Monday June 30, 2025
Stocktonia —
Nearly 20 years after settling to restore the San Joaquin River’s flow, revitalization efforts are finally paying off. At least 400 spring-run Chinook salmon are moving through the water this season.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Gerald Hatler, the program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). “I don’t think we would see what we’re seeing now if it weren’t for that talent and team effort that was instilled in the program.”
Years of progress
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program began in the late 2000s following nearly two decades of litigation between environmental groups and the federal government regarding the Friant Dam, which environmental groups claimed was negatively affecting river fish populations
The Friant Dam, built in the upper San Joaquin River, was completed in 1942. It provides flood protection and water storage for irrigation. But the benefits did not come without a cost.
“Those fish (spring-run Chinook salmon) have basically been extinct on the San Joaquin. We call it extirpated. They cease to exist in a portion of their historic geographic range,” Hatler said. “It was because of the construction of Friant Dam and a significant reduction of flows that changed the habitat significantly.”
The Friant Dam is a towering, concrete, 319-foot-tall, 3,488-feet-long dam located on the upper San Joaquin River in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Fresno County. After the dam was built, water flows were blocked and portions of the river dried up.
The dam stopped salmon from migrating upstream. As a result, spring-run salmon became absent from the river’s mainstem for nearly 60 years.
Spring-run Chinook salmon are one out of four “runs” of California salmon. Each run returns from the Pacific Ocean to a California river during a different season. They go through the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They then stay in pools of cold water over the summer. A process that has since deteriorated.
In 1988, various environmental groups sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for violating California Fish and Game code 5937. They claimed the Friant Dam failed to direct enough water to keep fish populations in good condition.
The code states, “The owner of any dam shall allow sufficient water at all times to pass through a fishway, or in the absence of a fishway, allow sufficient water to pass over, around or through the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam.”
After spending over 18 years in litigation, a settlement was reached in 2006. In 2009, the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act was passed to implement the settlement, which has two main goals. The settlement aims to restore and maintain fish populations in the river and reduce or avoid negative water supply impacts.
Since the act was passed, the program has been run by five federal agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, California Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“This has been a project a long time in the making,” Krysten Kellum, an information officer for CDFW, said. “I’m like getting goosebumps.”
The collaborative work of multiple agencies finally yielded positive results last spring. Friends of the River, a grassroots organization focused on California river restoration, recently posted an update on the salmon’s success.
“Since the beginning, we’ve had a strong collaborative effort with the Department of Water Resources and our federal partners in the program,” Hatler said. “I don’t think the program would have achieved what it’s done without that collaboration.”
Central Valley hatchery
Hatler manages the Salmon Conservation and Research Facility (SCARF), owned by the CDFW. SCARF will be able to produce 1 million juvenile salmon annually. Hatler describes it as the “most sophisticated hatchery in California.”
SCARF is still inching towards completion, but in the meantime, CDFW is using an interim hatchery, which has played a big part in restoring the salmon. The new Central Valley hatchery’s goal is conservation, rather than production.
CDFW’s interim hatchery gets the salmon from areas where they exist and brings them to the hatchery. The idea is to bring them in as eggs or young fish and raise them. Then, through genetic testing and crossbreeding, the fish placed in the river will better adapt to its conditions.
“We were able to take a few eggs and get the juveniles down here, raise them up, John Shelton, Volunteer Sr. Policy Advisor with grassroots organization Friends of the River, said. “Over the last five years, they have been putting them into the river, both as eggs, sometimes as adults that spawn in the river, and then they spawn some in the hatchery.”
Cultural Significance
Friends of the River is a statewide river conservation organization. In his time with Friends of the River, Shelton has worked to incorporate community needs as part of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program.
“Historically, we had a very good run in the San Joaquin before we had our dams in the region,” Volunteer Sr. Policy Advisor with Friends of the River said. “So, back, you know, 100 years ago, it was a very, very important fish to the American Indians and to, you know, everybody that was here.”
Many years ago, salmon thrived in California rivers, and their presence was culturally significant to tribes in the area. They also provided a steady and nutritious source of food.
“For Native Americans, it was like a central point of their culture,” Shelton said. “And it should be a big part of it for everything we do.”
Save California Salmon (SCS) supports tribes and the general public while advocating for policy change and fish-dependent communities. When asked about the restoration project, Save California Salmon did not provide a comment.
The San Joaquin River is not listed on the SCS website, but it’s just one of many culturally significant rivers in California. Other rivers include the Shasta, Sacramento, Eel, Klamath and more. Some of the tribes that Save California Salmon works with are located in remote food deserts. In these areas, a lack of salmon can take a toll on the community.
A long way to go
Shelton feels that great strides have been made for salmon restoration, but there are still many hurdles to overcome.
“It’s a very good feeling to see that they’re (the salmon) struggling to get there and they’re doing it,” Shelton said. “I’m disappointed that we still have to trap them and truck them.”
The hope is that one day, the program will no longer have to trap salmon from other places and bring them to the river. Instead, they will naturally sustain themselves.
“It’s really about sustainability. The water is so precious, not only are we losing water for fish, but we’re losing water for people too,” Hatler said. “If we don’t manage it accordingly and figure out a way to work together, we’re gonna lose that resource.”
Hatler shared that a concept of “fish vs. farms” is going around, but he wants to redirect the narrative. He wants everyone to come together and realize the importance of water for fishing and agriculture. Shelton shared a similar belief and said he’s gotten comments from people saying, “We need to go out and grow food, not salmon.”
Projects to improve salmon passage are in the works. Shelton cited the Mendota Pool and Dam Bypass and the Sack Dam Bypass Project. Once all projects are complete, Shelton said it will be easier for salmon to go upstream and downstream.
“I’m really enthused that it works and that we have found it,” Shelton said. “It’s just I’m also thinking, wow, I wish we were like five years, six years ahead of it.”’
The Medota Pool and Dam Bypass is still in progress, and the Sac Dam Bypass Project will start construction this fall and continue through summer 2028.
More information on San Joaquin River restoration can be found on the program’s website or the Friends of the River site.