California Trout

08/24/2026

Planning for the future can begin today. 🌲 With even a simple estate plan, you can protect your family's financial security, while supporting the causes you care about.

The process is much simpler than it sounds, and we’re here to help.

💧Visit the link to get started: https://caltroutlegacy.org/?pageID=19

📸 creds: Val Atkinson

08/21/2026

⚠️ ACTION ALERT: Protect California's Rivers & Public Lands by Voicing Your Support for the Roadless Rule. Visit https://caltrout.org/publiclands to take action now and add your voice.

The next step in the fight over the Roadless Rule is here, and it hits close to home for anyone who cares about California's rivers. The U.S. Forest Service is moving forward with its effort to unravel the protections that keep our national forests intact, releasing a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule. The public comment period is open now through September 21. This is a critical moment for the future of California's watersheds, clean water, wild fish, and the communities that depend on healthy rivers.

Here's why this matters to CalTrout: California's inventoried roadless areas are where our rivers begin. They shelter the headwaters and cold-water refuges that native trout, wild salmon, and steelhead need to survive, especially as our waters warm. If the Roadless Rule is rescinded, some of the state's wildest backcountry could be opened to new road building and logging, and the consequences flow straight downstream.

The Administration needs to hear directly from Californians right now, and public pressure works, especially when people speak up early and in large numbers. During the first comment period, more than 625,000 people weighed in, with the overwhelming majority in favor of keeping these protections.

Your comment helps defend the lands and waters that give us clean drinking water, wild fish, and places to hike, hunt, fish, and reconnect. Once these protections are weakened, the damage to our rivers could take generations to undo. Thank you for standing up for California's rivers, native fish, and the communities that depend on them.

👉 Take action now: https://caltrout.org/publiclands

08/20/2026

Silent Auction Spotlight for our upcoming Source to Sea fundraiser: Guided Cider Tasting for 4 at Bivouac Ciderworks! 🍻

Calling all cider curious (and cider converts) 👀 — this Source to Sea auction item takes you and 3 friends on a guided tasting journey through San Diego's only Guided Cider Tasting Experience.

Led by a cider expert, you'll pour your way through Bivouac's own ciders plus some of the best from around the world, and learn what makes cider as easy-drinking as beer, as nuanced as wine, and arguably the most versatile pour out there. 🍎

Bid on this experience and more when our silent auction opens this August. All proceeds go toward restoring California's rivers and watersheds. Can't have fresh cider without clean water!

📍 California Science Center, Los Angeles
📆 Friday, September 18
⏰ 6pm
🎫 Click the link for tickets: https://caltrout.org/source-to-sea/

08/19/2026

The Elk River estuary was once a thriving nursery for salmon, steelhead, and trout, but decades of diking and draining for agriculture stripped away the habitat these species depend on. 🐟 As climate change accelerates sea level rise and coastal flooding, CalTrout and our partners are taking action.

This summer marks the start of a major restoration effort across 857 acres, beginning with groundbreaking at the 40-acre Swain Slough sub-area. Partners include an incredible team of Tribal Nations, local landowners, public agencies, scientists, and community members.

👀 Watch to see how we're reintroducing the natural processes that build healthy salt marsh — creating a stronger, more resilient watershed for fish and people alike:

The Elk River estuary was once a thriving nursery for salmon, steel...

08/18/2026

📰 The Eel River Expo is in the news (Redheaded Blackbelt)! With the Expo just a little over a month away, Humboldt County is getting pumped.

Last year's inaugural event was a huge success, drawing more than 650 attendees of all ages and 32 exhibitors from across the community. This year, we think we can top it!

We're so excited to welcome Michael Kauffman — educator, author, and ecologist — as our keynote speaker! His extensive fieldwork in the Eel River's headwaters and South Fork Eel watershed, along with his broader work connecting landscape ecology and community, brings an amazing to understanding and restoring the Eel watershed.

Join CalTrout and the Rotary Club of Eureka for a free, family-friendly afternoon of expert talks, hands-on activities, live music, food, and community connection.

