Friday April 24, 2026
Ebb and Flow —
On the majestic Mendocino Coast, a comprehensive effort to boost endangered coho salmon is producing immediate results with the help of a Water Boards permitting tool that is getting restoration projects shovel-ready faster.
Once abundant, Central California Coast coho salmon were nearly extinct when listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1996. This unique run of coho salmon grows in freshwater streams for up to two years before migrating as adults to the Pacific Ocean.
To give juvenile coho a better chance of survival, The Nature Conservancy, with technical assistance from the Water Boards and other state and federal agencies, is improving access to refuge within floodplains and restoring instream habitat. This important restoration work underway on a five-acre stretch of the Ten Mile River north of Fort Bragg is being accelerated with the use of the State Water Board’s Statewide Restoration General Order, a tool designed to hasten permitting without sacrificing water quality protections.