California WaterBlog

By Carson Jeffres

Consider for a moment the identity of the Pacific Northwest as a Salmon Society.  When you fly into an airport in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are on the floors and walls as art.  This art is an expression of societal values in which salmon are important.  In contrast, when you fly into Sacramento you see art of a river, birds, agriculture, but the salmon are missing. We have forgotten our past as a Salmon Society.  That doesn’t mean that they can’t be in California’s future.  

Historically, California was a land of abundant natural resources.  Indigenous communities from time immemorial lived in reciprocity with the land and water.  One of these resources was prolific populations of Chinook salmon.  People cared for the salmon, and the salmon provided for California’s peoples. The diversity of rivers and habitats throughout Northern California led to the evolution of 4 distinct runs of Chinook salmon (winter, spring, fall, and late-fall) named for the time of year that they arrived in freshwater to begin their upstream migration toward spawning grounds.  This life-history diversity meant that there were adult salmon in the rivers almost every month of the year.  The diversity of life histories and habitats resulted in one of the largest salmon populations in the world.  Yes, California was once a “salmon society” – meaning a society of people that relied on and valued healthy rivers and the fishes that lived within them, but following the arrival of European settlers, that changed rather quickly.  

When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, salmon were still abundant in the Central Valley of California, and they would remain so for almost 50 more years despite the extreme degradation of the rivers in the relentless pursuit of gold.  In 1881, there were 20 salmon canneries in Northern California. Even as late as the early 1900s, following the era of hydraulic mining and the beginning of the great damming and leveeing of California’s rivers, there were still salmon canneries, even in West Sacramento.  The last salmon cannery in California was closed by 1919.  In a mere 40 years of environmental degradation, overexploitation, and genocide of the Indigenous communities who served as the first salmon stewards, Californians lost their identity as a Salmon Society.  

Letting salmon be salmon

In present day California, salmon populations are a small fraction of their historic numbers.  California’s rivers are dammed, leveed, and highly managed to deliver water for a variety of human uses.  This has resulted in several salmon populations being listed as threatened or endangered under state and federal laws.  We are now in the third year of a commercial salmon fishing closure, with only a very limited recreational fishery allowed this year.  Most salmon stocks are propped up by hatchery populations to mitigate for the lost habitats from dam construction in the early and mid-1900s.  

Once thought of as the solution to mitigate for lost habitats, hatcheries have largely resulted in a homogenization of what was once a complex of uniquely evolved traits specially suited for specific watersheds, and in most circumstances no longer let salmon express the diversity of life histories that have made them successful for millions of years.  In short, reflecting on traditional knowledge from Chief Sisk with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, it is clear we no longer let the salmon be salmon. 

This all overlays the fact that the rivers in which these fish evolved have been so heavily altered that the fish have a hard time recognizing lost habitats and flow regimes.  Our wild-spawning fish are mostly confined below dams in locations where they never spawned historically and struggle in all but the wettest years, which, not coincidentally, provide a glimpse of the ghost of historic flow and habitat conditions.  

Hopeful spots for salmon

Is it all bad?  Do we have any hope for the return of self-sustaining populations?  In the last 20 or so years it has been difficult to have hope, but some changes are happening now, and we have others are on the horizon.  One of the largest hope spots is the removal of 4 large dams on the Klamath River in 2024.  This effort was led by Indigenous communities and supported by a variety of NGOs and state and federal agencies.  The results have been swift and amazing.  In the weeks after the removal of the final dam, adult salmon passed the dam site that had blocked their migration for the previous 60 years and found and recognized their historic habitats.  They were allowed to be salmon again.  

In addition to the Klamath, there is an effort to bring salmon in the Central Valley to their historic habitats above the large rim dams.  These efforts are currently underway in the McCloud, Feather, and Yuba Rivers where eggs have been placed and hatched, juveniles collected and assisted around the reservoirs to continue their journey to the ocean.  This is part of a recognition that we are asking these fish to live in locations (below the dams on the valley floor) where they never were historically during the increasing warmer summer months.  As Chief Sisk would say, “These fish are mountain climbers”.  Having some portion of the population in higher elevation cold waters is bet hedging for our warmer, drier future. 

