North Coast Coho Project: Overview

The North Coast Coho Project
is uniquely based on partnerships between Trout Unlimited, private enterprises and State and Federal agencies, including California’s Conservation Corps, working cooperatively to restore coho salmon runs in northern California. The goals of the Project are to assess watershed conditions, to develop and implement projects to restore degraded habitats, to change land management regimes to protect restored habitats, and, where necessary, to reintroduce coho salmon into restored watersheds using the latest principles of conservation biology.

Unprecedented Partnership
The Project began in 1998 when the privately owned Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) purchased Louisiana-Pacific’s California holdings and became the largest private landholder in Mendocino County. Louisiana-Pacific had heavily logged the areas for decades with little concern for the salmon, and today much of the habitat is in very poor shape. TU approached MRC about launching a joint project to restore its new lands, and in an unprecedented agreement between a conservation organization and a forest products company, TU and MRC joined forces to restore beleaguered coho salmon and steelhead populations on California’s north coast. Under the partnership, MRC is closing damaging roads, providing scientific information, and helping with instream restoration on six coastal rivers: Garcia, the Navarro, the Noyo River, Big River, Elk Creek, and Hollow Tree Creek.

In 2001, the project expanded to another private timberland owner – the Campbell Timberlands Group, which purchased all of Georgia Pacific’s landholdings in Mendocino County. Campbell lands include several important coho and steelhead Rivers, including the Ten-Mile River, Pudding Creek, and the Big River. In total, MRC and Campbell own almost 500,000 acres in Mendocino County and are the dominant landowners in at least a dozen key watersheds or subwatersheds.

TU has a history of success in restoring coho salmon in northern California, thanks to its Lagunitas Creek project in Marin County. There, after restoring degraded habitats, wild coho salmon native to Lagunitas Creek were captured, artificially spawned, and the eggs and resulting juveniles were raised in creekside incubators until they were able to fend for themselves in the wild. Today Lagunitas Creek has an annual run of about 500 fish, or about 10 percent of all the coho salmon returning to Northern California’s rivers.

California Conservation Corps
Trout Unlimited’s partnership with the California Conservation Corps (CCC) on the North Coast Coho Project is truly inspiring. The CCC engages young men and women in meaningful work, public service and educational activities that assist them in becoming more responsible citizens, while protecting and enhancing California’s environment, human resources and communities. TU and the CCC have secured funding from agencies and foundations to partner on restoration projects which then allows these young people from varied backgrounds to be involved in bringing back abundant coho runs in California.