By Josh Martinez, Max Stevenson, Michelle Workman and Todd Manley
Last week, we participated in a panel at the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) hearing for the Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update to provide board members and staff with an update on the progress being made on Healthy Rivers and Landscapes “Early Implementation” habitat projects and positive fish returns resulting from this work.
The Healthy Rivers and Landscapes (HRL) proposal is being considered as a means of implementing the objectives contained in the Water Quality Control Plan for the Bay-Delta, which is in the process of being updated. We and the other HRL supporters are invested in the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program because the latest science shows us that its combination of comprehensive and substantial habitat improvements with the management of targeted, functional flows is the way to make meaningful progress in Chinook salmon recovery.
During the presentation, we briefed the board on how projects that have been implemented are being monitored to determine if they are working as designed to provide salmon habitat, and how that information is being used to improve the design of future similar projects to maximize the habitat values they provide.
We also informed the board of the exciting news that since December 2018 we have 58 Early Implementation projects that have been completed, are underway or will be ready for construction by 2027. The HRL parties elected to pursue these Early Implementation projects as a good faith demonstration of their commitment to fulfilling the habitat restoration targets established in the 2022 Voluntary Agreements MOU and in the Draft Bay-Delta Plan. Science-based decision making is foundational to the HRL Program, and the lessons learned from these Early Implementation projects will allow us to more effectively engage in an adaptive management process.
Said another way, the lessons we learn from monitoring the performance of these Early Implementation projects will allow us to do more of what works and course correcting away from approaches that may fall short of HRL objectives.
Our panel provided a unique perspective from other panels at the hearing as practitioners of Chinook salmon habitat. We were able to share two of our early success stories resulting from the habitat work on the Mokulmne River and Putah Creek.
On the Mokelumne River, we provided an example of maximizing habitat benefit through design, even on small parcels. Small, well designed, floodplains are providing nutrient dense habitat to provide food and cover for juvenile salmonids, and other native fishes. Effectiveness monitoring is helping us learn as we build and continue to design projects that produce measurable benefits. These projects are not a choice of habitat over flow, but rather a scientifically modeled approach to increase flow in a way that targets maximized habitat availability when juvenile fish need it most. Thus addressing the limiting factor for the Mokelumne River which is juvenile floodplain habitat.
For Putah Creek, we shared how long-term investment in habitat restoration paired with adaptive water management is producing measurable results. More than 25 years of collaborative restoration, targeted habitat enhancements, and carefully timed functional flow releases have contributed to record salmon returns, including more than 2,150 adult Chinook salmon documented in 2025. Actions such as gravel augmentation to improve spawning habitat and flow pulses designed to mimic natural conditions are being monitored and refined over time, demonstrating how integrating habitat improvements with functional flows can support salmon recovery in a highly managed system. To learn more about this project, see Building a Salmon Run in Putah Creek.
You can view our panel presentation in its entirety here.
Josh Martinez is the Environmental Program Manager with the Department of Water Resources, Todd Manley is the Director of Government Relations with the Northern California Water Association, Max Stevenson is Streamkeeper, Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee and Solano County Water Agency, and Michelle Workman is the Manager Natural Resources Department with the East Bay Municipal Utilities District.
