California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

12/29/2025

As 2025 ends, we at CSPA see reasons for hope and many causes for concern — and we’re asking for your support.

There’s encouraging news for California salmon. Thanks to the wet water year of 2023 and smart hatchery management, salmon runs are strong in several Central Valley and Bay-Delta rivers. More than 1,200 spring-run Chinook returned to the Tuolumne River, with strong runs also reported on Butte Creek, Battle Creek, the Stanislaus, Mokelumne, and Putah Creek.

This raises hope for a return to salmon fishing in 2026. But the long-term outlook remains troubling. Wild salmon numbers continue to decline, and major water diversion projects threaten the rivers salmon depend on.

For more than 40 years, CSPA has fought to keep water in Central Valley rivers and the Delta. Please consider making a donation or renewing your membership to help us protect California’s fisheries for future generations. https://conta.cc/4sge35Z

Email from California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Late December 2025: CSPA Funding Appeal   Happy New Year from California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance     Central Valley Fisheries Cannot Re

11/08/2025

CSPA’s November Newsletter is out, bringing critical updates on the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir water rights hearing. Additionally, we detail the new AB 263, which aims to protect salmon habitats by ensuring adequate stream flows. Read about this and more at

Email from California Sportfishing Protection Alliance November 2025 Newsletter   November 2025   In This Newsletter: Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir Water Rights Hearing Notes - November 2025 by Chr

10/23/2025

The upcoming “Action 5” update to the 2024 biological opinions for the Central Valley and State Water Projects will remove the Fall X2 Action—a key protection originally established in 2008 to safeguard Delta smelt populations. Read more on the Fisheries Blog at

The Fall-X2 Action – Benefits and Costs Posted on October 22, 2025 by Tom Cannon The 2008 Delta Smelt Biological Opinion for Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) operations included the Fall X2 Action to protect Delta smelt. The about-to-be implemented “Action 5” that wil...

10/09/2025

CSPA October Newsletter is out now! Stay informed on the Delta Conveyance Project and salmon protection efforts.

Email from California Sportfishing Protection Alliance October 2025 Newsletter   October 2025   In This Newsletter: October 2025 Update on the Delta Conveyance Project hearing by Chris Shutes Hydropow

07/10/2025

Homelessness encampments affect fish populations in three primary ways: pollution of the waterway and nearby areas, like river banks physical modification of the waterway and nearby areas, through …

01/11/2025

Learn how to apply to become CSPA's Administrative and Policy Associate at https://calsport.org/cspa-is-now-hiring-an-administrative-and-policy-associate/

01/02/2025

https://calsport.org/cspa-sues-california-over-operations-of-the-state-water-project/

On November 26, 2024, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance sued the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) over the “Inci…

07/02/2024

On June 19, 2024, California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) unanimously approved white sturgeon as a candidate for threatened species status. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Fish and Wildlife) must now conduct a review and decide whether to list the white sturgeon as threatened or endangered. This means effective immediately, white sturgeon are protected under the California Endangered Species Act (ESA) until Fish and Wildlife makes its decision.

The Commission’s decision was made in response to a petition made by San Francisco Baykeeper, CSPA, the Bay Institute, and Restore the Delta in November 2023. CSPA and allies petitioned the Commission to list the state’s white sturgeon as “threatened” under the California ESA.

The coalition also petitioned United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list California’s white sturgeon as threatened under the federal ESA.

Insufficient freshwater flows in the Delta and its tributaries have led to low rates of successful white sturgeon reproduction. Algal blooms and poor water quality, especially in the Bay, threaten remaining adult white sturgeon. In these conditions, the white sturgeon population is highly sensitive to overharvest. The Commission’s decision means that anglers who catch white sturgeon must release them until the Commission makes a decision on possible exemptions in August.

Speaking on the proposed listing, CSPA’s Chris Shutes said, “Bad water management is devastating California’s fisheries, and people who fish are left to shoulder far too many of the consequences.” Yet he maintains some hope: “There’s still a chance for sturgeon to be plentiful and rebound.”

📸Early life stage white sturgeon swimming in a laboratory tank, Doug Hardesty, USGS

06/11/2024

The groundwater gold rush is on. New projects to divert rivers for groundwater recharge are popping up across the state.

These recharge projects threaten to divert still more water from already-depleted rivers, even as the State Water Resources Control Board finally begins the update of the Bay-Delta Plan, which starts from the premise that rivers need more water, not less.

The threat is enormous in scale. Diversions to recharge groundwater don’t have to show use of the water for up to five years. Because so many aquifers are already overdrafted, places in the ground to put water are almost unlimited.

Water agencies and engineering consultants are testing how far they can weaken flow requirements for water rights to divert surface water for groundwater recharge. The weaker the rules, the more likely water users will invest in facilities to divert more water.

CSPA is pursuing appropriate constraints on the groundwater gold rush each step of the way.

https://calsport.org/news/groundwater-gold-rush/

05/31/2024

On May 7, 2024, CSPA and its allies intervened in the ongoing case of Nevada Irrigation District (NID) versus the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In the case before the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, NID is challenging the authority of the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) to issue a water quality certification for NID’s Yuba-Bear Hydroelectric Project.

The lack of terms placed on the original licenses of hydropower projects has left many of California’s rivers and fisheries in dire condition. Hydropower projects must be subject to license terms that minimize the impact they have on the water quality of California’s rivers, including flows.

The Clean Water Act provides the legal framework for the State Board to protect the state’s waterways from degradation. By participating in NID’s cases before the DC Circuit, CSPA is continuing its campaign to protect the Clean Water Act and its wider campaign to protect rivers from the effects of hydropower dams.

Read More: https://calsport.org/news/litigation-nevada-irrigation-district/

📸 Spillway at Bowman Reservoir, Tosha Duncan, Creative Commons

05/16/2024

“The exorbitant costs of the Delta tunnel make the program feasible only if its funded by taxpayer money, thus making the public finance the further degradation of public trust resources …”

05/11/2024

On May 9, 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (Commission) denied an application for transfer of assets filed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and its subsidiary, Pacific Generation.

This decision is a win for the California Hydropower Reform Coalition (CHRC) of which California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) is an active member. CHRC challenged PG&E’s application throughout regulatory hearings conducted by the Commission on the grounds that the transfer of assets was not in the public interest.

In its decision the commission agreed stating that PG&E was required to “demonstrate, among other things, that their requests are adequately justified, reasonable, and in the public interest.” The Commission found that PG&E’s proposed transaction failed to meet “even the minimal public interest standard.”

CSPA has worked for many decades to hold PG&E and other hydroelectric project operators accountable both for public safety and for the danger their projects pose to fisheries and riparian habitats. The Commission’s decision is a welcome outcome for CSPA and its colleagues in the CHRC who represent a wide range of interests that are impacted by hydroelectric facilities.

https://calsport.org/news/california-public-utilities-commission-denies-pge-application-for-transfer-of-assets-a-big-win-for-cspa/

📸Battle Creek by Cindy Charles