Chinook salmon swims on the North Yuba River in Northern California for the first time in 80 years, thanks to an innovative wildlife program.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and federal and local agencies have launched a pilot program to reintroduce Chinook salmon into their historic spawning grounds in the North Yuba River in Plamas County. According to the state, this cool water is considered some of the highest quality and climate water in California.
However, after the construction of Engbright Dam, Chinook salmon disappeared from the waterway, preventing the fish from swimming upstream.
In October, the National Department of Fish and Wildlife built a series of nests along a 12-mile gravel riverbed, and then filled the nearby hatchery with fertilized Chinook salmon eggs. Four months later, the salmon eggs had begun hatching and the first young salmon was observed on February 11.
“North Yuba is a very unique location for us. There are about 40 to 50 miles of habitat between the main trunk and its tributaries, which is the Chinook salmon running in spring for holding , ideal for spawning and feeding. “Colin Purdy, the state's fishery environmental planning manager. “If we can develop this pilot effort into a complete reintroduction program, we will be able to more than double the number of available salmon habitat in the Yuba River basin. For the spring Chinook salmon, this is a A huge victory.”
The state project is one of many initiatives aimed at reintroducing salmon into California’s cold water habitat and other fish barriers. This includes several dam removal projects, including the Klamas River removed along the largest dam in U.S. history.
But unlike the Klamas River, there are no plans to cancel the dam in the Yuba River, which the state says is crucial to maintaining water supply and flood control. Since the dam will remain in place, the state is collecting newly hatched Chinook salmon on the North Yuba River, which will be shipped downstream and released in the Lower Yuba River, where they can continue to migrate to the Pacific Ocean .
“This is a habitat that salmon haven't entered for a long time, so we have little data to understand how the salmon responds,” Purdy said. “… So we'll be able to learn a lot of different things from it.”