📅 September 19, 2026
🕛 11 AM – 4 PM
📍 Fortuna River Lodge, Fortuna, CA

🎟️ Register to save your spot here: https://caltrout.org/eel-river-watershed-program/eel-river-expo/

https://kymkemp.com/2026/08/16/second-annual-eel-river-expo-photo-contest-coming-september-19th/

“Anyone from across the state can submit photos virtually until August 17th and voting for this category will happen in-person at the Expo, with great prizes up for grabs.”

08/17/2026

"The reasons for the proposed dam removals may seem mundane and practical, but the change would be existential for the local industry, wildlife and people. If the dam removals do happen, the Eel River would be transformed into the longest free-flowing river in California."

!

If the dam removal goes as planned, the Northern California waterway will be one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the U.S.

08/17/2026

LESS THAN 24 HOURS to submit your photo to the Fish Water People Photo Contest, hosted in partnership with California Fly Fisher! 🕐 ⌛ This is the last chance to submit your best pictures and we don't want you to miss your shot (literally). A stellar line-up of prizes is up for grabs, along with the chance to solidify your legacy in the CalTrout artist community!

📸 🐟 Don’t let the perfect image of a California sunset or rushing river just sit in your camera roll. Share it with your fellow California nature lovers and us – we want to see what moves you!

Share your photos of California’s rivers, streams, wild fish, and angling or outdoor experiences now. Click the link to submit by 11:59pm PT tonight: https://caltrout.org/photocontest

📸: "Merced River in Yosemite Valley in the Rain" by Santiago Rodriguez, 2025 Grand Prize Award winner

08/16/2026

One month out from the Eel River Expo, and we're shining a light on the organizations and activities that will make it unforgettable — first up: Humboldt County Resource Conservation District (HCRCD) 🌱

We're excited to welcome Humboldt County Resource Conservation District to the second annual Eel River Expo this September! HCRCD will be at their booth with a soil health and water quality demonstration, plus highlights from their ongoing work in the Eel River watershed.

This isn't their first rodeo! 🤠 One HCRCD team member who was stationed at their Expo table last year said the band and the photo contest were some of the best parts of the day — so this year, we want you to experience it with us!

Join us September 19 for a free, family-friendly afternoon of expert talks, hands-on activities, live music, food, and community connection — all in celebration of a huge year for Eel River restoration.

📅 September 19, 2026
🕐 11 AM – 4 PM
📍 Fortuna River Lodge, Fortuna, CA

🎟️ Registration is free, save your spot here: https://caltrout.org/eel-river-watershed-program/eel-river-expo/

📸 1: HCRCD team at their booth last year

08/15/2026

Say hello to Quinn Moultrie-Margolin, joining us as an intern this summer on our Southern California team! 🌊

Quinn is a Grad Student at UCSB's Bren School, specializing in water resources management and pollution prevention and remediation. He's focused on how Southern steelhead populations respond to obstruction removal and habitat restoration, and he's drawn to this work through a deep understanding of just how interconnected our water resources really are. With the impacts of climate change intensifying, Quinn knows that building resilient, well-managed water systems is essential to preparing California for future drought.

He's also excited to dig into how water quality-sensitive native species can serve as indicators of broader ecosystem health.

When he's not in the field, you might find him running along Topanga Canyon Boulevard, right alongside Topanga Creek — one of his favorite spots in California with cliffs, shade-loving vegetation, and all the frogs he meets along the way. 🐸

Welcome to the team, Quinn! 💙

👉 Swipe to learn more about him!

08/14/2026

Last week we packed the house at the Hammer Museum for a screening of Superfish: Salmon by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rick Rosenthal 🐟🎬

Rick's underwater cinematography put us right in the current with wild salmon, and everybody walked away acutely aware of the weight of what's at stake. Thousands of years of salmon sustaining rivers, forests, wildlife, and communities were captured to be both beautiful and sobering.

After the film, our own Executive Director Curtis Knight joined Film Director Rick Rosenthal, Jennifer Kemmerly, (Monterey Bay Aquarium), Stephen Hohenrieder (Grounded Capital), and Michael Cimarusti (Chef/Co-owner, Providence) for a panel on what it really means to be a better consumer of seafood and how we can protect our wild salmon.

The conversation showed us that we all have a part to play, and every choice we make ripples through an entire ecosystem! Thank you to everyone who came out, asked great questions, and stayed engaged. Salmon need all of us paying attention. 🎣🌊

📸 : Wild Logic