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On a crisp and sunny November morning last fall, along the shores of Putah Creek, a group of students quickly dropped their beach seining net when it was suddenly filled with returning adult salmon (which were immediately released!). That moment would have been unimaginable in the 1990s.
Putah Creek is a major Northern California stream that flows eastward from Lake County for more than 100 miles, past the towns of Winters and Davis, before entering the Sacramento River. In 1957, the Bureau of Reclamation (hereafter, Reclamation) built Monticello Dam, creating Lake Berryessa – one of the state’s largest reservoirs. That same year, Reclamation completed the Putah Diversion Dam, 8 miles downstream of Monticello Dam, diverting water for Solano County cities and agriculture. By the late 1980s, these diversions and major drought led to significant parts of Putah Creek going dry, causing major declines in local fish and wildlife. In 1990, the Putah Creek Council, UC Davis, and the City of Davis sued the Solano County Water Agency and Solano Water District for water releases to benefit fish and habitat. After 10 years of court battles, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, resulting in the Putah Creek Accords in 2000. This settlement agreement mandated the regular occurrence of seasonal flows to benefit fish and other wildlife, while still also meeting Solano County’s water needs. The agreement also included $25 million for restoration.
Dr. Peter Moyle of UC Davis, California’s native freshwater fish guru, has been a key player in the Putah Creek settlement. It was his legacy class, more recently taught by Drs. John Durand and Andrew Rypel, that brought 40 students to the banks of Putah Creek on that Fall 2025 November morning. The field trip typically involves students, in groups of eight, trying out different active and passive fish sampling equipment, including traps, electrofishing, nets, and beach seines, and seeing which works best to collect different types of fishes…