By Joy Rust
Recently, NCWA alongside our partners in the Bridge Group (farmers and fishermen), welcomed Assistant Administrator Genio Piñeiro Soler and staff from NOAA Fisheries offices across California for a Sacramento Valley tour focused on salmon recovery.
Throughout the day, the group visited sites that demonstrated real projects and infrastructure working for salmon and food production across the Sacramento Valley. In the Yolo Bypass, fishermen and scientists stood alongside the fields, showing juvenile salmon actively growing in harvested rice fields through efforts like the Nigiri Project demonstrating how these working landscapes can double as rich rearing habitat when floodplains are reconnected. At Knights Landing, partners witnessed monitoring efforts and how fish movement and survival is tracked in real time. The tour wrapped at Tisdale Weir, where conversations focused on how weirs and water operations can be timed to move water onto floodplains to create more opportunities for salmon to access the food and habitat they need.
What stood out most was the opportunity for direct, in-person conversations and a shared sense of momentum. NOAA Fisheries staff spent time with the people leading this work every day—farmers, water managers, and scientists—asking questions, hearing directly what’s working, and gaining a clearer understanding of both the progress underway and the challenges ahead for salmon recovery.
At the end of the tour, NOAA Fisheries staff shared that they were energized by what they saw and encouraged by the progress underway in the Sacramento Valley. They pointed to the strength of the projects, the expertise of the people leading them, and a shared determination to find solutions through collaboration—including unique and sometimes unlikely partnerships that make the Sacramento Valley so special.
