With salmon at risk of extinction, California begins urgent rescue effort

Typically, now is the time when creeks along the Sacramento River are filled with young spring-run Chinook salmon preparing to make their journey downstream to the Pacific Ocean, where they will mature, and eventually make their return to California spawning sites. State records show that last year, biologists found 397 returning adult spring-run salmon in Deer Creek and 250 adults in Mill Creek. Matt Johnson, a senior environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, looks into an aerated fish transport tank holding spring-run Chinook salmon captured from Deer Creek. “Ongoing multiyear droughts and persistent climate change, in addition to how we manage water in California, has made it really hard for Chinook salmon to recover, particularly spring-run,” Roberts said. “During the last few years, spring-run Chinook have continued to be exposed to harmful water temperatures and just dangerously low water flows,” said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Assn.