GoKawiilA steelhead leaps up a barrier on its way to spawning grounds. Credit: Adobe Stock
Last year, California Trout and Pacific Gas & Electric removed the final barrier to fish passage on California’s Alameda Creek with funding from NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation. For the first time in 50 years, threatened Central California Coast steelhead and other migratory fish can reach spawning grounds and juvenile rearing habitat in the upper watershed.
Construction crews relocated a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and removed its concrete covering. The pipeline had spanned the creek and created an 8-foot drop in the creek. They installed the new pipeline section deep below the creek bed, removed the old pipe section, and regraded the stream channel—restoring a natural pathway for fish.
Alameda Creek was once the largest producer of steelhead and Chinook salmon in San Francisco Bay. It may once again become a stronghold for migratory fish.
This project is the culmination of nearly three decades of advocacy, science, and collaboration. Working together, partners opened fish passage at 18 barriers along the creek that had blocked fish for generations.
“This project shows what’s possible when partners come together to solve complex challenges,” said NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Jonas Veazey. “Now that the final barrier on the mainstem has been removed, steelhead will be able to migrate freely and natural stream processes will be restored to the reach of the former barrier.”
The lower Alameda Creek flows through a highly altered landscape on its way to San Francisco Bay while good quality spawning habitat lies within the hills upstream. Credit: Adobe Stock
How It All Started
In 1997, environmentalist Jeff Miller, who grew up in the East Bay, set out to see whether steelhead could be restored to Alameda Creek.
He convinced his housemate, a student pilot, to fly him over the watershed. Below them, the creek stretched 40 miles from the remote Diablo Range to San Francisco Bay.
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