Central Valley Spring-run Chinook Salmon Brochure
September 29, 2023
Spring-run Chinook salmon were once abundant throughout rivers and creeks in California’s Central Valley.
The mid-1800s dramatically changed the landscape. Gold mining, dam construction, water and hydropower management, and other land uses blocked spring-run from much of their habitat, and their numbers began to decline. Today, wild spring-run spawn and rear in only a small fraction of their historic habitat and only number in the hundreds to low-thousands.