FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2026
Contact:
William O’Neal, Marketing and Communications Manager, Golden State Salmon Association, 510.282.7830, william@goldenstatesalmon.org
Bureau of Reclamation Plans to Violate State and Federal Laws Protecting Sacramento River Salmon
Santa Rosa, CA – On June 10, the State Water Resources Control Board rejected the Trump Administration’s Bureau of Reclamation plan to manage Shasta Dam to protect spawning salmon on the Sacramento River this fall. The Bureau plans to drain more water from Shasta than is allowed by law to boost summer deliveries to Central Valley agriculture. The National Marine Fisheries Service has written a biological opinion for the management of Shasta Dam that has specific requirements to hold enough cold water behind Shasta Dam to keep spawning salmon alive this fall. The Bureau’s plan violates that requirement and the State Water Board’s Order 90-5, which imposes temperature requirements on the Bureau under state law. Now the Bureau has announced that they will ignore the NMFS BO and state law and implement their illegal, salmon-killing plan. If implemented, the Bureau’s plan could once again leave too little cold water in Lake Shasta to protect spawning salmon during the critical fall spawning season, threatening the next generation of Sacramento River Chinook.
Ironically, California’s salmon fishery is finally beginning to recover after three years of unprecedented commercial fishing closures and severe restrictions on recreational anglers. The 2026 season marked the first meaningful return of ocean salmon fishing in years, bringing much-needed economic relief to coastal businesses, charter operators, commercial fishermen, marinas, tackle shops, restaurants, and communities that depend on healthy salmon runs. That recovery now risks being undermined by the Bureau’s decision to repeat the same water management mistakes that contributed to the collapse of the fishery.
California’s salmon industry supports approximately 23,000 jobs and generates roughly $1.4 billion in annual economic activity during healthy fishing years. Thousands of those jobs disappeared when salmon populations collapsed following previous drought-era water management decisions.
Here’s a statement from John McManus, Senior Policy Director for the Golden State Salmon Association
“Commercial salmon fishing in California has been shut down for the past three years. This shutdown resulted from the Bureau’s mismanagement of Shasta Dam during the last drought. The Bureau drained the cold water from Shasta and cooked salmon eggs and salmon babies in the fall. They killed nearly all of the wild salmon in the Sacramento River. As a result, there were not enough adult salmon a few years later to support salmon fishing jobs. The Sacramento River is the backbone of California salmon fishing and 23,000 salmon fishing jobs. Bureau mismanagement has driven wild spawning Sacramento River salmon down by 95 percent in the past twenty years, particularly in recent years. Make no mistake. The Bureau caused this disastrous shutdown of salmon fishing. Now, the Bureau is proposing to do the same thing this year. California’s salmon runs and salmon fishing jobs are fighting for survival. We urge the Governor, the State Water Board, and the Attorney General to step in to force the Bureau to obey state and federal law.”
McManus adds, “Just as California’s salmon industry is beginning to recover, the Bureau wants to repeat the very mistakes that caused this disaster. We cannot rebuild salmon populations, reopen fisheries, and restore thousands of jobs if the federal government knowingly destroys the next generation of Sacramento River salmon before they even hatch.”
GSSA is urging Governor Gavin Newsom, the State Water Resources Control Board, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta to take immediate legal action to ensure the Bureau complies with state and federal law before irreversible damage is done to this year’s salmon run.
About Golden State Salmon Association: The Golden State Salmon Association is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational fishermen and women, businesses, restaurants, environmentalists, elected officials, families, tribes, and communities that rely on salmon. GSSA works to restore California salmon for their economic, recreational, commercial, environmental, cultural, and health values.