Thursday October 23, 2025
ABC7 News —
SUNOL, Calif. (KGO) — If you’re a steelhead trout wanting to start a family, it’s a long swim from San Francisco Bay to the sheltered breeding grounds of Alameda Creek. But now, for the first time in nearly three decades, that winding 40-mile path from Union City to the rolling foothills of Sunol is finally flowing free.
“The flows get really high here,” says California Trout Regional Director Claire Buchanan, pointing to the running creek. The environmental group helped push through the final removal of a structural barrier allowing migrating fish to reach the shaded banks.
“So this is a really incredible place where they can reproduce and hopefully recover as a species. We expect to see salmon and steelhead moving through the San Francisco Bay up to the upper portions of Alameda Creek,” Buchanan explains.
But making that possible took some heavy lifting. Drone footage captured before the construction shows the key section of creek. Located behind a working quarry and crossed with a cement covering installed to protect a PG&E pipeline. With the utility’s help, crews finally began tearing out the structure this summer.
“Yeah, a pretty big job, a lot of coordination. Partnership with Cal Trout and DeSilva Gates as well,” says PG&E Construction manager Jona Cruz.
He says the utility able to reroute the pipeline and lower it to make way for the migrating fish and benefit the surrounding communities.
“We figured out, how deep we needed to go. What type of backfill was required so that once, the obstruction was removed, we would be, we would be good to go. It’s definitely something that we’re definitely proud of. And we feel like we made this environment and community a lot better. So, you know, it’s something that I’ll remember forever, says Cruz.
Biologists with the environmental group say steelhead trout are listed as a threatened species in Northern California and haven’t been spotted this far upstream since the 1960s. Now they’re hoping that populations will reach the creek to spawn and bolster populations that have dipped to roughly 10% of their historic numbers.
“Yeah, it’s pretty breathtaking,” adds Buchanan. “So many people live along Alameda Creek and within the Alameda Creek watershed. I want them to just feel really grateful and lucky to have these incredible fish that have come all the way from the Pacific Ocean through their backyard.”
Much of the work was paid for with $4.3 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.