Restored Stream Supports New Wild Salmon Run

by Kat Kerlin, UC Davis
March 20, 2025

Almost everywhere in California, salmon are on the decline. But in Putah Creek — a restored stream running through the University of California, Davis, campus — wild salmon are not only increasing, they also are completing their life cycle.

A UC Davis study, published in the journal Ecosphere, is the first to document Putah Creek-origin salmon. Chinook salmon have been observed at the creek since 2014, but prior studies had shown them to be strays from hatcheries. This study now confirms that some salmon returning to Putah Creek in the fall to spawn are actually born there.

This should not be news. Salmon are famous for their simple life cycle: Hatch in a stream, migrate to the ocean, and return to the stream to spawn at their life’s end. Yet salmon in 21st century California are sometimes trucked or flown to the ocean from hatcheries due to dams, habitat loss, warming streams, drought and other threats restricting their natural migration.

This study shows that at Putah Creek — and potentially other altered and dam-controlled streams worldwide — restored waterways can help restore and even create salmon runs.

Keep reading: https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/restored-stream-supports-new-wild-salmon-run

Read the Ecosphere paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.70207