For 22-year-old Henry Sanchez, a 25-cent increase in the bus fare makes a big difference.

It used to be $1.50 to get from his home in Bell Gardens to Cerritos College, where he studies. Now, it’s $1.75 one-way.

“It really sucks that you have to worry about the price going up, while the quality of the services is going down,” he said at the Metro Rail station in Norwalk this week. “And trying to buy a car is harder, even getting a used car. It’s risky.”

Does he think the state should step in to help public transit systems avoid fare hikes? It could help, he said — unless that means higher taxes or the price of other things going up.

Sanchez isn’t alone in his quandary.

Transit agencies across California are grappling with a “fiscal cliff” — a decline in revenue and the end of federal funding that has been a lifeline for the last three years. Without the state stepping in, they say they may have to cut service or increase fares.

That would hit low-income people the hardest, especially those who rely exclusively on transit to get around. Any major changes would also affect commuters, the other regular group of riders.

Ridership — which was already declining as early as 2013 — dropped dramatically when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020 and hasn’t fully recovered. Statewide, monthly ridership dropped from 100 million in February 2019 to about 20 million in June 2020. As of June 2022, the numbers rebounded to about 60 million, but varied by region and transportation mode.

The fares that riders pay not only help keep buses and trains running, but help agencies qualify for state and federal grants. Transit agencies say that the federal funding they’ve received during the pandemic will run out within two years.

Looking ahead, state regulations that phase out vehicles that use gasoline and diesel fuel will also reduce the tax revenue paid to transit agencies, putting more stress on their finances.

The Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom are drafting next year’s budget, and to help cover a deficit projected to be as much as $25 billion, Newsom is proposing delays and cuts to some transit expansions and equipment programs. That doesn’t directly impact operations, but it prompted some lawmakers to call for the state to step in with more money — while others are hoping transit agencies will be held more accountable for how they’ve spent funds.

It’s a pivotal moment for not only current services, but for the long-term future of transit in the state.

“This is a moment that is making all the difficulties that we have been having for years in public transportation in the U.S. really kind of come up,” said Giovanni Circella, a program director at UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies.

There’s also the climate angle: California’s transportation sector accounts for about 40% of the state’s carbon emissions.

Getting more people out of their own gas-powered cars is essential to meeting the state Air Resources Board’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 48% below 1990 levels by 2030 (for the transit sector, at least 13.5% and as much as 19% for major metropolitan areas by 2035). In 2018, the board adopted a regulation that calls for all new buses to be carbon-free by 2029.

Compared to a car with only a driver, subways produce 76% less in greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile, light rail systems 62% less, and buses 33% less, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. Those are averages; the environmental payoff from public transit depends on the number of passengers and the type of fuel used..

Public transportation in the United States saved 63 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 — the equivalent of taking 16 coal power plants offline for a year, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

“A focus on farebox recovery somewhat misses the mark on what transit agencies are actually doing,” said Michael Pimentel, executive director of the California Transit Association, which represents transit agencies. “Efficiency is an important criteria, but so, too, are environmental benefits and making advances on equity.”

To really reap the climate benefits and get cars off the road, California’s public transit systems need to be popular and running efficiently — and that isn’t happening in many places.

Here’s how we got here — and what some suggest can be done.

The problems (and it’s not just money)

Transit agencies rely on a mix of funding sources — federal grants, state funding, revenue from local taxes and passenger fares.

The agencies that rely more heavily on fares are the ones in the most dire situations. That includes Bay Area Rapid Transit, San Francisco’s MUNI and Los Angeles Metro.

BART ridership dropped from more than 118 million in fiscal year 2019 to about 35 million in 2022, according to the agency. In 2019, BART’s passenger fares and parking revenues totaled $520 million, funding 66% of its operations. That number dropped to 12% in 2021, and rebounded slightly last year to 21%, with passenger fares and parking totaling $147 million.

The agency received $1.6 billion through three rounds of emergency federal aid. Initial funding was limited to spending specifically on COVID-19 measures, such as emergency protective gear for employees and covering administrative leaves, but later grants allowed spending on operations. And while that funding has helped restore service to pre-pandemic levels, the system still encounters delays and cancellations, in part due to an ongoing labor shortage.

