With drought and low survival of salmon eggs spawned in the wild, GSSA is pushing a new front to avoid genetic bottlenecks for Central Valley salmon.  We’re working on both the Feather and McCloud rivers to get adult salmon planted above dams and reservoirs in Sierra streams that still have good salmon habitat. 

GSSA has recently been in touch with managers at the National Marine Fisheries Service who have the legal authority to require DWR and PG&E to save or restore salmon on the Feather River.  One option could be to require DWR and PG&E to move adult spring run salmon up above Lake Oroville into upper branches of the Feather River, where cold clean water still flows. 

GSSA’s John McManus made the case for why we need to take these steps now in a widely circulated opinion piece.  This followed a letter sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service and others calling for enforcement of a relicensing condition on the Oroville Dam that could move salmon upstream of the dam. 

GSSA is also trying to help save some of the last winter run salmon, which are expected to again meet lethal water temperatures in the upper Sacramento River this summer.  Federal and state officials will try to capture adult winter run, above what’s needed to supply the Livingston Stone and Coleman hatchery programs.  It’s possible these “extra” adult fish may be released in parts of Battle Creek above the Coleman Hatchery or maybe even in the McCloud River, where they originally came from.  Both locations are expected to have cold enough water to hatch out spawned eggs.  All of these efforts assume that stream flows downstream of the dams during the spring will be adequate to get the juvenile salmon safely to the Delta and ocean.