Logo of the California Fish Passage Forum

The Forum is a collaborative partnership formed to protect and revitalize anadromous fish populations in California by promoting collaboration among public and private sectors for fish passage improvement projects and programs.

Author: Holly Steindorf

  • Upper Noyo River Fish Passage Improvement and Sediment Reduction Project

    This project replaced a failing, undersized 9-foot culvert on the Mendocino Railway (Skunk Train) line with a 50-foot span corrugated steel arch structure to restore fish passage and eliminate a total barrier to migrating salmonids on the upper Noyo River in Mendocino County, California. In addition to opening 0.5 miles of steelhead and Coho salmon…

  • Seiad Creek Off-Channel Connection / Fish Passage Enhancement Project

    This project restored connectivity between Seiad Creek and three previously constructed off-channel ponds — Alexander, Stender, and Durazo — in Siskiyou County, California, a tributary system of the Klamath River. By removing sediment blockages and installing wood and rock structures to redirect flow, the project improved access to 19,000 square feet of critical off-channel rearing…

  • M1-Road Fish Passage Improvement Project

    This project replaced an undersized, deteriorating corrugated metal culvert on the M-1 Road with a full-sized 96-inch diameter culvert to restore fish passage on No-Name Gulch, a tributary to Big River in Mendocino County, California. The old culvert was a partial barrier to migrating salmonids on a stream identified by NOAA as historically productive habitat.…

  • Lamprey Passage Design for Priority Obstacles in the Sacramento Basin

    This basin-wide research, prioritization, and design project improved tools and data for Pacific lamprey recovery across the Sacramento River system. Work included extending the state’s Pacific lamprey distribution GIS layer to include third-order streams in the Sacramento Basin, refining a standardized field barrier assessment form, using FishPass software to prioritize barriers, and developing passage modification…

  • Lamprey Passage at Rowdy Creek

    This project installed a dedicated lamprey passage tube at the hatchery diversion structure on Rowdy Creek — a tributary to the Smith River in Del Norte County — which had functioned as a complete barrier to Pacific lamprey at low flows. A video monitoring system was also installed to document passage events, and public educational…

  • Iron Horse Vineyards Dam Removal Project

    This project removed an obsolete flashboard dam on lower Green Valley Creek at the Iron Horse Vineyards property in Sonoma County — the second of two remnant dams identified as the primary fish passage barriers in the lower creek. Approximately 35 cubic yards of concrete were excavated, banks regraded, large wood habitat structures installed, and…

  • Neefus Gulch Wood and Fish Passage at Appian Way

    This project developed engineering plans for replacing a failing road crossing on Neefus Gulch — a tributary to the North Fork Navarro River in Mendocino County — with a stream simulation arch culvert, and for installing 14 large wood structures to arrest an active knickpoint in a severely incised 1,600-foot channel reach. The designs were…

  • Mid Klamath Fish Passage Improvement Project

    This ongoing annual project deploys trained crews each summer to assess and manually treat fish passage barriers at the mouths of up to 72 priority tributaries to the Klamath, Salmon, and Lower Scott Rivers across Humboldt and Siskiyou Counties. Barriers including debris jams, boulder cascades, and perched alluvial deltas are modified using hand tools to…

  • Davy Brown and Munch Creek Fish Passage Engineering Project

    This project completed final engineering designs for the removal of three concrete low-water crossings on Davy Brown and Munch Creeks, tributaries to Manzana Creek within Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County. One Munch Creek crossing will be removed and channel restored; two Davy Brown crossings will be replaced with stream-spanning bridges. The work…

  • Cooper Mill Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project Designs

    This project funded site characterization and engineering design work for two legacy fish passage barriers on lower Cooper Mill Creek, a tributary to Yager Creek within the Van Duzen River basin in Humboldt County — a boulder step-weir complex at the creek mouth and a concrete sill approximately 0.5 miles upstream. Hydraulic modeling confirmed both…