According to Brian Taylor, director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, many transit operators retired or shifted to work with lower health risks, such as trucking. A national survey by the American Public Transportation Association in March 2022 found that retirees made up 24% of all workers who quit, while 45% left for jobs outside of the transit industry.

Taylor said one factor behind the departures is that drivers don’t want to take on the increasing role of policing behavior — first enforcing mask rules and later dealing with growing mental health, drug and homelessness crises showing up on public transit.

Those problems aren’t just keeping transit drivers away. At a legislative committee hearing in March, transit agency officials said the issues are also scaring off riders.

Since Jan. 1, 26 people have died on Metro buses and trains from suspected drug overdoses — already four more than the total deaths from any cause in all of 2022. And serious crimes — such as robbery, rape and aggravated assault — were up 24% compared to 2022.

Safety concerns add to the longstanding issues that discourage people from using public transit: how long trips take, the inconvenience of getting to a station and delays or interruptions.

It doesn’t help that some transit agencies are not being managed very well.

Recent probes of BART revealed conflict-of-interest violations, a BART employee who faked work hours and a $350,000 homeless outreach program with the Salvation Army that got only one person into a residential treatment facility after two years, according to local press reports.

In 2022, the Alameda County Grand Jury found the agency’s board, management and unions engaged in a “pattern of obstruction” against its Office of the Inspector General, which oversaw those probes.

The string of problems prompted State Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda and a vocal BART critic, to resign from a legislative select committee that is advocating for more state transit funding.

BART, said Glazer, is beset by “a breakdown of all kinds of levels.”

“It’s not just about the trains, it’s a breakdown in their safety, a breakdown in oversight. It’s violations of the law.… it’s fake (security) cameras on trains, you know, massive overtime … the cost overruns, the delays,” he said.

“I’m not supportive of bailing out BART when they refuse to have fiscal oversight through a fully functioning Office of Inspector General,” he added.

In response, BART spokesperson Jim Allison said the agency supports independent oversight, and that officials “learned a lesson” from their contract with the Salvation Army.

“The outgoing inspector general is an expert in finding fraud and abuse and waste. She does not have any experience in terms of operating a railroad,” he said.Allison also said the “fiscal cliff” BART is facing is due to high fixed costs rather than mismanagement. “We’re not going to be able to cut our way out of this financial crisis,” he said. “We just have naturally built-in costs that we need to address to keep the system in a state of good repair.”

Commuters wait for buses to arrive at the Norwalk Green Line Station in Norwalk on April 3, 2023. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters

BART isn’t the only agency to come under fire.

Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Democrat from Palo Alto, requested an audit of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, based on concerns about the agency’s leadership that he said resulted in operations and financial issues.

But not everyone finds the future of public transit in California as bleak.

San Jose-based advocate Monica Mallon disagreed with Berman’s call for the audit, saying that while VTA has handled its finances poorly in the past, it has learned from its mistakes. And no agency should be punished for external factors such as the pandemic, she added.

“If we let agencies fall off this cliff, it’s going to be really hard to get transit back in the future,” Mallon said. “And then everybody’s going to be in traffic and complaining.”

And in Sacramento, Dan Allison, an action team member of Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders, said Regional Transit’s outlook doesn’t seem as dire as some other agencies’ and has improved service over the years.

The solutions (and it’s mostly money)

Short-term solutions include more state money for “bridge funding” to help transit agencies avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

California’s largest systems receive less state support than other systems of their size nationally, according to an analysis by the nonprofit policy group San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. In 2019, the state’s largest operators received 5% to 22% of operating funding from the state, whereas large systems in other states received 28% to 50%.

The financial crisis should not come as a shock to the state, according to Eli Lipmen, executive director of rider advocacy group Move LA. “We knew this was coming,” he said. “We’re in a new paradigm where we need to rethink how we fund public transit because it can’t necessarily be funded by a farebox.”

The California State Transportation Agency said it is “aware of the challenges that transit operators are facing as the state transitions to a post-pandemic transit environment” and while Newsom’s budget does not include any money for transit operations, it hopes to continue working toward solutions that “will preserve and improve the state’s transit system and work toward long-term financial stability.”

It’s typically an easier sell for agencies to score funding for expansion projects from the state. But the Legislature could also change the law to temporarily allow some project and equipment funding to be used for operations, as the Legislative Analyst’s Office suggested in its February report.

