Returning Rivers to Health

Simply stated, California's rivers have been mined, dammed, pumped, channeled and otherwise harmed over the last hundred years. The bill has come due, and here's what it cost:

  • 80 percent of California salmon and steelhead populations have been lost since the 1950s
  • 96 percent of our riparian woodlands
  • 95 percent of the spawning habitat for spring-run salmon
  • more than two-thirds of the state's native fish species are extinct, endangered, or declining

With the remaining native species against the ropes, we are finally realizing the actual price paid for constructing an estimated 75,000 dams across the country, including more than 1,400 in California.

There is an opportunity to change the situation. Let's bring the salmon back to their home. Read more here.

Graphic by Ben Garrison.

Data provided by Friends of the River and the California Hydropower Reform Coalition.