Days after a fire induced mudslide killed all fish in a 60-mile reach of the Klamath River, ranchers defied state law by diverting flows from the Shasta River, one of the most important Klamath tributaries for imperiled salmon, according to a joint press release from the Karuk and Yurok Tribes. By Dan Bacher “The Shasta […]
As Klamath River communities continue to recover from a massive fish kill caused by a mud slide spurred by heavy rains and the McKinney Fire in northern California, UC Davis on August 11 issued a statement that they were “devastated to report” that a catastrophic failure has resulted in the loss of about 21,000 fish at the UC […]
Debris flow stemming from the McKinney Fire, then heavy rains, are causing a fish kill on the Klamath River in Northern California. “Very large numbers of dead fish, of all species, are being observed in the vicinity of Happy Camp, CA along the mainstem Klamath River,” according to a press advisory released an hour ago from the Karuk […]
Drought Action Moves Endangered Salmon Back Into Their Historical Habitat For First Time Since Construction Of Shasta Dam The Winnemem Wintu Tribe, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Monday celebrated the return of endangered winter-run Chinook […]
A record run of wild spring run Chinook salmon turned into a disaster when 91% of the adult fish died before spawning during 2021’s spring Chinook salmon run on Butte Creek, a Sacramento River tributary, according to a CDFW monitoring report. By Dan Bacher The number of adult spring-run Chinook salmon (SRCS) that died before spawning […]
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has just published their monitoring report on 2021’s spring Chinook salmon run on Butte Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River in Northern California. By Dan Bacher The number of adult spring-run Chinooks that perished before spawning is worse than the preliminary estimate by the CDFW in October 2021, when the CDFW […]
Press Release from the Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe • Hoopa Valley Tribe • Swiftwater Films: Bring the Salmon Home Tells Story 20 years in the making By Dan Bacher Klamath River Basin (Calif. and Ore.) – Bring the Salmon Home is a new short documentary by Swiftwater Films. The film chronicles Klamath River tribal communities’ 320-mile relay run from the redwood-shrouded […]
As the record drought in California and the West continues and the Sacramento River watershed already begins to see die-offs of endangered Chinook salmon, Governor Gavin Newsom on March 29 announced that state, federal and local water leaders had reached “broad agreement” on a package of controversial voluntary agreements purported to provide additional water flows and new habitat […]
The fall of 2021 was a good season for adult Chinook salmon swimming up Auburn Ravine to spawn in the foothills east of downtown Lincoln, California, according to an update from Friends of Auburn Ravine. By Dan Bacher ”Over 200 large fall-run chinook salmon, some over 43 inches long, made the trip. The thousands of eggs […]
Low numbers of adult fall-run Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River in 2021, but the ocean forecast abundance for fall Chinooks is better than last year, according to federal and state scientists at the annual Salmon Information meeting held virtually on March 2. By Dan Bacher The 2022 ocean abundance projection for Sacramento River fall […]
As California continues to reel from a record drought, the US Bureau of Reclamation announced its initial 2022 water supply allocations for Central Valley Project contractors this week, pointing to another tough year for salmon and other fish populations in the Central Valley rivers and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By Dan Bacher A recent scientific […]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the proposed removal of the lower four Klamath River dams yesterday, the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history. By Dan Bacher Here is the press statement from the Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, Institute for Fisheries Resources, California […]
The steelhead run on California’s American River is shaping up up to be a relatively good one, though nowhere near the record runs in the past when the hatchery reported trapping 3000 to 4000 adult steelhead in a season. By Dan Bacher “With four weeks of spawning completed, Nimbus already has counted more than 900 […]
Just before the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a New Year’s Eve letter revealing that 2.6 percent of juvenile Chinook salmon had perished in lethally warm water conditions on the Sacramento River, a petition sponsored by Save California Salmon in opposition to the Sites Reservoir reached 50,000 signatures. By Dan Bacher This milestone also came […]
The Coleman National Fish Hatchery hatched an additional two million juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon (fry) this past October, successfully releasing 600,000 fish this past week with the remainder scheduled to be released the first week of January, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By Dan Bacher “The Golden State Salmon Association […]