Over the past two weeks, vibrantly colored rafts have been floating down the lower Yuba, filled with students pointing in wide-eyed wonder at Chinook salmon migrating upstream to their natal waters. The 2026 Yuba Salmon Expeditions are fully underway — and every school that participated in this program last year is back this year: 39 schools and 2,200 students across Nevada, Yuba, and Sutter counties. 

Five months ago, that outcome was far from certain.

When the Anchor Funding Disappeared

When Yuba Water Agency was forced to suspend its community grants program in the wake of the New Colgate Powerhouse disaster, our Salmon Expeditions program lost its anchor funder overnight. A nearly $200,000 funding gap threatened to eliminate this experience for 70% of students. 

We could not let that disappear.

A Community That Shows Up

We at SYRCL took action to get the word out to our watershed community that our students and teachers needed support. Fortunately, our friends at Yuba Water Agency joined this effort, too. The result was hundreds of individuals, businesses, and service clubs heeded the call.

Donors across the watershed gave through our Spring Appeal. Guests at the Wild for the Yuba Dinner and Auction raised their paddles. The newly formed Yuba County Educational Foundation as well as Yuba County came forward with generous grants. Local businesses and service clubs embraced our Adopt-a-Classroom initiative. Together, we closed the gap —giving underserved schools from Nevada, Yuba, and Sutter counties the ability to join us this season.

Thank you to everyone who made the 2026 Salmon Expedition season possible: 

• SYRCL’s community donors through our Spring Appeal.  
• Wild for the Yuba Dinner and Auction guests, sponsors,  and Fund-A-Need donors 
• Yuba County Educational Foundation
• Yuba County Government 
• Sierra Nevada Foundation 
• Granite Bay Flycasters 
• Nevada City Rotary 
• Rotary Club of Marysville 
• South Yuba County Sunrise Rotary 
• Rotary Club of Grass Valley South

We are Profoundly Grateful — and We Want to be Honest About What Comes Next

It remains unclear how long Yuba Water Agency will need to keep its grants program suspended while addressing the New Colgate disaster. We anticipate carrying this program without its anchor funder for an additional one or two years. This means working to close the funding gaps for the 2027 and potentially 2028 seasons, too.

Our hope is that more California funders and foundations will recognize what this program means — especially for the rural, under-resourced schools that depend on it most. The students who come back from the lower Yuba are different. Teachers tell us that kids who would never call themselves “science kids” return from the Yuba asking questions, making connections, and feeling — sometimes for the first time — that the natural world belongs to them, too. That transformation is what your generosity made possible this fall.

People Can Save a River.

And a river can bring a community together for its young people.

To our donors, funders, supporters, and sponsors: Thank you so much for believing in the power of outdoor education and valuing the future of our students.