Butte Creek Restoration I

Restoration Stories

Butte Creek Spring Run Photo by John Icanberry

2017 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Butte Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project – a national model for interagency collaboration on habitat improvement. The Butte Creek Fish Passage Improvement projects are located along 90 miles of the middle reach of Butte Creek. When the project began during the drought of the late 1980s, spring-run salmon had dwindled in some years to less than 100 returning adults. Today, as a result of the Butte Creek Fish Passage Improvement projects, in tandem with a valuable food supply and safe rearing habitat in the Sutter Bypass wetlands, more than 10,000 spring-run salmon return on average to Butte Creek. Learn More © John Icanberry