WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Reclamation today announced a $13 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in two projects to improve ecosystems, increase resilience and remove barriers to fish passage in California, building on the goals of the domestic Freshwater Challenge. California Trout Corporation will receive $8 million in funding for the Harvey Diversion Fish Passage Remediation Project and the Yurok Tribe will receive $5 million for the restoration of the Shovel, Jenny, Falls, and Spencer Creeks streams in the Klamath Basin.
“These investments through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will help to improve our ecosystems while mitigating impacts of drought and building climate resiliency,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “These projects in California will improve habitat for fish and will remove barriers to restore movement in river systems.”
The WaterSMART Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program provides cost-share funding for the study, design, and construction of large-scale aquatic ecosystem restoration projects that improve the health of fisheries, wildlife and aquatic habitat, including through habitat restoration or the removal or bypass of fish passage barriers. Common project types include dam removal or modification, restoration of floodplain connectivity, implementation of nature-based solutions, and other related activities.
To date, Reclamation has allocated nearly $150 million in funding to transformational ecosystem restoration projects through the program. A funding opportunity to allocate an additional $100 million in funding was posted to grants.gov on December 10th, 2024. This notice of funding opportunity will have two application periods. The first application period closes April 15th, 2025. The second application period closes February 17th, 2026. To learn more and apply, visit the funding opportunity on grants.gov: WaterSMART Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program.
Projects Funded:
Yurok Tribe, Restoration of Hydroelectric Reach Streams
Reclamation Funding: $5,000,000
The Yurok Tribe will design and construct multiple instream and floodplain restoration projects and remove fish passage barriers in critically important cold-water tributaries identified in the Klamath Reservoir Reach Restoration Plan. The removal of the lower four Klamath River dams will enable ESA-listed Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, Steelhead, and Pacific Lamprey fish to colonize the Shovel, Jenny, Falls, and Spencer Creek reaches of the river. As salmon have already started to return, this project will continue improving spawning and rearing habitats along 168 miles of the Klamath River and its tributaries, remove fish passage barriers, and restore and protect 3 cold water tributaries and 4 cold-water springs, increasing the likelihood that these fish are restored to healthy and abundant populations.
California Trout Corp., Harvey Diversion Fish Passage Remediation Project,
Reclamation Funding: $8,000,000
California Trout, in collaboration with the Harvey Diversion Joint Power Administration, will restore connectivity, re-establish stream function, and modernize failing infrastructure at the Harvey Diversion, located on the Santa Paula Creek in the southwestern corner of Ventura County. The Harvey Diversion is a 35-foot diversion dam that functions as a complete barrier for the upstream migration of native Southern steelhead and rainbow trout. The project involves the partial removal of the Harvey Diversion and intensive streambed stabilization through the installation of 25 grade control structures. These components will open access to 12-miles of optimal upstream habitat, restore channel stability, and reduce sediment export. Removal of the Harvey Diversion was identified as a critical recovery action for Southern steelhead in the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 2012 Recovery Plan. This funding complements an additional $12 million awarded to the Harvey Diversion Project by the Bureau of Reclamation in September 2024.
