Unless critical habitat is protected and restored, researchers say three-quarters of California’s 31 native trout, steelhead and salmon species “will be extinct in the next 100 years,” says The Sacramento Bee. “California’s record-breaking drought that officially ended this winter wreaked havoc on many of the already-struggling fish, which depend on cold water.”
The bleak assessment was made by biologists from UC-Davis and by California Trout, an advocacy group. The report was a follow-up to a 2008 assessment that serves as a benchmark for health of each type of fish. “The researchers said that almost all of the fish are worse off than they were a decade ago,” said the Bee.
Climate change is expected to bring warmer weather and higher water temperatures in streams. Channelization of waterways has reduced fish habitat. The report called for protection of rivers, such as the Smith and Eel Rivers, that have been altered less by humans. “Researchers said other needed efforts include protecting rivers’ cold headwaters, creating better groundwater management, removing problem dams or building fish passageways around them, and using altered landscapes such as flooded rice fields to mimic natural floodplains,” said the Sacramento Bee.