The Russian River watershed, north of San Francisco, is the focus of an intensive, multi-year effort to recover coho salmon – now one of the rarest native fish species in California. TU is playing a lead role in this effort through the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership. The focus of the Partnership is boosting dry season streamflows in critical tributary habitats.
Here are a few recent highlights from the Partnership’s work:
- California Sea Grant published an article on the passion and collaboration of our private landowners partners in salmonid recovery.
- The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center created a poster about the restoration efforts in Dutch Bill Creek, which is now on display in downtown Occidental.
- The California Wildlife Conservation Board’s Streamflow Enhancement Program (Proposition 1) awarded TU — and our partners — more than $1.5 million for a number of Russian River projects, including a fire recovery and streamflow enhancement project on Mark West Creek and work on other important coho tributaries (Pena, Green Valley, and Dutch Bill creeks).
- The Westminster Woods camp produced a very entertaining short video on coho projects on Dutch Bill Creek—including a TU-partnered project that enables the camp to store water in tanks when flows are high, and leave water in the creek during the dry season.
Trout Unlimited is a founding member of the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership. We salute the many projects our partners have completed that have helped raise awareness in the watershed and beyond about the importance of dry season flows for salmonids and the ways in which local property owners can contribute to this goal.