Water – Enviro Updates

Trump administration offers plan to stop dam removal on California river

April 21, 2026

Kurtis Alexander, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

The Trump administration injected a surprising twist into the fight over Northern California’s Eel River on Tuesday, offering up a potential plan to stop the removal of two dams in the basin — though how serious the plan is remains to be seen.

In a social media post, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she had been in touch with a Southern California water agency that was interested in buying the Scott Dam in Lake County and Cape Horn Dam in Mendocino County and continuing their operation.

Such a move would run counter to longtime plans by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the owner of the dams, to remove the facilities as part of the retirement of the century-old Potter Valley hydroelectric project.

WaterEel River, endangered species, PG&E, Potter Valley Project, Russian River

Riverside water district interested in taking over Potter Valley Project

April 21, 2026

LOST COAST OUTPOST

Statements From PG&E and Friends of the Eel on SoCal Agency’s Potter Valley Dam Bid

This morning, Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, tweeted that a potential buyer has expressed interest in taking over the two dams near the headwaters of the Eel River, in Mendocino and Lake Counties.

That buyer is the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, which serves around 160,000 residential and commercial users in western Riverside County.

It’s not yet clear how serious the district is, or why it wants to assume water and power operations far from the customers it serves, but in her tweet Rollins celebrated the fact that a buyer could potentially disrupt PG&E’s efforts to abandon the dam system, which hasn’t produced power in many years and has been massively inefficient for many more.

WaterEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River

‘End of an era:’ Russian River watchdog stepping back

April 8, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The record heat that last month barreled into the final days of winter in California ushered in the sounds of summer along the lower Russian River. Beachgoers laughed and splashed as kayakers and paddleboarders paraded between the banks, all of them beckoned to the water weeks earlier than most years.

Still, the soundtrack was music to Brenda Adelman’s ears.

The 86-year-old activist has for more than half her life fought to clean and protect the Russian River, serving as a chief watchdog and champion for the 1,500-square mile watershed.

At the outset of her work in the early 1980s, the lower river was still used by Santa Rosa as the primary way to dispose of its wastewater. That is no longer the case in large part due to unrelenting pressure from Adelman and allies at that time, whose broader legacy over the ensuing decades would include greater public recognition and regulatory care given to the river — a lifeblood for residents, visitors and farms alike, and a sensitive refuge for wildlife.

The Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, the nonprofit Adelman launched and led through that era, made its mission in holding local and state government accountable for the river’s health and restoration.

Waterendangered species, Russian River, Russian River estuary, Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, wastewater overflow, water pollution, water quality

State grant gives Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation chance to restore 175 acres of wetlands

March 10, 2026

Anna Armstrong, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A stretch of farmland along the Laguna de Santa Rosa floodplain could become a new home for steelhead, coho salmon and wading birds as part of a major wetland restoration effort now backed by more than $1 million in state funding.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation was awarded a $1.05 million grant in late February from the California Wildlife Conservation Board to begin planning restoring 175 acres of farmland between Sebastopol and Forestville back into riparian and wetland habitats.

The grant marks a major turning point for the foundation, which will now be able to take on its largest singular project in the foundation’s 37-year history.

The site sits along the laguna just north of Gravenstein Highway on land owned by the Lafranchi family ranch, a property that has been farmed for multiple generations. In 2024, Sonoma County Ag + Open Space purchased a conservation easement on a portion of the ranch to ensure it would be permanently protected.

The state funding will cover the costs of the design work, which includes environmental and hydrology studies, engineering plans and habitat assessments.

Habitats, Water, Wildlifecoho salmon, endangered species, Laguna de Santa Rosa, native plants, Russian River, steelhead, streams, wetlands restoration

$2.5M federal grant headed to Sonoma Creek to curb flooding, boost steelhead habitat

March 3, 2026

Nicole Tingson, BAY CITY NEWS

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-4) announced he has helped secure nearly $2.5 million in federal funding for floodplain restoration work along Sonoma Creek.

The $2,496,686 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will support the Sonoma Ecology Center in advancing restoration planning at three priority sites in Sonoma Creek, a press release issued Friday noted.

The project aims to reduce flood and erosion risks while improving habitat for steelhead trout and other threatened species.

Additionally, it aims to improve the long-term watershed resilience in Sonoma Valley.

Habitats, Waterflood protection, Sonoma Creek, Sonoma Ecology Center, steelhead

Tools tweak beaver dams

February 14, 2026

Mark DeGraff, KNEEDEEP TIMES

CDFW Beaver Restoration Program

The town of El Dorado Hills, California was facing a problem. A beaver dam had inundated a popular walking trail. The community wanted to reverse the flooding without harming their buck-toothed neighbors.

Beaver experts visited the area and proposed a simple solution: a flood-control pipe threaded through the mass of sticks and mud that formed the dam. Once installed, the pipe quickly lowered the water level. Today, the trail remains dry, and beavers still call El Dorado Hills home.

Projects that help beavers and humans coexist have only grown easier since 2018, when El Dorado Hills began its beaver friendly project. Last October, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center launched the Beaver Help Desk, a state-funded resource that matches beaver-beleaguered landowners like the ones in El Dorado Hills with certified beaver coexistence professionals. It’s just one of a flood of new efforts to restore the water-storing rodent to its former habitats across California.

Beaver habitat restoration has become a priority among landowners, legislators, and environmentalists alike as climate change threatens the state’s ecosystems and water supply. A growing body of evidence has found that beavers were once abundant throughout California, and bringing them back will foster climate resilience. They build ponds where salmon can weather dry summers and create wet meadows that serve as firebreaks. One study calculated that repopulating the Sierra Nevada with beavers would create enough dams to store 32 billion gallons of water, making an area three-quarters as large as Yosemite wet enough to resist wildfires.

Water, Wildlifebeaver dams, beavers, flooding, OAEC, water storage

Round Valley Indian Tribes respond to Trump administration’s attempt to thwart Eel River dam removal

January 31, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

James Russ and Joseph Parker, the former and current presidents of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, are seeking to make their reservation healthy again.

That means helping their people, they say, and specifically tackling high rates of diabetes and obesity that affect their tribal nation and many other Indigenous communities.

It also means restoring their land and the river that has been intrinsically linked with their people for millennia.

“We are Native people tied to the resources and rhythms of the Eel River,” Parker said. “Our health is connected to the river.”

Now, the tribal nation is confronting the Trump administration over the river’s future and fighting some of its regional allies to reclaim water rights that have been overlooked for a century.

Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat, Scott Dam, water diversion