Draft Report on the Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project

Read the full report in PDF format

The Report:

Under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office reviews the Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project. The Bureau of Reclamation is the lead Federal agency on this project.

This report reviews the proposed action and alternatives, and summarizes potential beneficial and adverse effects on fish and wildlife. We make recommendations to help maximize project benefits, and avoid, minimize, and compensate for incidental adverse effects.

The Project:

Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project would open up and restore habitat for steelhead and four runs of Chinook salmon in about 48 miles of Battle Creek and its tributaries while minimizing the loss of hydroelectric power production.

Battle Creek, a spring- and snowmelt-fed stream that originates on the slopes of Mount Lassen, is a major tributary of the Sacramento River.

The steelhead and Chinook salmon are anadromous, meaning that they spawn in fresh water but spend most of their lives in the ocean, then return to their native streams to reproduce.

For decades, dams have blocked fish access to much of Battle Creek's best spawning habitat. This proposed action would, among other things:

• Improve flows in lower Battle Creek to provide more spawning and rearing habitat, and improved passage.
  
  
• Improve fish migration by upgrading fish passage facilities over dams, putting in fish screens on water diversions, and removing diversion dams.
  
  
• Develop and implement an adaptive management plan to monitor results and refine the actions being taken, as needed