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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

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  • Jenny Creek Man-made Barrier Removal

    This project removed an abandoned man-made concrete barrier on Jenny Creek, the largest tributary in the Klamath River’s hydroelectric reach in Siskiyou County, timed to coincide with the removal of Iron Gate Dam in 2024, to restore access for Coho salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey to 1.9 miles of previously blocked habitat.

  • Lawrence Creek Off-Channel Habitat Connection Project

    This project constructed five large wood and earthwork structures — including a Venturi jam, deflector jam, apex bar jam, inlet jam, and excavated alcove — on Lawrence Creek, a tributary to Yager Creek in the lower Van Duzen River watershed in Humboldt County, to restore hydrologic connectivity to off-channel habitats and increase low-velocity winter rearing refugia for ESA-listed coho salmon.

  • Strawberry Creek at Clam Beach Fish Passage Project

    This project retrofitted a concrete flood conveyance channel adjacent to the Highway 101 culvert on Strawberry Creek near McKinleyville in Humboldt County by installing 13 angled concrete baffles to create a functional fishway, restoring 5 miles of upstream spawning and rearing habitat for steelhead, coho salmon, coastal cutthroat trout, and lamprey species.

  • 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 rearing habitat, the project prevented an estimated 8,400 cubic yards of sediment from being released into the Noyo River headwaters, protecting aquatic resources along approximately 3 miles of downstream habitat.

  • 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. The replacement opens 0.21 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in a high-priority recovery watershed for Central California Coast Coho salmon, North Coast steelhead, and Chinook salmon.

  • 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 part of a broader restoration effort that also removed an upstream earthen dam. Subsequent monitoring documented 10 coho salmon redds and two steelhead redds, including in reaches where salmon had not spawned for over 70 years.

  • 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 structures block adult and juvenile salmonids at most flows. The designs will support future physical removal of barriers to coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead in a historically productive watershed.

  • Pennington Creek Steelhead Barrier Removal Project

    This project removed a 1920s-era concrete diversion weir and ineffective fish ladder on Pennington Creek at the Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School in San Luis Obispo County, replacing approximately 160 linear feet of channel with engineered step pools. A new fish screen was installed at the diversion intake with a minimum bypass flow protective of steelhead critical habitat. The project opened 2.3 miles of perennial upstream habitat to federally threatened South-Central California Coast steelhead, with juveniles observed using the restored channel just six days after construction ended.

  • Manly Gulch Coho Access and Habitat Restoration Project

    This project replaced a failing road-stream crossing on Camp Road in Manly Gulch — a tributary to the Little North Fork of the Big River flowing through Mendocino Woodlands State Park in Mendocino County — with a 30-foot span timber bridge and realigned approximately 600 feet of channel. Log steps, pools, boulder weirs, rootwads, and a backwater alcove were installed to improve habitat. The project opened approximately 4,000 feet of upstream habitat for federally endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead, species for which Manly Gulch is designated critical habitat.