Thanks to a new restoration project, steelhead trout and Chinook salmon now have the opportunity to survive and thrive in a Northern California waterway.
As the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported, the Sonoma Ecology Center has been approved to widen an Upper Sonoma Creek bed at Morton's Warm Springs to improve the fish's habitat and help balance the ecosystem.
The project's goals include creating refuge for these species and endangered California freshwater shrimp in the wet season and providing additional water during the dry season.
"Creating the flood plains habitat, as we're doing, will be giving the salmonids that are fighting their way up to spawn a resting place to relax for a little bit and catch their breath and feed a little before they continue on up," explained Steven Lee, a senior scientist on the project.
To facilitate the creek bed widening, the ecology center is removing a 600-person picnic area built in the 1950s that has adversely impacted the watershed.
"It's not the era we're in anymore," said Laurie Hobbs, a co-director and managing steward of Morton's Warm Springs. "We're much more like, 'How can we be more integrated in with nature and with the neighborhood and with the biome that we're being hosted by, and have less intense use?'"
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Flood plain restoration projects like this one have many benefits, from a healthier wildlife population to greater biodiversity and less erosion. Even more promising, this effort is just the first of 16 proposed projects to improve steelhead and salmonid habitats in the region.
Across the nation and around the world, restoration projects are reviving essential reefs, saving vulnerable species, and restoring wildlife populations.
Another co-director and managing steward, Sean Wadsworth, described the project as "a significant move forward."
"I think this is a really big educational opportunity for all the watershed workers in the valley to be able to point to a particular place and how its been shaped in order to help folks understand why this is important," Wadsworth said.
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"This is WONDERFUL," one Facebook user commented on the news of the creek restoration.
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