Groundbreaking Eel River Restoration Plan Released

Press release from CalTrout:

A report released today outlines ambitious plans for the restoration and conservation of one of California’s largest and wildest rivers, the Eel River. The comprehensive report pulls together the best available scientific information to plan for native fish recovery, riparian corridor restoration, and conservation across the watershed. The Eel River Watershed Restoration and Conservation Plan is authored by nonprofit research and conservation organization California Trout (CalTrout), UC Berkeley, Applied River Sciences, and Stillwater Sciences. The effort is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Plan recommends key recovery actions and an action prioritization framework across the seven major sub-watersheds of the Eel River basin. The Plan also proposes a management approach that is informed by a monitoring and assessment framework, all of which is built from existing restoration and monitoring efforts. The Plan concludes with a menu of recommendations and next steps needed to get this important work off the ground. The Plan is the first step in a new Eel River Restoration and Conservation Program and includes an interactive web map to share preliminary analyses to view landscape features across the watershed. An overview of the Plan can be viewed here.

“The Eel River is an incredibly large and diverse basin,” said Darren Mierau, CalTrout North Coast Regional Director. “If we want durable recovery of native fish in the watershed, a holistic, watershed-scale ecosystem restoration and conservation program is what’s needed to restore not just the habitats salmon rely on, but to promote the genetic diversity within populations needed to have resilient runs of wild fish in the face of a changing climate.”

Past and current land and water use practices have significantly impaired aquatic and riparian habitats in the Eel River. Dam construction, aggressive timber harvest, and road and railway construction, followed by large floods in the 1950s and 60s, resulted in extensive and long-lasting disturbances and impacts throughout the watershed.

Salmon and steelhead populations within the Eel River were once incredibly abundant, with combined runs reaching nearly a million adults in good years. However, these populations have substantially declined in response to land and water use practices. The drastic reduction in salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey abundance has impacted communities in the north coast region by reducing access to food, cultural resources, and economic opportunity.

“Despite the many challenges in this watershed, we believe the Eel presents a unique opportunity and there is substantial optimism for recovery,” said Curtis Knight, Executive Director of CalTrout. “In conjunction with other restoration efforts in the watershed, like removal of the two Potter Valley Project dams that CalTrout and our partners are moving forward, this plan defines a pathway for the rehabilitation of the Eel River corridor for the benefit of communities now, and for future generations.”

The decommissioning and removal of the two PG&E-owned Potter Valley Project dams will restore anadromous fish access to hundreds of miles of high-quality habitat in the upper Eel River. Coupled with federal and state recovery plans, and a strong community of regional partners who are implementing restoration actions throughout the basin, the Eel River is poised for transformative change. The Eel River Restoration and Conservation Plan enhances existing efforts and creates a roadmap of actions for collaborative, long-term, and holistic restoration and conservation that can revitalize the Eel River watershed and restore its fisheries.

“We’re trying to do something big here because we believe this is a place where wild salmon have a real chance at recovery,” said Christine Davis, CalTrout Project Manager “This level of planning and collaboration is hard and takes time, but we firmly believe that it’s the best way to achieve results that benefit the fish and people that call the Eel River basin home.”

The Eel River Restoration and Conservation Plan was developed by CalTrout, Applied River Sciences, and Stillwater Sciences in partnership with the Round Valley Indian Tribes and the Wiyot Tribe fisheries programs. It was also supported by a technical advisory committee consisting of representatives from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assocation (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), UC Berkeley, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), and the Wiyot Tribe. The Project Team also expresses their appreciation to the Eel River Forum participants who supported the development and refinement of Eel River Program goals for the restoration and conservation future of this watershed.