Spring-run Chinook Salmon Emergency Egg Incubation Action
Summary
SCH Number
2025100475
Public Agency
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Northern and Eureka Region 1
(CDFW)
Document Title
Spring-run Chinook Salmon Emergency Egg Incubation Action
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
10/10/2025
Document Description
In 2023, the three-remaining independent, Core 1 Central Valley spring-run Chinook Salmon populations (from Mill Creek, Deer Creek, and Butte Creek) experienced cohort collapse. A suite of emergency actions developed by state and federal fisheries management agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), to mitigate this collapse. Beginning in 2023, juvenile spring-run Chinook Salmon were collected from Mill, Deer and Butte Creeks to be held as captive broodstock at the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture (CABA) at the University of California Davis. In addition, adult spring-run Chinook Salmon broodstock were trapped at Keswick Dam and held at Livingston-Stone National Fish Hatchery (LSNFH). Eggs produced from these spring-run Chinook Salmon will be incubated at CABA, and LSNFH until the eyed stage, at which time they will be moved off-station by CDFW to remote-site incubators installed on Mill, Deer, Butte, Big Chico, and/or Clear Creeks. These emergency actions include the release of spring-run Chinook Salmon juveniles from captive broodstock populations and the upper Sacramento River into Mill, Deer, Butte, Big Chico, and Clear Creeks. Approximately 30 days after adult spring-run Chinook Salmon are spawned at CABA or LSNFH, spring-run Chinook Salmon eggs will reach the “eyed stage” and will be ready for pick up and transport by CDFW to the incubation site(s). The eggs will be incubated in “Hatch Partner” egg boxes at a yet to be determined, environmentally appropriate location within the streams. The project will utilize up to twenty Hatch Partner egg boxes based on the number of eggs at time of transfer. Each egg box is approximately 2-foot by 2-foot wide by 6-inch deep. The boxes are constructed of aluminum. The boxes utilize a covered incubation tray which holds up to a maximum of 8,000 Chinook Salmon eggs. This inner tray is housed inside a perforated assembly that allows water flow to oxygenate the eggs. The boxes will be placed in a suitable stream location, such as a shallow run or tail out. Sites will be selected to avoid direct impacts to existing redds. The boxes will be anchored to the stream bottom using removeable re-bar or other metal spike-like material. Once fry have developed and been released the boxes and anchors will be removed from the stream. CDFW is conducting this action under a federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 4(d) exclusion rule for rescue and salvage of ESA fish species and is considered necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of spring-run Chinook Salmon.
Contact Information
Name
Matt Johnson
Agency Name
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Job Title
Senior Environmental Scientist (Supervisor)
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Address
Phone
Location
Counties
Butte, Shasta, Tehama
Regions
Countywide, Northern California
Other Location Info
The project will be located within Deer Creek, Mill Creek (Tehama County), Butte Creek, Big Chico Creek (Butte County), and Clear Creek (Shasta County) between its confluence with the Sacramento River and the Clear Creek Road Bridge. Specific incubation sites will be selected based on their ability to mimic natural spawning sites of adult spring-run Chinook Salmon.
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Categorical Exemption
Type, Section or Code
Sections 15304, 15306, 15307
Reasons for Exemption
CDFW staff have designed this project to fully avoid adverse impacts to the terrestrial and aquatic species and habitat within and adjacent to Mill, Deer, Butte, Big Chico and Clear Creeks while maintaining the project’s intent to provide significant benefits the spring-run Chinook Salmon. This project qualifies for the following exemptions: Class 6 consists of basic data collection, research, experimental management, and resource evaluation activities which do not result in serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource. These may be strictly for information gathering purposes, or as part of a study leading to an action which a public agency has not yet approved, adopted, or funded. As part of this project CDFW staff will collect basic water quality and habitat data, as well as monitoring the efficacy of the Hatch Partner boxes by
monitoring eff to fry survival of spring-run Chinook Salmon. Additionally, the project includes experimental management and evaluation of Spring-run Chinook Salmon population enhancement activities. Class 7 consists of actions taken by regulatory agencies as authorized by state law or local ordinance to assure the
maintenance, restoration, or enhancement of a natural resource where the regulatory process involves procedures for protection of the environment. Examples include but are not limited to wildlife preservation activities of the State Department of Fish and Wildlife. This project was designed as a low impact emergency action to enhance and restore spring-run Chinook Salmon populations in order to ensure their continued survival following observed population collapses in 2023 and 2024.
County Clerks
Butte, Shasta, Tehama
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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