That doesn’t include shifting any high-speed rail funding, though, because the voter-approved bond measure that funds it can only be used for that purpose.

There’s also the option of local ballot measures to increase funding, but they take time, and voter approval isn’t guaranteed.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which serves nine Bay Area counties, may put a regional transit funding measure before voters in 2026. (That worked in Los Angeles County in 2016, when voters overwhelmingly approved a permanent half-cent sales tax measure expected to raise $120 billion over 40 years).

Buses at the Norwalk Green Line Station in Norwalk on April 3, 2023. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters

But just filling short-term funding gaps won’t be enough.

Researchers, lawmakers and advocates agree that the future of public transit is tied to the recovery of downtowns. That means revising zoning and development laws — for example, building housing closer to transit, and easing parking requirements that increase the cost of those units.

In downtown San Francisco, for instance, the office vacancy rate shot up to nearly 28%, and that trend isn’t likely to end soon. One option would be to convert office space into housing, though that has its own set of roadblocks.

Some also call for fixes to the transit funding model, itself.

According to a February report from UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, although populations and mobility patterns have changed since the Transportation Development Act was enacted in 1971, the law and its related programs have kept the same eligibility conditions based on counties and their populations in 1970. The outdated population numbers may also explain why transit agencies have increased in number: three of California’s four largest regions have fewer people per agency than the national average.

At the legislative hearing in February, state Sen. Aisha Wahab, a Fremont Democrat on the transportation committee, inquired about consolidation of transit agencies. UCLA’s researchers also called for better coordination of State Transit Assistance funding, and revamping how agencies are evaluated.

But former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose, who ran in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election, questions why any government should fund a program that “very few people want.”

“We might as well be buying a horse and buggy for everyone,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Public transit is no longer about moving people,” but has “become a jobs program for bus drivers no one needs.”

For transit to be a viable and attractive option, there are also passenger-oriented changes that have been proposed or put in place: easier transfers between different agencies, quicker payment options such as Google or Apple Pay, and door-to-door vans and other “microtransit” options to compete with ride-sharing companies.

Move LA also advocates for free fares for students to “create this next generation of transit riders who can sustain the system going forward,” Lipmen said.

A few agencies have already begun to deploy more police officers or mental health counselors on buses, though some debate the merits of increased police presence. One bill introduced this session would require large agencies to start collecting data on harassment of riders.

Assemblymember Laura Friedman, a Democrat from Burbank and chairperson of the transportation committee, introduced a bill that aims to make sure social service providers that receive state homelessness grants address the needs of homeless individuals using public transit.

She also introduced a bill that creates a task force to research and make recommendations on transit funding.

“We need to reimagine our stations, reimagine how we finance transit and find ways of building in public support,” she said. “It’s past time.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

It is with heavy hearts that the family of Caleb Zane Pellegrini announce his passing on Monday, February 13, 2023, at the age of 40. The sudden and unexpected loss of Caleb leaves his family and friends saddened over such a tragedy. His absence is felt, and he is truly missed in so many ways.

Caleb was born February 3, 1983 in Eureka, where he lived with his mother, Shannon Pelligrini. At the age of 4, they moved to Willow Creek, where he attended Trinity Valley Elementary School. After graduating 8th grade, he and his mother moved back to Eureka. It was hard for Caleb to say goodbye to his friends, but he looked forward to attending Eureka Senior High School. Caleb made several lifelong friends in high school and graduated in 2001. After graduation, Caleb spent a year at College of the Redwoods before moving to Aptos, where he attended Cabrillo College. He studied psychology with a focus in behavioral therapy and educational services for people with autism. Caleb had a special place in his heart for people with disabilities and was grateful for the opportunity to work with this population. Eventually, Caleb moved to Santa Cruz and worked as a behavioral therapist for children and adults with disabilities.

Caleb absolutely loved Santa Cruz, developing many connections and friendships while living there. He continued to advocate for the autistic community, intolerable of any form of injustice or discrimination. He was a good friend to all of those he met, always willing to help when needed and listen when asked. He was supportive and could be depended on as a shoulder to cry on when a friend was in need. He enjoyed helping people solve problems, and his open mindedness helped him see different perspectives and and innovative solutions. Caleb’s optimistic disposition was magical, able to put a smile on anyone’s face. His emotional intelligence was calming and admirable, and his compassion was easily felt.

