Northern California Salmon Restoration Initiative Recognized by Biden-Harris Administration During Climate Week

The Northern California Salmon Strongholds initiative has been selected as one of 10 projects from across the nation to be highlighted by the Administration during Climate Week. Recognition for the Initiative comes as California salmon fishing communities have faced unprecedented challenges due to the back-to-back closures of the 2023 and 2024 ocean salmon seasons. The announcement underscores the project’s role in restoring salmon and steelhead habitats, building climate resilience, and improving water security on California’s North Coast.

The effort, proposed by the California Salmon and Steelhead Coalition with support from the California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Transportation, and other partners, is aimed at increasing the pace and scale of habitat restoration in key watersheds along California’s North Coast—a region of crucial importance to populations of native salmon and steelhead trout.

The Strongholds initiative addresses several priorities in Governor Newsom’s California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter Drier Future and improves the health of the watersheds that North Coast communities rely on.

“California’s North Coast presents an opportunity to restore some of the best salmon habitat in the country,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham. “This Initiative would accelerate our Department’s North Coast Salmon Project by removing instream barriers, reconnecting wetlands and floodplains, and implementing better water management practices that increase summer streamflow and can create a model for climate resilient watersheds.”

“I have for years advocated for salmon strongholds to be a focus of fisheries conservation in this era of climate change and the resulting repeated disasters hitting our fishing industry and our coastal and tribal communities,” said U.S. Representative Jared Huffman, who represents the North Coast area and serves on the House Natural Resources Committee. “The Biden-Harris administration, tribes, and our state’s fishing advocates are taking a long and broad view with this transformative approach to restoring this vital California resource.”

As climate change accelerates the frequency of droughts, the Strongholds initiative takes a transformative approach to reconnecting, protecting, and restoring some of the state’s most productive wild salmon and steelhead streams. Removing culverts, dams, and other barriers will help fish migrate to and from cold water spawning and nursery habitats while upgrading aging infrastructure. Restoration of estuaries and floodplains will improve the growth of young fish as they make their way to the sea while also providing flood protection. Water management projects to increase summer flows will also improve fish habitat and water security for farms and communities.

“Thanks to years of planning work by federal and state agencies, Tribes, and stakeholders, we largely know what needs to be done to restore the North Coast,” said Matt Clifford, California Director for Trout Unlimited. “The Strongholds initiative will jump start the sustained investment we need to put those plans into action.”

“The closure of the salmon fishing season for the last two years sends a clear message that we are running out of time,” said Charlie Schneider, Lost Coast Project Manager for California Trout. “Our fishing industry provides huge benefits to coastal businesses, and they need us to do more to recover these iconic species.”

“As California continues to face a drier future, the time to prepare is now,” said Monty Schmitt, Coastal Rivers Project Director for The Nature Conservancy. “Support for the Northern California Wild Salmon Strongholds initiative will expedite restoration of our watersheds for climate-resilient fish habitat and clean water for farms and communities.”

The Salmon and Steelhead Coalition is a strategic partnership between The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and California Trout. Together, they are working together to implement science-based restoration and sustainable water management practices across the North Coast.

For more information about the Northern California Wild Salmon Strongholds Initiative, please visit: www.casalmonandsteelhead.org/solution/strongholds/