Wednesday April 15, 2026
CalTrout —
California Trout (CalTrout), the Mechoopda Indian Tribe, the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER), and the City of Chico, today announced the start of the instream phase of construction on the Iron Canyon Fish Passage Project on Ótakim Séwi (Big Chico Creek) in Upper Bidwell Park. In 1956, concrete and rebar fish ladder weirs were constructed through a rockfall barrier in Iron Canyon—a narrow bedrock gorge deep within Bidwell Park. The purpose was to help steelhead and spring-run Chinook salmon reach miles of critical cold-water spawning and holding habitat during low water years. Over time, this fish ladder has become nonfunctioning, causing steelhead and salmon to hold downstream where water temperatures are too warm for their survival. The Iron Canyon Fish Passage Project will remediate the barrier, restoring access to 8.5 additional miles of habitat and returning a piece of a watershed that has sustained people, wildlife, and ecosystems for thousands of years.
“This is the moment the project has been building toward,” said Holly Swan, CalTrout’s Mt. Lassen Regional Manager and project lead. “We’ve done the planning, built the partnerships, and now we get to do the work. Soon, fish that haven’t been able to move freely through this stretch of creek in decades will have a clear path upstream – and that changes everything for the health of this watershed and our community.”