Wanting to be closer to his mother and friends, Caleb made a recent move back to Eureka. He was involved with the LGBTQ community here, and spent much of his time volunteering and advocating for Redwood Pride, Queer Humboldt and many other organizations. He valued equality and inclusion. Caleb would want his friends and family to remember that there is power in knowledge — you will become stronger if you are true to yourself and who you really are. Caleb had an immeasurable amount of love to share and truly believed everybody had the right to be free from discrimination.

Those who knew Caleb will remember and treasure his kindness, humor, eternal smile and beautiful soul. He was like a guardian angel during his short time here on earth and his spirit will continue to watch over his family and friends from above. He is deeply and forever missed by many.

Caleb was preceded in death by his beloved Nan (Darlene Pellegrini Robertson) and his fur babies (Chester and ChubChub) May his soul rest in peace and those affected find peace in his absence.

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‘Pat’ (Donald) Gaskill
February 25, 1933 - April 3, 2023

He passed away peacefully to be with the Lord at the age of 90. His 90th birthday was celebrated with a wonderful party. It was a special day for him and he enjoyed it so much.

He was born in Iowa but made his permanent home in Humboldt County in the late 1950s. He met the love of his life, June, and they were married 55 years.

He served in the military during the Korean War and was stationed in Washington state. He was a logging truck driver and worked for numerous trucking companies throughout the years and Louisiana Pacific Mill for five years. Truckers knew him as “Squirrel” and “Big Hands Pat.” Anyone who met him and shook his hand could not get over the size of his hands, hence the nickname.

He and mom were members of Redwood Vintage Rods for many years. He loved his fast cars and street rods. They were also in the Redwood Country Kickers Dance Club. He was a big man but was so light on his feet and a great dancer. He could sure “cut a rug” with mom. Also a member of the Elks Club.

Dad was a loving husband, father,  grandfather,  great-grandfather, brother in-law and uncle. He was very proud of all his family and loved them wholeheartedly and this includes his brother (from another mother) Doug Gingerich. His coffee shop buddies were special to him also.

He is survived by his wife, June, children Leanne (Jeff) Johnson, Ron Harvey, Patricia Murray Frady, Pamela Nicholas, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Pat was preceded in death by Margaret Acorn (mother), Ralph Johnson (father) and Peggy Gaskill Sloan (daughter).

There will be a casual gathering of friends and family Sunday, April 23 from 2 to 4 p.m. at 2134 Hodgson St., Eureka.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: The battle for the future of Eureka’s waterfront is now in full swing following a heated city council meeting Tuesday and word Wednesday that a group calling itself “Citizens for a Better Eureka” intends to file a lawsuit against the city. Details on that and other stories in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Reported Crash on the Samoa Bridge Early This Morning, Which Supposedly Involved a Bicyclist Being Tossed Into the Bay, is Believed Not to Have Actually Happened
• Yurok Tribe Scores Big Grant to Continue Its Salmon Habitat Restoration Work on the Trinity River
• New Group — ‘Citizens for a Better Eureka’ — Says It Will Sue Eureka Over Downtown Housing Development
• CONVERSATIONS: City of Eureka Mental Health Clinician Jacob Rosen Talks About Providing His Services on the Streets
• Next Up in the Gateway Area Plan: Arcata City Council Will Reconsider the Deadline it Gave to the Planning Commission
• BOOKED: April 5, 2023
• K-12 Enrollment: Does the Increase in Homeless Students Indicate a Worsening Trend?

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

PREVIOUSLY:  

• Next Up in the Gateway Area Plan: Arcata City Council Will Reconsider the Deadline it Gave to the Planning Commission

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Contrary to what the Outpost posted early this morning and what is stated in the staff report, the Arcata City Council will not be discussing the Gateway Area Plan during tonight’s meeting, due to the fact that the council will not have enough members present to weigh in on that particular topic. 

Councilmember Meredith Matthews emailed the Outpost earlier today to say that she will not be attending tonight’s meeting, something she had mentioned at the previous council meeting. “Because of my absence, there will be no Gateway Area Plan discussion, the conversation will revolve around the General Plan Update,” she wrote. 

