“Yuba Salmon Now” Campaign Goes on the Road to Hold Army Corps Accountable for Dam Impacts on Salmon

In the wake of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ publication of two environmental documents that ignore the Corps’ responsibility for their dams’ impacts on the Yuba’s threatened fish species, SYRCL has ramped up its “Yuba Salmon Now” campaign.  In the past few weeks, SYRCL has met with Congressman John Garamendi, secured a meeting with Congressman Jared Huffman, and presented its arguments for salmon restoration at a Bay Area fundraiser.

“Congressional leadership is urgently needed now as the Army Corps seeks to undo the 2012 Biological Opinion’s conclusion that the Corps’ operations at Daguerre Point and Englebright Dams jeopardize the survival of wild salmon and steelhead,” said SYRCL Executive Director Caleb Dardick.

Representatives of SYRCL and American Rivers met with Representative Garamendi last week at his Yuba City office. “Congressman Garamendi committed to work with us to restore the lower Yuba River and address fish passage to the upper Yuba as well,” said American Rivers’ California Director Steve Rothert.  “Additionally, the Congressman offered to bring the major national and local players to the table to reach a collaborative solution to recover salmon on the Yuba.”  SYRCL’s “Yuba Salmon Now” campaign to save salmon is in partnership with American Rivers.

Congressman Jared Huffman, whose district covers California’s coast from the Bay Area to Oregon was the featured guest at Friends of the River’s recent “California River Awards” dinner. “It was wonderful to hear Congressman Huffman refer to the thousands of wild salmon who return through the Bay as his constituents,” reported Dardick who attended the event. “I look forward to enlisting him in our efforts to restore salmon to the upper Yuba when we meet in San Rafael later this month.”

SYRCL and American Rivers co-hosted a “Yuba Salmon Now” event in Mill Valley that attracted nearly 100 guests interested in learning more about the “Yuba Salmon Now” campaign plan. Dr. Jeffrey Mount, Founding Director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, was the evening’s featured speaker who asserted that not only was it possible to restore wild salmon to the upper Yuba watershed but that getting salmon around the dam is doable.