Background
California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s North Central Region Anadromous Fisheries Program is responsible for fisheries monitoring and management as well as restoration, and recovery efforts in the anadromous waters of Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin (northern), Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties and includes the Sutter and Yolo Bypasses. The territory spans the mainstem Sacramento River and its tributaries from the confluence with Stony Creek downstream to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Major tributaries and drainages from north to south include Sacramento River, Butte Creek, Big Chico Creek, Feather River, Yuba River, Bear River, Colusa Basin Drain, Natomas Cross Canal, American River, Cache Creek, Auburn Ravine, Cosumnes River, Mokelumne River, and the Calaveras River.
Fisheries monitoring projects in these systems provide valuable data used in water operations, restoration and recovery efforts as well as in management including setting and updating recreational fishing regulations and commercial fishing harvest quotas. Datasets developed by the program play crucial roles in tracking fish population status, trends, and document changes over time. Good examples of long term datasets include the adult Chinook salmon escapement survey on Butte Creek with over 50 years of monitoring data and juvenile salmon and steelhead monitoring on the Sacramento River near Knights Landing with over 20 years of juvenile salmonid emigration data including listed winter and spring-run Chinook salmon. The CalFish Website enables California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s North Central Region Anadromous Fisheries Program to provide user-friendly access to data and reports regarding tributary-specific monitoring and restoration efforts to interested parties.