Because Councilmembers Alex Stillman and Stacy Atkins-Salazar both need to recuse themselves from any Gateway Area Plan discussions, due to a Fair Political Practices Commission ruling, only three councilmembers – Matthews, Sarah Schaefer and Kimberly White – remain to discuss the plan. Without Matthews, the council will not have quorum. 

David Loya, community development director for the City of Arcata, confirmed with the Outpost that Matthews had mentioned her absence ahead of time, and that it was his mistake that the Gateway Area Plan portion of tonight’s discussion was placed on the agenda.

The conversation on the General Plan Update – the broader-scoping plan, which will guide development in the City of Arcata for the coming years – will still take place, as all the other four councilmembers are permitted to participate in those discussions. 

The Arcata City Council meets tonight (Wednesday, April 5) at 6 p.m. You can view the agenda and directions on how to participate here.

In the wee hours of this morning, there was a bit of a scare on the bay.

As noted by LoCO scanner-watcher “Todd,” at around 4 a.m., someone called 911 to report that a vehicle had struck a bicyclist on the Samoa Bridge, and that the bicyclist had been knocked over and into the water.

The California Highway Patrol also responded to the incident, as shown by their dispatch center transcripts. Coast Guard helicopters and Humboldt Bay Fire were also dispatched. They didn’t find anyone in the bay.

And now — according to the CHP and the Eureka Police Department — police now believe that this didn’t actually happen as reported. The bicycle in question was found, propped up on the side of the bridge without any apparent damage, and the person who called in the incident could not be recontacted. 

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PREVIOUSLY:

•  (PHOTOS + VIDEO) The Yurok Tribe is Leading a Massive Restoration Project on the Trinity River, and the Fish are Coming Back

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Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

The Yurok Tribe recently received a $3,990,587 grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for an urgently needed, large-scale river restoration project on the Trinity River.

“These funds will help us transform a severely damaged section of the Trinity into diverse, dynamic and complex habitat for salmon and steelhead,” said Frankie Myers, the Yurok Tribe’s Vice Chairman and President of the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation. “I sincerely thank California Governor Newsom and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for investing in our effort to rebuild these invaluable fish stocks and make the Klamath Basin more resilient to climate change. These funds could not have come at a better time.”

The Trinity River is the largest Klamath River tributary. The salmon and steelhead spawning stream plays a major role in the Klamath Basin’s fish production and contributes much to the overall health of the interconnected watershed. Dams, widespread habitat degradation and water diversions have reduced the Trinity’s salmon and steelhead runs to a small fraction of their former sizes. The Yurok Tribe is engaged in collaborative, complementary efforts to restore habitat, improve water management and rebuild fish stocks on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife grant is funding a significant portion of the Oregon Gulch Project, which is the largest fish habitat construction initiative in the Trinity River’s history.

“We are extremely grateful for the Newsom Administration’s considerable investment in the Oregon Gulch project on the Trinity River,” said Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James. “This project is part of our long-term plan to recover our fish runs and preserve an essential part of our culture.”

The Yurok Fisheries Department’s multidisciplinary team of restoration biologists, engineers and hydrologists, along with geomorphologists, wetland ecologists and botanists, designed the Oregon Gulch Project. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation is leading the implementation of the monumental rewilding initiative. Funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Trinity River Restoration Program and US Department of the Interior, the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation-led Oregon Gulch Project aims to accomplish the following goals:

Restore complex floodplain habitat and natural river processes for the benefit of salmon and steelhead Increase habitat diversity for all riparian species (fish, frogs, turtles, birds, insects, etc.…) year-round within an approximately one-mile river segment Remove for than 500,000 cubic yards of mine tailing and restore 32 acres of degraded floodplain, wetland and riparian habitat for fish and wildlife Increase juvenile salmon and steelhead habitat by up to 1000 percent within the project reach Increase groundwater retention and restore riparian corridor Establish conditions for the river to access its valley, allowing the channel to evolve as well as create new fish habitat for many years to come

For most of the last century, the Oregon Gulch floodplain, located near Junction City, has been buried in more than 35 feet of gold mine tailings comprised of bowling ball-sized rocks, gravel and silt. The construction team will remove the dredge mining refuse and reshape the straight river channel into a sweeping arc or meander bend with large-wood elements, deep holes and wetlands. Over time, the approximately one-mile-long river segment is expected to evolve into a complex network of channels spanning a verdant floodplain within the 35-acre valley.

