo: Kent Blackburn 27 28 NORTH COAST

PROJECT GOAL: Cannibal Island Restoration RESTORE Transforming 950 acres of monotypic landscape into a mosaic 950 ACRES of natural habitats. TRANSFORMED AS A RESULT OF ESTUARY RESTORATION CalTrout is convening a broad, collaborative team of agency partners to restore a ESTUARIES 950-acre tidal marsh estuary surrounding Cannibal Island, adjacent to the mouth of the Eel River. The Cannibal Island Restoration project will transform the area Nurture the productive and vital $802,886 from a monotypic landscape of diked/drained salt marsh to a mosaic of pasture land-sea interface. AWARDED FROM CDFW PROP 1 and natural habitats, including estuarine and tidal slough channels and access for AND PROP 68 FUNDING aquatic dependent species. The project will assess climate change resiliency and adaptation approaches to guide an appropriate design that considers impacts and FISH SPECIES IMPACTED: enhancements to prime agricultural land and critical estuary habitat. PROJECTS ACROSS CALIFORNIA COAST 4 THREE REGIONS CHINOOK SALMON In 2019, this project was awarded $802,886 from the CDFW Prop 1 and Prop 68 Oncorhynchus tshawytscha funding to conduct the design, development, and environmental compliance phases. Throughout the lower Eel River basin, agricultural lands now dominate TOP 2 THREATS ADDRESSED: what was, historically, forested riparian and wetland habitat. The loss of seasonally LOW freshwater and brackish marsh habitat within the Eel River estuary is an important ESTUARY ALTERATION AGRICULTURE contributing factor to the decline of coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead. MODERATE

2.9 Estuary restoration will play a prominent role in the recovery of these listed HIGH salmonids, as well as Dungeness crab, tidewater goby, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, lamprey and listed native plant and wildlife species found in surveys within the CRITICAL Estuaries and lagoons provide critical feeding and nursery adjacent Salt River and Eel River Estuary Preserve project areas.

habitat for juvenile fishes and are important transition zones EXTINCT between freshwater and ocean. However, estuaries have The Cannibal Island project offers a valuable opportunity to engage with experts become dramatically reduced in size and quality due to SCORE: 2.9 HIGH to apply the ASAT, a dynamic assessment and design tool to evaluate restoration development and watershed modi cations such as diking alternatives that will increase ecosystem resilience for an assemblage of aquatic and draining. Restoring function to once-productive but now listed species. highly-altered estuary habitats will greatly improve rearing conditions for juvenile salmonids, increasing the likelihood of survival at sea and adults returning to their natal tributaries. And, in the face of climate change, this will also increase ecological resiliency of our coast to buffer sea level rise. Eel River Estuary. Photo: Mike Wier Left: Spawning chinook. Photo: Jim Inman. Top: Cannibal Island. Photo: Mike Wier

