Don's Home California Putah Creek Salmon Habitat Restoration
last updated 28 Sept 2024

Current:
October 2024
A fish ladder was installed at the Los Rios Check dam in the Yolo Bypass in October 2024.

A series of (salmon) pulse flows starts in the middle of October by releasing more water for Lake Berryessa. It will stimulate salmon in the Toe Drain on the eastern end of the Yolo Bypass to start heading up Putah Creek all the way to the diversion dam at the end of Lake Solano west of winters.

Winters Salmon Festival Nov 2, 2024
A team from the
UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences is doing fish counts upstream from Pedrick Rd at a site not open to the public unless you paddle upstream in a boat.
Underwater cameras have been installed there:
Node 24, Node 25

History:
Habitat Restoration for Chinook Salmon in Putah Creek: A Success Story, 2018
Restoration efforts began in 2000 following the Putah creek accord. Since then, native fish have returned to the creek, including spawning salmon first noticed in 2015.

Recent Chinook salmon runs in Putah Creek have reached 1,800, producing young that swim toward the ocean by the tens of thousands. But, says Putah Creek streamkeeper Max Stevenson, this growing population still faces considerable obstacles.

Based on the above observations and information, I estimate that a total of 190-200 Chinook salmon entered Putah Creek and participated in the 2014 spawn.
2014 Putah Salmon Run

The above report referes to Salmon Redds
A salmon redd is a gravel nest where salmon lay their eggs to incubate. The word "redd" comes from a Scottish term that means "to tidy" or "to clean an area"

Links:
Putah Creek’s rebirth: a model for reconciling other degraded streams? Putah Creek Riparian Forecast | Solano County Water Agency
SCWA to get state F&W grant to find Los Rios Check Dam solution
Putah Creek’s rebirth: a model for reconciling other degraded streams? | California WaterBlog 2003
Putah Creek is a Restoration Success Story | UC Davis 2023
Increasing stability of a native freshwater fish assemblage following flow rehabilitation - Jacinto - 2023 - Ecological Applications | Ecological Society of America (CA) 2023

Putah Creek fish cam and fish counts | Biotactic Research and Videographic Observatory (BRAVO) Node 24, Winters
Biotactic Fisheries and Monitoring - North America, Brazil, Netherlands, Sweden, China
Putah Creek fish cam and fish counts | Biotactic Research and Videographic Observatory (BRAVO), Winters:
Node 24, Node 25

Reconnecting Putah Creek with the Ocean | Estuary News, 2023.
New insights into Putah Creek salmon | California Water Blog


Contacts:
Max Stevenson Streamkeeper MStevenson@scwa2.com (707) 455-1107
Zach Hyer Water Resources Technician zhyer@scwa2.com 707 898-0064
Peter Moyle - UC Davis professor emeritus - "Godfather of California fish biology.”