In addition to accessing historic habitats long cut off by dams, there is a concerted effort to have landscape-scale restoration and flow management in the Central Valley.  These efforts are led by a diverse set of state, federal, tribal, and NGOs trying to reimagine how we move water and provide access to habitats salmon can recognize, even if they are a fraction of their historic magnitude and extent. 

Reimaging a Salmon Society

Indigenous communities that were brutally removed from their homelands and natural resources need to be brought into the conversation and supported.  They are the original Salmon Society.  The Klamath River dams, McCloud River reintroduction efforts, and traditional burning to reduce fuel loads in our forests that also provides smoke to cool rivers are all examples where traditional knowledge and inspiration have led to dramatic changes for the betterment of not only the Salmon Society, but society in general.  Indigenous-led conservation and management that incorporates traditional values and knowledge can help inform a different way of thinking about our connection to our resources.  

If we are going to have a future where wild salmon persist on our heavily modified landscape, it is going to take more than the scientists, NGOs, and resource managers to make it happen.  We need to reimagine what a Salmon Society looks like in California.  We need a Salmon Society where every person who fishes, studies, manages, spends time by rivers, or even benefits from clean and reliable water sources realizes the importance of salmon in our rivers.  Salmon are a flagship species whose mere presence and sustainability indicates healthy rivers that can supply our water for drinking, boating, swimming, and irrigating our agriculture.  

A recent project to bring high school students into salmon research has highlighted the importance of bringing along future generations of people who care about salmon in their rivers.  If we want to have salmon in California in 50 years, we need to start bringing along the people who will still be here.  The youth are important.  Like oral histories, understanding the story and developing an appreciation of the salmon need to start early and happen often to provide a sense of place.  With a sense of place and appreciation, we rebuild a Salmon Society that will be here for generations to come. 

It took between 50 to 100 years for colonizers to decimate our salmon populations and our identity as a Salmon Society.  We should not expect that this is something that we can reverse in only a matter of years.  These are generational challenges that will take decades or centuries to recover salmon populations or at least bring to a sustainable glimmer of their former state.  We can’t start our 100-year plan in 99 years and expect it to come to fruition.  We need to reimagine ourselves as a Salmon Society and reimagine the way we protect our rivers and the animals that rely on them, including ourselves.  This starts with bringing a diversity of voices into the conversation and beginning generational change that includes the next generation who are next in line to keep moving the needle in the right direction.

What can you do?  As fall approaches, the salmon are beginning to return to the rivers of Northern California. Spend some time outside and go to your local waterway (see a list of opportunities below) and enjoy and appreciate watching these amazing animals finish their journey of hundreds or thousands of miles over the past 3-5 years.  I promise, you will be inspired.  Support local efforts to bring salmon to the classrooms.  Support your local watershed groups. Most importantly, bring an appreciation of what salmon mean to our rivers, our health, our economies, and our society as a whole.  

I would like to thank the many people who provided thoughtful and important edits to this blog.  I would especially like to thank Chief Sisk for helping me (a person so has loved and studied fish for over 40 years) truly appreciate the deep relationship that we can have with our salmon.  

Table 1. A preliminary list of salmon-related festivals that people can go to in order to see and appreciate salmon, or support salmon in other ways.

