REDDING, Calif. — A nearly 500-yard side channel along Redding’s Riverview Golf and Country Club is being restored to improve habitat for salmon and steelhead in the Sacramento River, the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors (SRSC) announced.
The SRSC is a coalition of irrigation and reclamation districts, mutual water companies, cities, partnerships and landowners connected to the Sacramento River from Redding to Sacramento. They said the project, scheduled to begin Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9-10, is designed to give young fish places to feed, rest and shelter from strong currents and predators as they migrate toward the ocean, while creating more spawning habitat for adult fish.
Project leaders said sediment buildup and overgrown vegetation had turned the channel into a warm, stagnant area that was unsuitable for fish under most river flows. Crews plan to remove sediment, reshape the channel and improve its connection to the river so water can flow through it even when river levels are lower. The work will also reshape nearby gravel bars to help water drain back toward the river as levels fall, reducing the risk of stranding young fish or exposing salmon nests, called redds.
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A closer look at same fall-run Chinook Salmon seen on Oct. 16, 2024, in a tributary of the Klamath River after removal of the dams marking the first fish to return since 1916. (Photo by Jacob Peterson, ODFW)
The project is intended to benefit winter-, spring-, fall- and late fall-run Chinook salmon, as well as steelhead trout. After construction, project organizers said monitoring will track how adult and juvenile fish use the redesigned habitat.
“Boosting our native fish populations requires all of us working together to find practical solutions that improve in-river conditions,” said Roger Cornwell, President of SAVER and Board Chair of the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors. “The Riverview Side Channel project is a perfect example of providing the type of habitat that salmon and steelhead have used for thousands of years. We understand that investing in habitat restoration projects helps create healthier rivers, landscapes and communities throughout the Basin.”
Matt Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Northern Region Inland Fisheries Program, said the project would help restore the complex habitat young salmon need to survive. “The Riverview Side Channel Project represents another important step towards restoring habitat complexity in the upper mainstem Sacramento River needed for juvenile salmonids to be successful,” Johnson said.
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Riverview Golf and Country Club General Manager Courtney Foster said the club and its members helped provide access and planning support. “Riverview Golf & Country Club is proud to support this important restoration effort along the Sacramento River. We are also grateful to our members who have worked closely with the project team to provide access, planning and ultimately to help bring this project to completion,” Foster said. “We appreciate the dedication of the local, state and federal partners involved and look forward to seeing the lasting benefits for salmon, the river and our community for generations to come.”
Organizers said funding is provided by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project is part of the Upper Sacramento River Anadromous Fish Habitat Restoration Program under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. More information is available at sacvalleywater.org.
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