30 RESTORE ESTUARIES SOUND SCIENCE INFORMS OUR WORK science Partnership NORTH COAST, BAY AREA, SOUTH COAST into Aquatic Species Assessment Tool (ASAT) action @Work CalTrout is developing a new estuary assessment and management tool in order to understand and protect ecologically sensitive aquatic species such as endangered salmonids. The Aquatic Species Assessment Tool (ASAT) will use ecological inputs Spring-fed Systems and orientation). This effort is expected to California Department of to predict the impact of management actions on aquatic species communities. Partnering strongly inform future management Fish and Wildlife Results from the tool can be used to predict response of aquatic species to changes Climate Resiliency decisions regarding dam removal, in their environment in an integrated way. The goal is to enhance biodiversity Salmon and trout need cold water to CalTrout is working closely with the for Success restoration, and adaptive management. in estuaries and build ecosystem resilience to protect them from the impacts of survive. A recent study by CalTrout California Department of Fish and climate change and sea level rise in California. Established as a scientific leader on and UC Davis scientists suggests that Wildlife to restore the Pescadero California Environmental fish and water issues in the state, habitat with abundant food sources may estuary. Pescadero Marsh in San NORTH COAST California Trout roots its projects in help buffer the effects of increasing Flows Framework Mateo County is an important refuge research to drive innovative, science- water temperature. They found that the One of the major factors affecting the and stronghold for threatened Central Mad River Estuary Restoration based solutions to the state’s resource availability of food in a natural system decline of salmonids in California is California Coast steelhead. The lower Mad River historically had access to a broad floodplain which provided issues. Through our Science Program, –in addition to stream temperature insufficient streamflow because it critical rearing habitat for juvenile fish and off-channel refugia. Upstream impacts we are working to improve the scientific and flows–is an essential component controls so many different aspects from land management and infrastructure development have led to sediment and foundation of applied conservation of fish habitat. However, many rivers of the aquatic environment. It cues temperature impairments. Lower in the river, levees to protect infrastructure and strategies; develop responses to inhabited by salmon are either nutrient- behavior events such as migration and agricultural properties have disconnected the river from its floodplain. Partnering statewide threats to native trout and poor or are fundamentally altered and can also affect water quality and food with the McKinleyville Community Services District, we are reconnecting the lower salmon such as dams, climate change, lack the food supply found in places webs. In 2016, a group of scientists Mad River to over 4 acres of floodplain to improve key salmonid habitat. In addition, and instream flows; and provide like spring-fed rivers, estuaries and formed what is collectively known as we will improve the existing trail network to enhance public access for angling and scientific research, data collection, floodplains. Productive habitats are and the California Environmental Flows river recreation. and analyses to inform adaptive will continue to be of high conservation Framework (CEFF or the Framework) BAY AREA management strategies and viable value for salmonids and other cold-water which, ultimately, seeks to determine conservation alternatives for California’s fishes under a changing climate. The ecological flow criteria for native fishes Pescadero Marsh Revitalizarion native salmon, steelhead, and trout. study indicates that conserving diverse and other aquatic species throughout Pescadero Marsh in San Mateo County is an important refuge and stronghold for productive habitats can help build the state, which can be used to inform Photo: Patrick Samuel threatened Central California Coast steelhead. This watershed represents perhaps Our science partners across the state resilience for fish and the ecosystems the development of environmental flow the best opportunity to meet Endangered Species Act-mandated abundance targets include: Humboldt State University, they inhabit. prescriptions. This framework will help This watershed represents perhaps the for steelhead recovery south of the Golden Gate Bridge due to its high productivity University of California Merced, provide insight on management and best opportunity to meet Endangered and intact upper watershed. However, the marsh suffers from poor water quality University of Nevada-Reno, University Klamath Dam Science conservation efforts for determining Species Act-mandated abundance and unnatural lagoon flushing processes due to historical land uses. CalTrout of California Santa Barbara, and our for Removal sufficient streamflow for both fish targets for steelhead recovery south of has re-engaged in this watershed after a decade hiatus with many partners to close partners at University of California and people. The Klamath Dams removal is slated to the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the monitor fish populations and migratory behavior to inform lagoon management Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. be the largest dam removal project ever marsh suffers from poor water quality, and future restoration. At UC Davis, Dr. Andrew Rypel is the implemented in US History. Assessing sedimentation, and mismanagement Peter B. Moyle and California Trout the effects of the removal is critical of the lagoon. CalTrout has re-engaged Endowed Chair in Coldwater Fishes. Dr. to the future health of the Klamath in this watershed after a decade hiatus Rypel is working to ensure that water Basin ecosystem and all those who with many partners to find a solution resource issues with major policy and depend on it, and of global interest to to near-annual fish kills and to inform management implications will contintue those contemplating large scale dam necessary restoration. to be informed by robust science. removal projects. With dam removal on Salmon monitoring efforts at the horizon, the need to fill data gaps is Pescadero include fish migration immediate–to capture as much natural survey using a PIT tag array. The fish Dr. Rob Lusardi is variation as possible and to maximize the UC Davis Wild the amount of data collected prior to are injected with a small passive and Coldwater Fish integrated transmitter (PIT) tag, Research Scientist. dam removal. A solid baseline and which is as small as a grain of rice. His work revolves understanding of biological conditions The fish are then released back into around many science prior to dam removal is necessary in the wild. Whenever they come back priorities in the state. order to quantify ecosystem response: through the estuary, the pit tag array monitoring changes to river biota, will be able to pick up the tag signal. including salmon recolonization, This information will better inform through time (e.g., changes in conservation efforts and give insight abundance, diversity, and spatial Dr. Rob Lusardi snorkeling the Little Shasta River. on salmon migratory patterns. Photo: Pescadero Estuary Photo: Pusher HQ Studio 31 32 “Cleaning up Hat Creek just seemed like a fun thing to CalTrout Staff and Board do with the kids.”

