Friday September 11, 2026
ACWA —
Just months after reconnecting Anza Creek to the Santa Ana River, San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (San Bernardino Valley) has documented adult Santa Ana sucker and hundreds of newly hatched juvenile fish in the restored creek, signaling successful spawning far sooner than biologists expected.
The federally threatened Santa Ana sucker occupies a limited area of the Santa Ana River and depends on specialized habitat for feeding and reproduction. Restoring tributaries like Anza Creek expands that habitat, providing native fish with places to spawn and forage for algae to scrape off rocks to eat, and find refuge from high flows. Biologists have also observed Arroyo chub, another native fish considered a species of special concern by the State of California.
“This is an extraordinary result,” said T. Milford Harrison, San Bernardino Valley Board President. “Years of science and collaboration went into creating habitat specifically for these native fish. Seeing them thrive in the restored creek so quickly shows this approach is working to protect the natural resources of the Santa Ana River while helping develop reliable local water supplies for the region.”