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Near the southern flank of Mount Shasta, springs and snowmelt converge to form the McCloud River. This Sacramento River tributary, held sacred by the Winnemem Wintu tribe, teemed with Chinook salmon before Shasta Dam, built in the 1940s, blocked their annual migrations.

“The winter run was the main sustenance source for the Winnemem Wintu throughout history,” said tribal member Gary Mulcahy. “We consider them the grandfather of all salmon.”

For several years, Winnemem Wintu leaders have collaborated with state and federal officials to reintroduce the critically endangered fish to this wilderness waterway in a historic effort to revitalize the McCloud and reconnect with their past.

But a federal proposal to increase the height of Shasta Dam by more than 18 feet to provide more water to farmers now threatens the tribe’s land and could harm salmon runs.

Contemplated for decades and gaining traction among Republican lawmakers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s proposed Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project would boost the capacity of California’s largest reservoir.

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the federal government has not mounted any public effort to raise the dam. But Trump has taken several steps in that direction, including signing executive orders instructing federal officials to waive environmental rules and deliver more water to California growers.

Last week, the dam project appeared to get a push in the House Natural Resources Committee’s budget reconciliation bill, with a designation of $2 billion “for construction and associated activities that increase the capacity of existing Bureau of Reclamation surface water storage facilities.” Though the budget language does not name Shasta Dam, experts say it’s precisely crafted to facilitate the project.

“There’s no mystery here,” said Barry Nelson, policy advisor with the Golden State Salmon Association. “That language is designed to push the Shasta raise.”

Raising the dam was the “number-one priority” water project for the first Trump administration, Nelson said.

However, U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican whose district includes Shasta and who helped draft the budget language, told CalMatters that while he endorses enlarging Shasta Dam, the reconciliation bill’s “funding is not for any specific project.”

Last year, a bill that would have allocated funds for enlarging the dam while prohibiting state laws from obstructing the project died in the House. It was sponsored by 12 California Republicans, including LaMalfa.

The Bureau of Reclamation estimated in 2014 that enlarging Shasta Dam would cost $1.4 billion — roughly $1.8 billion in today’s dollars. Obtaining the array of state and federal permits for the dam could take years, and is likely to face court challenges.

The project would provide an additional 51,300 acre-feet of water per year to recipients — mainly farmers — of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, according to a federal estimate. That would increase the amount they receive on average by less than 1% , which Ron Stork, a policy expert with the group Friends of the River, referred to as “decimal dust.”

An aerial view of fall-run Chinook salmon migrating and spawning in the Feather River in Oroville on Oct. 28, 2024. Photo by Xavier Mascareñas, California Department of Water Resources

The dam project would claim some of the Winnemem Wintu’s last remaining territory and could violate the state’s Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which explicitly prohibits constructing reservoirs on the McCloud’s final miles before entering Lake Shasta.

State officials have publicly opposed the project in the past. In 2013, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said raising the dam would have “significant and unavoidable impacts” on the Sacramento River ecosystem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has similarly warned federal officials that the project would restrict high-water flows and reduce fish habitat.

State officials declined to comment for this story. Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson Peter Soeth also declined to comment.

Stork, a longtime opponent of the dam raise, said the Trump administration is liable to ignore the state law. Trump’s January executive order directed federal officials to deliver more water through the Central Valley Project “by increasing storage and conveyance … notwithstanding any contrary State or local laws.”

“We certainly expect some serious mischief here,” Stork said. “The president’s executive order more or less says, ‘Please find ways to accomplish my agenda by trying to get around state and federal law.’”

Mulcahy, the Winnemem Wintu’s government liaison, said Lake Shasta flooded 90% of his tribe’s historical territory. “Village sites, sacred sites, cultural gathering sites,” he said.

Increasing the dam’s height will do even more damage, he said, periodically inundating many important gathering places, including the Kabyai Creek burial ground, where dozens of tribal members were laid to rest after a vicious 1854 massacre by white settlers.

It would also flood a cleansing pool for Winnemem men, a riverside dancing mesa and a young women’s coming-of-age ceremony site called Puberty Rock. This, Mulcahy said, will fray some of the last remaining cultural threads holding together the tribe, which he said consists of about 140 members.

