Thursday May 18, 2023
Los Angeles Times —
Citing the need to boost survival rates for imperiled salmon and sturgeon along the heavily dammed Yuba River, state, local and federal officials have announced a $60-million plan to build a channel that will allow fish to swim easily around a dam that has impeded their passage for more than a century.
Joined by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, officials announced that the fishway would bypass the DaGuerre Point Dam, in Marysville, and allow spring-run chinook salmon, green sturgeon, steelhead, and lamprey to access 10 to 12 miles of spawning habitat upstream.
“The fishway at DaGuerre Point will be an unprecedented action to restore habitat and contribute to the recovery of threatened species by providing unobstructed passage to habitat that’s been incredibly challenging for them to access,” said Willie Whittlesey, general manager of the Yuba Water Agency.
The announcement comes as California struggles to adapt to worsening periods of drought punctuated by intense intervals of precipitation — a type of weather whiplash fueled by climate change — as well as amid a growing national movement calling for the demolition of dams, due to their impacts on the environment.