San Francisco Central Office Staff Amanda Cooper Academic/Science Partners Project Manager Curtis Knight UC Davis, Center for Watershed Sciences Nicole Dove Executive Director Dr. Peter Moyle Project Coordinator Alan Roesberry Dr. Jeff Mount Brittney Charlesworth Finance Director Dr. Jay Lund Project Coordinator Gaby Roff Carson Jeffres Redgie Collins Institutional Giving Director Dr. Andrew Rypel, Peter B. Moyle Staff Attorney Tracey Diaz and California Trout Endowed Chair Development & Communications Director SIERRA HEADWATERS in Coldwater Fishes Nick Vidinsky Sandra Jacobson, Ph.D. Dr. Rob Lusardi, Leader, CalTrout/ Associate Director of Donor Engagement Interim Regional Director UC Davis Wild Fish Partnership Melissa Racklyeft SOUTH COAST Humbolt State University Grants Manager Sandra Jacobson, Ph.D. Dr. Walt Duffy Nathan Lubarov Regional Director Dr. Bill Trush Finance & Compliance Manager Russell Marlow Casey O’Sullivan University Nevada-Reno Program Manager Membership Manager Dr. Sudeep Chandra IN THE FIELD Megan Nguyen UC Santa Barbara Craig Ballenger Communications Associate Dr. Tom Dudley Ashley White Fly fishing Ambassador Development Associate Mike Wier Bob and Donna Oliver, SACRAMENTO ADVOCACY Lazara Ramos Field Reporter and Videographer CONSULTANTS CalTrout members Grants Associate Environmental and Energy Consulting Board of Directors since 1971 Malinda Baker Conservation and Natural Resources Donor Database Administrator Paul Vais Group (CNRG) Camyle Allen Board Chair Contracts Administrator Kelly Barlow STRATEGIC/LEGAL ADVISORS Treasurer Environmental Defense Center Regional Conservation Staff Robert Payne Manatt, Phelps & Phillips Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe And so, in 1971 Bob and Donna packed up two of During his college years, Mark was an intern at the BAY AREA Secretary Patrick Samuel Shute, Mihaly & Weinberg George Choe their three boys Mark, age 8, and John, 10, and drove Nature Conservancy under the mentorship of Tom Water Power & Law Group, Bay Area Regional Manager Chuck Farman north to Burney at the suggestion of Richard May. Hesseldenz; although no longer in California the boys Richard Roos Collins CENTRAL VALLEY Dick Galland In reminiscing about that weekend in the early 70’s: continue to fish and protect the waters they fish in. Diana Jacobs Jacob Katz, Ph.D. Contact Us “They gave us a boat and told us to just go along the Senior Scientist Amelie Kappes banks and pull out any squaw fish we saw or could Bob and Donna have been supporters ever since Jacob Montgomery Rick Kaufman 360 Pine Street, 4th Floor feel in the banks. The trout had already been removed. that first trip when they learned about CalTrout. Project Manager Loretta Keller San Francisco, CA 94104 Laurie McLellan (415) 392-8887 The water was low so it was easy–although a slimy, Bob notes: “These legacy waters are close to our heart. NORTH COAST Richard Moore [email protected] muddy and slippery job that the kids eventually They are the source of water for all downstream uses, Darren Mierau Dr. Jeff Mount Regional Director loved. Some of the squaw fish were so large they irrespective of whether you do or do not fish. Caitlyn O’Connor Visit us on the web at Caltrout.org Mary Burke initially scared the kids. But we all had a great time George Revel Program Manager and we were dead tired after a full day of ‘no-fly fishing’ ”. We need to keep these waters clean and protect them Bob Rosenberg Marissa Adams Todd Rulon-Miller at the source. Restoration and downstream clean-up Program Manager Scott Tucker It was the first of many trips to Northern California. projects are pointless if the water is compromised at Matt Metheny Program Manager Bob and Donna eventually bought a cabin in McCloud the source, not to mention the enormous use of energy Chairman’s Advisory Council and over the next several decades they, their boys and cost of restoring contaminated water to anything Raine Leblanc and their friends fished Hat Creek, Fall River, Pit River close to its original condition and quality. CalTrout Administrative Assistant Linda Ach Gary Arabian MT. SHASTA/KLAMATH and the Sac with the wild McCloud and its perfumed does a magnificent job of keeping this larger picture Bill Epstein Drew Braugh springtime azaleas being a favorite memory. in mind and deserves everyone’s attention.” Nick Graves Regional Director Frank Pipgras Ada Fowler Alan Vidinsky Join Bob & Donna in supporting CalTrout. Visit CalTrout.org today. Project Manager 34 360 Pine Street, 4th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104

HERE’S TO THE FUTURE

Since 1971, we’ve been connecting the dots between fish, water, and people. We do it not for us, but for those who follow, so that they may know a California full of life, wilderness, and wonder. Together we can protect our resilient wild fish and cold, clean waters. Together we can pass on a lifetime of memories. Together we are the future of a healthy California. Join us.

Ensuring resilient wild fish thrive in healthy waters, for a better California. CalTrout.org