Month	Festival	Location	Link
Month	Festival	Location	Link
May	Salmon Festival (Fiesta del Salmón)	A Estrada, Galicia, Spain	https://www.turismoriasbaixas.com/en/descubre/rias-baixas-culture/experience-our-festivities/salmon-festival
June	Campbell River Salmon Festival	Campbellton, New Brunswick,  Canada	https://crsalmonfestival.com
	Ohata Strait Salmon Festival	Aomori Prefecture,  Japan	https://www.iwafu.com/en/events/1015560
	Iwate Otsuchi Salmon Festival	Otsuchi Town, Iwate Prefecture,  Japan	https://iwatetabi.jp/en/events/114844/
July	Ballina Salmon Festival (Féile na Bradán)	Ballina, County Mayo,  Ireland	https://ballinasalmonfestival.ie
	World’s Largest Salmon Barbecue	Fort Bragg,  California, USA	https://salmonrestoration.com/the-world-largest-salmon-bbq/
	Lake Akan Kokanee Salmon Festival	Hokkaido,  Japan	https://www.kamuylumina.jp/tc/sp/enjoy/enjoy-1859/
	Steveston Salmon Festival	Steveston Village, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada	https://stevestonsalmonfest.ca
	Copper River Salmon Jam	Cordova,  Alaska, USA	https://salmonjam.org
August	Yurok Tribe Salmon Festival	Klamath,  California, USA	https://www.yuroktribe.org/salmon-festival
	Port Alberni Salmon Festival & Derby	Port Alberni, BC, Canada	https://pasalmonfestival.com
	Clayoquot Salmon Festival	Tofino, BC, Canada	https://focs.ca/clayoquot-salmon-festival/
	Sawtooth Salmon Festival	Stanley,  Idaho, USA	https://www.sawtoothsalmonfestival.org
September	Oroville Salmon Festival	Oroville,  California, USA	https://www.visitoroville.com/salmon-festival
	Mill-Luck Salmon Celebration	North Bend / Coos Bay,  Oregon, USA	https://www.sunoutdoors.com/sun-outdoors-coos-bay/events/north-bend/mill-luck-salmon-celebration
	Coho Festival	West Vancouver, BC, Canada	https://cohosalmonsociety.com/coho-festival/
	Ishikari Salmon Festival	Ishikari, Hokkaido,  Japan	https://domingo.ne.jp/en/event/51648
	Wenatchee River Salmon Festival	Leavenworth,  Washington, USA	https://cascadiacd.org/events/wenatchee-river-salmon-festival/
October	Issaquah Salmon Days	Issaquah,  Washington, USA	https://www.salmondays.org
	Vernonia Salmon Festival	Vernonia,  Oregon, USA	https://unwc.org/salmon-fest.html
	Bear Creek Salmon Festival	Ashland,  Oregon, USA	http://www.parks.ashland.or.us/BearCreekFestival/index.html
	Salmon Homecoming	Oxbow Regional Park (Portland Metro),  Oregon, USA	https://www.oregonmetro.gov/events/salmon-homecoming-2025/2025-10-19
	The Salmon Festival (Gytefestivalen) in Lærdal	Lærdal,  Norway	https://www.norwaysbest.com/en/laerdal/events/the-salmon-festival-in-laerdal
	Fish ’N Brew (Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition)	Forks,  Washington, USA	https://www.pacificcoastsalmoncoalition.org/fish-n-brew
	Yangyang Salmon Festival	Yangyang,  South Korea	https://english.visitkorea.or.kr/svc/whereToGo/locIntrdn/rgnContentsView.do?vcontsId=102864
November	Winters Salmon Festival	Winters,  California, USA	https://putahcreekcouncil.org/winters-salmon-festival/
	Stanislaus River Salmon Festival	Knights Ferry,  California, USA	https://eaststanrcd.org/salmon-festival/
December – April	—	—	—

About the Author

Dr.  Carson Jeffres is a Senior Researcher at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Science. 

Further Reading

Philp, T. 2025. California’s dying salmon test our environmental values. We’re flunking | Opinion. Sacramento Bee.


Harte, P. 2025. Statewide Study Taps 3,000 Students for Salmon Research. UC Davis Magazine.

Yoshiyama, Ronald M., Frank W. Fisher, and Peter B. Moyle. “Historical abundance and decline of chinook salmon in the Central Valley region of California.” North American Journal of Fisheries Management 18.3 (1998): 487-521.

Kimmerer, R.W., 2013. Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed editions.