MARYSVILLE, Calif. (May 19, 2026) – For the last two years, Yuba Water Agency has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on a pilot program to reintroduce spring-run Chinook salmon into historical habitat in the upper reaches of the North Yuba River watershed. Today, the Yuba Water Board of Directors agreed to provide a $500,000 grant to CDFW to continue the program for another year.

CDFW releases adult salmon into the North Yuba River in spring 2025 as part of a multi-agency reintroduction effort that includes Yuba Water, NOAA Fisheries and CDFW.

“For the first time in about a century, spring-run Chinook salmon are swimming in the North Yuba River,” said JoAnna Lessard, Yuba Water’s watershed manager. “Our partners at CDFW have successfully placed hundreds of thousands of salmon eggs, as well as adult salmon to lay their eggs naturally. The juvenile salmon are later captured and placed in the lower Yuba River to continue their migration to the Pacific Ocean and hopefully one day return to the Yuba River as adults.”

The reintroduction effort is part of the Yuba River Resilience Initiative, a partnership among Yuba Water, CDFW and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries that establishes a long term, multi-agency framework to support these reintroduction efforts and other work to benefit salmon.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife video of releasing juvenile salmon into the lower Yuba River. Credit CDFW.

The initiative includes a future funding commitment by Yuba Water for the ongoing operation and administration of the reintroduction program. That funding obligation doesn’t become effective until certain conditions are met, including completion of regulatory approvals and the agency receiving its new operating license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. However, with this grant Yuba Water is ensuring continued early implementation of the program while CDFW seeks other funding to support the effort in the years ahead, until those conditions are met.

In late October 2024, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), in partnership with the Yuba Water Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and the U.S. Forest Service, injected spring-run Chinook salmon eggs over a 12-mile stretch of gravel riverbed of the North Yuba River along Highway 49 just east of Downieville. Photo courtesy of CDFW
CDFW biologists and fisheries staff, working with partners including the U.S. Forest Service, artifically plant pre-fertilized Spring-run Chinook Salmon eggs into the gravel bottom of the North Yuba River, above Downieville, California, in a first of it’s kind project on October 28, 2024. (CDFW Photo/Tim Walton)

“Having a healthier salmon population is important to everyone,” said Yuba Water Board Chairman Wayne Bishop. “Although we are ‘tightening our belts’, financially, following the penstock incident, we are going forward with this grant because it’s that important and impactful of a program for the fish, for our watershed and for us as an agency.”

Updates to recreation offerings at New Bullards Bar Reservoir, reassurance of dam safety

Also at today’s meeting, the board approved an amendment to Yuba Water’s agreement with Emerald Cove Marina, the vendor that operates the marina at New Bullards Bar Reservoir, allowing them to operate a floating food truck on the water as part of a pilot to see if such an offering would be well received by recreators.

The board also received an update from the agency’s chief dam safety engineer about the condition of New Bullards Bar Dam and the agency’s smaller diversion dams. The directors heard about completed and planned maintenance projects and were assured that the agency’s dams remain safe.

Learn more at yubawater.org.