Wednesday September 23, 2026
LA Times —
Chinook salmon have been laying eggs in gravelly nests in the Sacramento River for millennia. But California’s biggest river is now so warm that biologists expect a significant number of the eggs won’t hatch.
Environmental advocates blame the Trump administration. They say the federal government took too much water out of Shasta Lake for farms in the Central Valley, leaving the reservoir too warm for many salmon eggs to survive in a vital spawning area downstream from Shasta Dam.
“The fish are not being protected,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director of the nonprofit group San Francisco Baykeeper. “We know that those eggs are getting cooked.”
It’s happened in previous years. Chinook salmon need cold water for their eggs to survive. When it gets warmer than 53.5 degrees, it becomes lethal.
State biologists who monitor salmon nests in the Sacramento River estimated on Sept. 4 that about 20% of the eggs may not survive. The river has gotten warmer since then.
Rosenfield said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took excessive water this spring and summer despite warnings.