Thursday May 29, 2025
The Sacramento Bee —
A roughly $100 million project shared by Yuba Water Agency, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service aims to address declining salmon populations and improve conditions for all species inhabiting the river. But anglers who fish the river fear what could happen to their vaunted trout fishery once its gate opens.
“Our goal is to make the Yuba River as nature-like as possible,” said Willie Whittlesey, Yuba Water Agency general manager. “That’s what we’ve designed and that’s what we’re set out to achieve.”
One facet of the project plans to repopulate spring-run Chinook salmon in a stretch of the North Yuba River, returning the state- and federally-designated threatened species to its native spawning grounds out of reach for decades, as Englebright and New Bullards Bar dams have blocked the fish’s upstream path into the mountains.
But elsewhere in the watershed, on the lower Yuba River at Daguerre Point Dam, exists the point of contention.
What officials have called a “nature-like fishway” stands as the center piece of the Yuba River Resilience Initiative, with its two-year construction slated to begin in 2026. The designed waterway would effectively act as a channel bypassing Daguerre Point Dam, allowing more fish species to pass up and down the river.