Thursday October 30, 2025
The Modesto Bee —
The Tuolumne River Trust is now the Yosemite Rivers Alliance, adding to its mission watersheds that are just to the north and south.
Executive Director Patrick Koepele announced the change in an email Tuesday. It also publicized early-November events around spawning salmon.
“Our new name reflects the truth our work has always shown,” Koepele said. “The well-being of one river depends on the health of the surrounding land, forests and communities, too.”
The group has worked for 44 years to protect the Tuolumne amid diversions by the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts and San Francisco.
The new name takes in the Merced River, which like the Tuolumne arises in Yosemite National Park, and the Stanislaus River. The latter has some of its headwaters in the Emigrant Wilderness, just north of the park. The nonprofit also has helped thin wildfire fuels lower in the Stanislaus watershed.
The staff works out of a Modesto branch office to connect local residents to the Tuolumne. Residents of the airport neighborhood and other riverside areas have paddled on the calm waters. They have hiked and bicycled in the seven-mile Tuolumne River Regional Park.
Other staffers work out of the San Francisco and Sonora offices. The group advocates for higher releases into the lower Tuolumne and for water conservation and groundwater recharge.
It began in 1981 as the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust. Three years later, it helped achieve wild-and-scenic status for the whitewater rafting stretch just above Don Pedro Reservoir. That ended plans for more dams serving MID, TID and San Francisco.
“This change isn’t just about a name — it’s about embracing the scale of what’s needed to meet today’s challenges,” Koepele said. “Wildfire, drought and declining salmon runs don’t stop at watershed boundaries, and neither can we.”
The name changed amid the annual return of salmon after a few years in the Pacific Ocean. They will lay their eggs in gravel beds before dying. Baby fish will seek shelter in floodplain forest before heading out to sea next spring. The group last year restored a stretch near La Grange and earlier worked at Dos Rios Ranch.
The new Yosemite Rivers Alliance will take part in these upcoming events:
Nov. 7: Keep Yosemite Flowing Launch Party and Trivia Night, 6 to 9 p.m. at Bear Tent Brewing on Main Street in Jamestown. Admission is free.
Nov. 8: Stanislaus River Salmon Festival, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Knights Ferry Recreation Area. It has a $10 parking fee. Visitors can view migrating salmon from a bridge and other nature exhibits. The event also will have food vendors, music, dance, fly-casting lessons and more.
Tickets are sold out for a third event, the annual Paddle with the Salmon on the Tuolumne River near La Grange. Donors are guided on kayaks to try to spot returning fish.