Fish Passage Priorities - CDFW - 2012 [ds812]

Man-made barriers to salmonid migration include road /stream crossings, irrigation diversions and dams. Road /stream crossings are extremely numerous and often cross multiple road ownerships within a watershed. Passage impediments and delays in migration affect both adult and juvenile fish. Given the magnitude and severity of the problem, reconnecting isolated stream habitat has become an important priority for the restoration of impaired anadromous salmon and steelhead stocks. A comprehensive CDFW fish passage program is vital towards identifying, prioritizing, and treating migration barriers so that unimpeded migration of California’s salmonid populations is achieved. By coordinating resources with CDFW fisheries engineers, the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program and in conjunction with the Fish Passage Forum, a comprehensive program will aid in the recovery and de-listing of salmon and steelhead, in California. In 2008, the California departments of Fish and Game (now California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)) and Transportation (Caltrans) met with staff from the Assembly committees on Natural Resources and Transportation to discuss joint agency collaboration on prioritizing and remediating fish barriers to salmon and steelhead migration. This was in response to Senate Bill 857 requiring the California Department of Transportation to complete an assessment of potential barriers to anadromous fish prior to commencing any project using State or Federal transportation funds. In addition to the expectation that both agencies would develop a mutual list of priority barriers occurring along transportation corridors, a request was made to CDFW to provide a statewide list of priority barriers based on significance to fish migration and independent of who manages or is responsible for the stream crossing. The point features mapped in this dataset represent the barrier locations from the 2012 list. The 2012 list includes CDFW's continuing effort to review priorities and track accomplishments in addressing statewide priorities. You will see that the review process has elevated some new priorities, while de-emphasizing some 2011 priorities. CDFW has a more comprehensive list of barriers to salmon and steelhead migration; these barriers represent our effort to demonstrate and emphasize barrier priorities across both Coastal and Central Valley watercourses. As such, this spatial dataset presents the top priorities in each twenty-four Coastal and Central Valley counties for fish passage improvement. This list is a result of compilation and review by CDFW Regional biologists and supervisors (Regions 1-5) and by the Fisheries Branch. The prioritization process considered the following criteria: 1) high likelihood to improve migration for anadromous species; 2) availability of recent data of fish and habitat; 3) willing partners and land access; 4) known political support at a local, State or national level; 5) the site is a barrier to a federal recovery plan "Core" population; 6) the watercourse is an eco-regional significant watershed; 7) CDFW is committed to monitoring before, during and after any barrier improvement project is undertaken; and 8) the site is considered to be a "keystone barrier", meaning the barrier was the lower-most in that river or creek. Visit https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=63174 to view the 2012 CDFW memo that the creation of this spatial dataset was based on.