The recovery of steelhead trout has been an integral part of CalTrout's Mission Statement since our founding: "To protect and restore wild trout and steelhead and their waters in California."

The decline of steelhead in California was one of the unifying forces that brought the founders of CalTrout together in 1971. The battles are unending.

A Rugged Symbol
For thousands of years steelhead have returned, gleaming with a silvery ocean freshness, to spawn in their natal streams. Native Americans anticipated their return, dependent on them for sustenance. Because they don't school (unlike salmon), efficient commercial harvesting was much more difficult leaving the steelhead as a symbol of the region's ruggedness and independence.

An Elusive Icon
"A flash of silvery light in the current, a deep swirl in placid water, a streak of disappearing line in a pool, a leap so powerful it strips your reel to the backing . . . this is your fish. His heart is that of a warrior, his speed like a shooting star, his power a reckless dynamo."

In his 1951 book, Steelhead to a Fly, Clark C. Van Fleet poetically describes the thrill generations of Californians have known as he relays his experiences angling for steelhead on the Eel River.

Over the course of western angling history, the steelhead has attained legendary stature. Prized for its strength, beauty and speed, it is the "silver bullet." Befuddling, elusive, and migratory, it is also the "silver ghost."

To fish for steelhead on a pristine western river is considered by many to be the pinnacle of freshwater angling.

An Anadromous Trout
Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus), named for their steel-blue coloring, are similar to rainbow trout but with a salmon-like life cycle. Like salmon, they are an anadromous species. Born and reared in freshwater streams, as juveniles they migrate to estuaries, adjust to saltwater and then migrate to the ocean to mature into adults. As they begin to sexually mature they return to the streams of their birth to spawn and then attempt to return to the ocean to repeat the cycle. After spending one to three years foraging on the bountiful food sources of the Pacific, large adult steelhead, some reaching 20 pounds, return to their home rivers -- some to the very pools of their birth -- driven upstream to their headwaters by the urge to reproduce.

Unlike some juvenile Chinook salmon that typically migrate to the ocean after just a few months of freshwater rearing, juvenile Steelhead reside in our rivers from 1 to 3 years, requiring cool, clean water year round to sustain themselves. And, unlike salmon, steelhead do not necessarily die after spawning and may make the journey more than once.

An Indicator Species
Steelhead are the "canary in the coalmine" for California's coastal watersheds. They rely upon all habitats of a river system; the estuary for acclimation to saltwater; main river channels for migration; and their natal tributary streams for spawning and rearing.

With 75% of America's terrestrial species dependent upon healthy rivers and adjacent riparian areas, protecting wild steelhead also nurtures a broad array of birds, mammals, reptiles and other aquatic organisms.

A Vanishing Species
Once found in most of California's 1,100 miles of coastal rivers, statewide numbers have fallen to less than half their populations of 30 years ago. In Southern California steelhead have declined 99%, with many runs now extinct. On California's North Coast populations have not been reduced as drastically, but the Sacramento and San Joaquin River system populations are fractions of their 1960's levels.

The steelhead trout is an integral component in our rich but threatened natural heritage. Click here for a clear indication of how these threats have translated into numerical population declines.

Crisis Point
A crisis 150 years in the making has finally been recognized. After a two-year status review, the National Marine Fisheries Service could not find one healthy steelhead population in California; instead they found 23 runs to be extinct. For these and numerous other reasons, the federal government has now listed all steelhead in California -- except for the Klamath Mountain Province -- as either threatened or endangered.

California Trout had been preparing for these listings. We pushed the state toward the development and approval of a comprehensive steelhead program -- The Steelhead Restoration and Management Plan for California, produced by the Fish and Game Department in February, 1996.

Natural production is the foundation for sound steelhead management restoration. The only effective way to restore native steelhead populations is by implementing a comprehensive plan that emphasizes corrective actions against the primary sources of declining steelhead populations -- habitat loss and degradation.

For these reasons, CalTrout has formally adopted the following policies regarding steelhead recovery:

• We will advocate and support actions for Federal and State listing and recovery of steelhead under the appropriate provisions of their respective Endangered Species Act(s). This includes:



• Measurable performance objectives for salmon and steelhead recovery, as described in CalTrout Conservation Policies. Click here to review.



• Reform of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as described in CalTrout Conservation Policies. Click here to review.



• We support Federal designations of critical habitat and evolutionarily significant units (ESU) that are supported by the best available scientific and historical data.



• We will develop activities, legislation, and legal actions that facilitate recovery steps of endangered and threatened species, especially related to fish passage, forestry rules, hydropower operations, cattle grazing, mining, water development, water pollution, and similar habitat uses.



• We will support activities, legislation, and legal actions to remove unnecessary dams and culverts that block access to spawning habitat or deprive rivers of their natural flows.



• We will establish, participate, and support coalition activities aimed at the recovery and restoration of steelhead trout.

In addition to CalTrout's policies, specific conservation strategies and recommendations are to:

• Ensure that watershed restoration plans are developed on a stream-by-stream basis. The plans must address each river's unique needs and problems and include provisions for scientifically based measurable objectives and timelines for monitoring the success of recovering steelhead populations. We insist on state and federal "recovery" plans with measurable goals and objectives as defined by the California and Federal Endangered Species Acts.



• Implement programs to provide passage for steelhead over barriers so that they can access their historic spawning and rearing areas.



• Reform the Forest Practices Act to provide adequate habitat protections for steelhead.



• Adjust flow regimes below dams on anadromous-species streams to mimic pre-dam natural flows, allowing steelhead the benefit of the in-stream flow levels that they've adapted to over the millennium.



• Continue marking hatchery steelhead in California so that native species restoration can be measured and monitored and so that fishing can be continued where it is appropriate.



• Increase enforcement of angling regulations as well as the penalties for the violation of existing conservation and angling regulations.

More Information

Steelhead Projects

Steelhead Recovery Status