A steelhead leaps up a barrier on its way to spawning grounds. Credit: Adobe Stock

Last year, California Trout and Pacific Gas & Electric removed the final barrier to fish passage on California’s Alameda Creek with funding from NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation . For the first time in 50 years, threatened Central California Coast steelhead and other migratory fish can reach spawning grounds and juvenile rearing habitat in the upper watershed.

Construction crews relocated a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and removed its concrete covering. The pipeline had spanned the creek and created an 8-foot drop in the creek. They installed the new pipeline section deep below the creek bed, removed the old pipe section, and regraded the stream channel—restoring a natural pathway for fish.

Alameda Creek was once the largest producer of steelhead and Chinook salmon in San Francisco Bay.…