UC Davis research confirms new salmon run in restored Putah Creek

By Ashley Sharp

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    DAVIS (KOVR) — California’s chinook salmon fishing season could be shut down for the third year in a row.

That’s because the number of salmon in the Sacramento River is significantly low and the state wants the population to rebound.

Right now, a rare example of salmon success is flowing through a restored watershed that runs through Solano and Yolo counties, including the UC Davis campus.

UC Davis researchers Thursday announced a new study that proves years of hard work to heal the Putah Creek habitat is saving salmon.

“In most places, salmon are declining. Putah Creek is kind of an exception to the rule. It’s really been a success story,” said Professor Andrew Rypel, a co-author on the study and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis.

The restored stream now supports a new wild salmon run. It is a rarity thanks to drought and habitat loss.

“There are not a lot of examples of this,” Rypel said.

The UC Davis researchers found that fall-run chinook salmon are once again reproducing in and returning to Putah Creek to end their natural life cycle after making it out to the Pacific Ocean.

Rypel said this success can be credited to the hard work of many Yolo and Solano County groups, UC Davis researchers, landowners, stakeholders and more who had a mission of restoring Putah Creek.

“This was the community coming together around a watershed and it culminating with the return of salmon and now a natal salmon run right through the middle of UC Davis campus which I think is amazing,” Rypel said. “Many of our students don’t even know we have our own salmon run now, because it’s so new.”

The restoration of Putah Creek has been two decades in the making. The fact that chinook salmon are completing their life cycles here, these researchers say, can be a lesson learned statewide.

“There are many degraded streams around California, all over the West Coast. This is an example of how this work can be done, how we can get salmon back. It all starts with the habitat,” Rypel said.

In 2017, Rypel says their research found only about 12 adult spawners in Putah Creek.

Last year, there were 735. About a quarter of them were of Putah Creek origin, an incredibly promising number.

“The number of salmon born in Putah Creek is increasing and they are developing their own natal run, ironically from strays released from hatcheries,” said Rypel. “It provides kind of a bright spot of hope.”

Right now, the salmon swimming in Putah Creek are just babies. By June, the fish will have hopefully made their way out into the Sacramento River and then on to the Pacific Ocean.

If their life cycle is a success, the fish will make their way back to Putah Creek to reproduce and eventually die.

UC Davis will track their trajectory as part of their ongoing research.

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