Numerous single logs and groups of whole trees with root wads attached will facilitate the evolution of this river reach. When seasonal high flows collide with the wood elements, the corresponding hydraulic pressure will produce new side channels and/or scour deep holes, where adult salmon and steelhead will rest during the spawning migration. The same pools and secondary channels will offer concealed places for juvenile fish to pick off prey without expending too much energy fighting the fast current. The large wood will also help restore the river’s connections to its sprawling floodplains, where baby salmon and steelhead will find ample food, shelter and respite from high flows. The Oregon Gulch project site is immediately downstream of one of the Trinity River’s most productive salmon spawning grounds. The restoration work will increase juvenile salmon and steelhead habitat by up to one-thousand percent within the targeted area.

In addition to smothering the riparian ecosystem, the towering mine tailings confine this river reach, which better resembles a ditch than a spawning stream. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation hired several local contractors, including Yurok citizen-owned V & P Services and Marrufo Trucking, to remove the 516,480 cubic yards or more than 1 billion pounds of rubble to clear the way for the restoration of the riparian corridor. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation used a special machine to sort out some of the spawning-sized gravel and alluvial silt from the mine tailing for later use in the restoration project. The majority of the rocky material will be crushed and incorporated into local road projects.

As a result of the removal of the mining refuse, the reconnection of the floodplains and reintroduction of large wood, this river segment will function more like a natural, self-sustaining stream. For example, the large wood elements will trap and store large quantities of fallen leaves and branches. Microbes and invertebrates will breakdown these organic materials and release nutrients back into the riparian environment. Many of the insects will become food for baby salmon and steelhead too. When the river spills onto the porous floodplains, water will recharge underground aquifers at a more rapid rate. This will allow more water to remain in the river for a longer period of time. Additionally, the underground storage system will later release clean and cold water back into the river. Restoring these natural processes will ensure the river valley continues to serve fish and wildlife as the climate changes.

Climate change has already started to reduce annual precipitation amounts in Northern California. The decrease in rainfall and snowpack is contributing to increases in river temperatures and the frequency of fish-killing disease outbreaks in the Lower-and Mid-Klamath because there is often not enough water to flush pathogenic bacteria and parasites from the system. As juveniles and as adults, Trinity-born salmon are often exposed to elevated pathogen levels and water temperatures when travelling the lower 44 miles of Klamath to and from the ocean. After the four Klamath dams are removed in 2024, Klamath and Trinity-origin salmon will not experience such high water temperatures and pathogen densities.

Prior to the installation of the dams, at least one million spring and fall-run salmon spawned in the Klamath Basin each year. In 2022, less than 55,000 fall Chinook salmon (including hatchery fish) and approximately 4,000 spring-run fish returned to the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. In response to the 2023 fall Klamath salmon forecast, fisheries managers are poised to close the ocean commercial fishery in California this year. The Yurok Tribe will be cancelling its commercial fishery for the fifth year in row to protect salmon stocks. More restoration work is required on both rivers to help fish numbers rebound.

“Salmon and steelhead numbers will gradually improve on the Trinity and Klamath Rivers after the four dams are removed,” said Yurok Fisheries Department Director Barry McCovey Jr. “I am confident that we can rebuild salmon stocks through dam removal, habitat restoration, and proper water management, to a level that would support tribal, ocean commercial and recreational fisheries.”

The heavy equipment work on the Oregon Gulch Project will wrap up this fall. After the machines move out, a crew will establish a wide variety of well-adapted plants, including native grasses/forbs, shrubs and trees, at key locations within the project site. The vegetation will further improve habitat for salmon and steelhead as well as many different native wildlife species.

While increasing salmon and steelhead production is the primary goal of the Oregon Gulch Project, the restoration of the immense riparian corridor will benefit other culturally important fish species, such as Pacific lamprey and threatened coho salmon. The restored river valley will also aid a myriad of native amphibians, birds and mammals, due to the abundance of food, water and shelter.