A former lumber mill site on California’s Prairie Creek has been transformed into wetlands, side channels and ponds where young salmon can rest, feed and grow.
NOAA Fisheries and its partners have been tracking the creek before, during and after the restoration. The project created new floodplain habitat and planted native vegetation for a watershed that supports threatened coho salmon, steelhead and Chinook salmon.
Early measurements are encouraging. In some places and years, young fish using the restored areas grew up to twice as fast as fish that stayed in the main creek channel. The 2023 juvenile coho group also had an estimated 2.6 percent ocean survival and adult return rate, compared with earlier estimates of about 1 percent.
Researchers caution that several more years of monitoring are needed before they can fully measure the project’s effect. Monitoring is planned to continue through at least 2028.