“We wouldn’t be able to hold the ceremonies that are necessary to fulfill our spiritual and cultural needs,” he said.

The Winnemem Wintu are not included on the official list of federally recognized tribes, which could limit their influence over the project.

Polarizing farmers and environmentalists

Like many Delta and Central Valley water supply projects, the Shasta Dam raise has polarized farmers and environmentalists in a dispute over how it would affect Chinook salmon.

Environmentalists and fishery advocates say it will imperil already declining salmon populations, while project proponents, including the Westlands Water District, say it will help the ecosystem.

Westlands provides water, imported mostly from the Delta, to San Joaquin Valley farmers who grow 150,000 acres of pistachios and almonds — their main crops — as well as other fruits, grains and vegetables.

First: Rows of pistachio trees in farmland outside of Mendota. Farmers in this area receive Central Valley Project water from the Westlands Water District. Last: Water flows through the Delta–Mendota Canal near Firebaugh on May 2, 2025. The canal is part of the Central Valley Project. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

But General Manager Allison Febbo said the Shasta project isn’t directly about water supply. Rather, she said, it’s meant to help fish. Febbo explained that increasing the reservoir’s volume will keep its water colder, which is essential for spawning.

If the plight of the fish improves, Febbo said, regulations on water diversions might be eased — which would amount to an indirect benefit to water users like Westlands.

“We keep getting ratcheted down as the species continues to decline, so our water supply isn’t going to get any better until the species gets better,” Febbo said.

LaMalfa also stressed that the project would be “a win-win” by increasing water storage and better insulating the reservoir’s cold-water pool.

“More water for people and more cold water for salmon,” the congressman said.

Raising the dam would mean “more water for people and more cold water for salmon.”
— U.S. Rep Doug LaMalfa

But Nelson, at the Golden State Salmon Association, said Shasta Dam has already “been absolutely catastrophic for salmon.”

“The idea that a Shasta raise would benefit salmon — particularly under this set of federal agencies — is absurd,” he said.

Completed in 1945, the dam blocked Chinook from reaching hundreds of miles of stream habitat. For the winter-run Chinook — whose unique life cycle involves residing and spawning in freshwater through summer — the ice-cold McCloud was their stronghold.

“It can be 110 degrees in the canyon there, and you can be standing in the river in waders and your legs are so cold it hurts,” said Rene Henery, California science director with the group Trout Unlimited, as he explained the importance of the McCloud to the future survival of winter-run Chinook.

“The idea that a Shasta raise would benefit salmon — particularly under this set of federal agencies — is absurd.”
— Barry Nelson, Golden State Salmon Association

Today, the fish — which enter freshwater in the winter — cling to existence in a short stretch of river downstream of Lake Shasta, surviving thanks to the release of cold water stored deep in the reservoir. However, this resource frequently runs out in the summer as the fish lay and fertilize their eggs, which can lead to complete spawning failures in lethally warm water.

While a more voluminous reservoir could theoretically keep its water colder for longer, Henery said the changing climate is likely to complicate this equation. Filling the enlarged reservoir in a hotter, drier future is the main problem.

“Dams don’t make water, so in a low-water year, raising the dam does nothing,” he said.

In wet years, he added, the enlarged dam will harm fish by capturing water that would otherwise flood vital wetland habitat downstream, like the recently restored Yolo Bypass, west of Sacramento. “The inundation we get on the Yolo Bypass is what’s keeping salmon populations hanging on in the Sacramento,” Henery said.

Jon Rosenfield, science director at the advocacy group San Francisco Baykeeper, added that “expanding the dam will capture more of the high flows (during wet years) that are now the only lifeline those fish have.”

Mulcahy said he is hopeful that the project — though currently revving with Republican horsepower — will soon run out of steam. Labor and material costs are rising, he said, and the longer the project goes unbuilt, the more expensive it gets.

“They’re going to try and negate state law so that they can proceed however they want,” Mulcahy said. “But if we can last this one out, I think it may bury itself once and for all.”