Are there salmon in the Sacramento River?
37392#40
Second only to the Columbia River on the west coast of the United States in Chinook salmon runs, the Sacramento and its tributaries once supported a huge population of this fish. Millions of salmon once swam upstream to spawn in the Sacramento; as recently as 2002 eight hundred thousand fish were observed to return to the river. The Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems are home to the southernmost existing run of chinook salmon in North America.
Sacramento River
741511#27
The Shasta Dam has had a severe negative effect on populations of Pacific salmon in the Sacramento River watershed ever since its gates were first closed in 1943. The massive structure completely prevents salmon migration from the lower reaches of the river to the Upper Sacramento, Pit, McCloud and other tributary streams. It is estimated that half of the best salmon habitat in the Sacramento basin lies upstream of Shasta Dam. Also, the dam caused temperatures in the river to rise because it released waters from higher elevations of Shasta Lake, which are warmed by the sun far more than the surface of the original river pre-dam. Warm waters are harmful to salmon, which prefer colder temperatures, and also impact other fish populations such as steelhead and wild California trout.
Shasta Dam
471440#22
The river is considered a prime habitat for Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, and rainbow trout. Once the river was the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, after the Columbia and Sacramento Rivers, but the salmon run has been reduced since the construction of six dams between 1908 and 1962. Coho salmon in the Klamath River are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 1963, the upper Trinity River—the largest single tributary to the Klamath—was virtually removed from the Klamath drainage with the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dams, diverting 90 percent of the upper Trinity's flow to the Sacramento Valley. From 1963 to 1991, only from the main stem above the dams was left to flow to the Klamath. In 1991, a minimum annual Trinity flow of was established, or about .
Klamath River
33577077#23
From Keswick Dam south to Red Bluff, California, the Sacramento River is relatively narrow and deep with some areas of broader alluvial floodplain. Most of the Chinook-salmon-spawning habitat in the river is located in this reach. The variability and magnitude of natural seasonal flows of the Sacramento River have been significantly altered for the purposes of irrigation and flood control. The dams and diversions operated by the Central Valley Project and local irrigation districts control much of the flow in the Sacramento River. Since 1993, to protect the holding and spawning of winter-run Chinook salmon, Reclamation has been required to manage cold-water reservoir storage and releases to maintain daily average water temperatures at or below between Keswick Dam and compliance locations between Balls Ferry and Bend Bridge, from May 15 to September 30.
Keswick Dam
37392#43
By the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the government blamed crashing fish populations on overfishing, especially off the Northern California and Oregon coast, which lie directly adjacent to the migration paths of Sacramento River salmon. This has resulted in a ban on coastal salmon fishing for several years since 2002. The Red Bluff Diversion Dam, although not a large dam and equipped with fish passage facilities, also presents a major barrier. Because of inadequate design, roughly 25–40% of the incoming fish get blocked by the dam each year. The dam has also become a "favorite spot" for predatory fish to congregate, feasting on the salmon that get trapped both above and below the dam. As of 2010, the salmon run has shown slight signs of improvement, probably because of that year's greater precipitation.
Sacramento River
479159#20
Once, profuse runs of anadromous fish—salmon, steelhead, and others—migrated up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers to spawn in great numbers. The construction of CVP dams on the two rivers and many of their major tributaries—namely Friant Dam and Shasta Dam—mostly ended the once-bountiful Central Valley salmon run. From north to south, the Sacramento upriver of Shasta Dam, the American upriver of Folsom Dam, the Stanislaus upriver of New Melones Dam, and the San Joaquin upriver of Mendota—have become inaccessible to migrating salmon. In three of these cases, it is because the dams are too high and their reservoirs too large for fish to bypass via fish ladders. The San Joaquin River, however, had a different fate. Almost of the river is dry because of diversions from Friant Dam and Millerton Lake. Even downstream of Mendota, where the Delta-Mendota Canal gives the river a new surge of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, irrigation runoff water, contaminated with pesticides and fertilizer, has caused the river to become heavily polluted. To make matters worse, efforts by the California Department of Fish and Game to route the San Joaquin salmon run into the Merced River in the 1950s failed, because the salmon did not recognize the Merced as their "home stream".
Central Valley Project
1880230#3
Pink salmon are coldwater fish with a preferred temperature range of 5.6 to 14.6 °C, an optimal temperature of 10.1 °C, and an upper incipient lethal temperature of 25.8 °C. The native range of the species is in the Pacific and Arctic coastal waters and rivers, from the Sacramento River in northern California to the Mackenzie River in Canada; and in the west from the Lena River in Siberia to Korea and Honshu in Japan. In North America pink salmon spawn from the Mackenzie River in the Arctic to as far south as tributaries of Puget Sound, Washington, although they were also reported in the San Lorenzo River near Santa Cruz, California in 1915 and the Sacramento River in northern California in the 1950s. In 2013 a new record for the southernmost extent of spawning pink salmon was published for the Salinas River. In the fall of 2017 a dozen pink salmon were counted in Lagunitas Creek about north of San Francisco, California.
Pink salmon
753233#4
The river also supports a remarkable diversity of fishes and recovering salmonid populations, especially chinook salmon ("Oncorhynchus tshawytscha") and steelhead trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss"). In 2003 the Napa County Resource Conservation District began an ongoing salmon monitoring program, and have recorded a run of approximately 400 - 1000 fall-run Chinook salmon the past several years. The Chinook run begins in late October through January. Conclusive evidence of historical chinook salmon populations in the Napa River basin have not been established, but the river provides appropriate habitat for salmon and its location near the entrance to the Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers make it likely that salmon would have at least ventured into the Napa River. In 2013, a genetics study of Napa River chinook salmon revealed that two adults migrated from the Klamath River and successfully spawned in the Napa River, since four juvenile chinook collected from the Napa River in 2010 were proved to be siblings from the close similarity of their DNA and that the latter was characteristic of Klamath River chinook. These findings have important implications for the protection of the federally endangered Coastal California Chinook Salmon ESU since the Napa River, nor any stream in the Bay Area, was included in this ESU.
Napa River
2082333#14
The Chinook salmon run in Coyote Creek may be the most viable for restoration in the South Bay, since the breeding salmon in the Guadalupe River have severely declined subsequent to installation of extensive concrete channels in the river in downtown San Jose, California by the SCVWD. These are "fall run" fish primarily adapted to the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds. Since Chinook salmon spawn in early winter and juveniles migrate to the ocean in their first spring, they are able to use habitats that turn very warm or have low water quality in summer. In 2012, the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan reported that Chinook salmon currently spawn in Coyote Creek as well as the Guadalupe River and its tributaries.
Coyote Creek (Santa Clara County)
37392#42
In 1999, five hydroelectric dams on Battle Creek, a major tributary of the Sacramento River, were removed to allow better passage of the fish. Three other dams along the creek were fitted with fish ladders. The river is considered one of the best salmon habitats in the watershed because of its relatively cold water and the availability of ideal habitat such as gravel bars.
Sacramento River