Restoring Salmon Strongholds
Restoring Salmon Strongholds
The Problem
The rural North Coast of California contains some of the state’s best remaining wild salmon and steelhead habitat. However, these areas are impacted by extensive obsolete road networks, historic land use impacts, and water diversions that disrupt fish passage and disconnect habitats. As a result, salmon and steelhead populations have declined, and most are now listed as threatened or endangered. A changing climate and more frequent droughts are exacerbating these impacts.
Despite these challenges, California’s North Coast is poised for transformative change. Thanks to extensive recovery and resiliency planning by federal and state agencies, science, on-the-ground outreach, and NGO project development, we know the projects and community-based approaches that can turn the tide toward recovery of our salmon fisheries in this critical region.
Meticulously Planned
This initiative seeks to capitalize on two decades of work by federal and state agencies, Tribes, NGOs, and others in planning the actions and project types that are needed to recover populations of native species. Taken from existing plans including the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter Drier Future, the North Coast Salmon Project, and the Salmonid Habitat Restoration Priorities (SHaRP) process, the initial slate of projects seeks to transform these roadmaps into action to jump-start population recovery. The bottom line is that we know what to do in this critical region, but funding is needed to scale up restoration efforts.
Accelerating the Pace and Scale of Restoration
In partnership with the California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Transportation, and other partners, the California Salmon and Steelhead Coalition has identified a transformational bundle of projects to reconnect, protect, and restore key salmon strongholds across the North Coast. Building on decades of work across the region and emergent science, the North Coast Salmon Strongholds Initiative will accelerate the pace and scale of habitat restoration, create climate-resilient watersheds, and provide a model for similar work across the Pacific Northwest and the nation.
Rooted in Community
This Initiative will be a catalyst for tribal, federal, state, and local partners to collaborate and implement large-scale habitat and streamflow restoration projects in the highest-priority North Coast watersheds. It aims to engage the North Coast community to remove fish passage barriers, reconnect floodplains and estuaries, restore instream flows, improve water security, and build resilience across salmon and steelhead populations in a changing climate.