Anadromous fish in california support a multimillion-dollar sport and commercial fishing industry

Unfortunately, some central valley (sacramento-SAN joaquin delta and its tributaries) salmon (oncorhynchus tshawytscha),steelhead (oncorhynchus mykiss), and sturgeon (acipenser SPP.) populations have declined to precipitously lowlevels. Population declines have been linked to various negative impacts such as construction of dams, waterdiversions, and habitat degradation. Significant alterations to stream channels began with the california goldrush starting in 1849. Today, urban expansion, agricultural and industrial development, and water operationscontinue to negatively affect these populations. The california department of fish and wildlife (cdfw), as the trustee agency for the states fish and wildliferesources, not only manages catchable stocks and harvest opportunity but also has been steadily working toreverse population declines observed in californias anadromous fishes. Since the late 1980S several state andfederal legislative actions have similarly focused on reversing these declines. These include: the state salmon, steelhead trout, and anadromous fisheries program act of 1988, federal central valley project improvement act OF1991, and the water resources and delta restoration act of 1996. In 1994, and inclusive of the prior legislativeactions, the BAY-delta accord set in motion a much broader process that was intended to balance competing demandsas well as develop and implement a long-term BAY-delta solution encompassing four significant areas: ecosystemquality, water quality, water supply reliability and levee system integrity. The august 2000 calfed BAY-deltaprogram record of decision displayed the continued commitment to implement the calfed ecosystem restorationprogram and the california BAY-delta act of 2003 established the california BAY-delta authority as calfedsgovernance structure. Subsequently, the delta reform act of 2009 authorized planning efforts to achieve watersupply reliability and delta ecosystem health and modified the governance structure previously established by thecalifornia BAY-delta authority and calfed science program.there have also been several habitat restoration and species recovery documents developed since the early 1990S that have provided direction for restoration and recovery actions and aid in prioritizing actions. These include: restoring central valley streams: a plan for action (cdfg 1993) final restoration plan for the anadromous fish restoration program united states fish and wildlife service(USFWS 1997) conservation strategy for restoration of the sacramento-SAN joaquin delta sacramento valley and sanjoaquin valley regions (cdfw 2014) recovery plan for sacramento river winter-run chinook salmon, central valley spring-run chinook salmon, and central valley steelhead national marine fisheries service (nmfs 2014) recovery plan for the southern distinct population segment of north american green sturgeon (acipensermedirostris) (nmfs 2018)these documents provide broad guidelines for restoration and recovery actions and are crucial drivers in centralvalley anadromous fisheries management in an environment where both listed and catchable stocks CO-occur.