California is ending support for a state partnership aimed at restoring endangered winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River in far northern California, according to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. Tribe officials said the sudden loss of backing could halt restoration work that had been progressing as the salmon began returning upstream. A state spokesperson said the money was tied to a drought-response pilot and has been used up.
Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a strategy to save declining salmon, spotlighting a partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to reintroduce endangered winter-run Chinook to cold waters upstream of Lake Shasta. The state and its partners described the work as combining scientific efforts with cultural and co-management goals, with agreements naming the tribe as a “co-equal decision-maker” in restoration efforts.
Federal scientists have described the Sacramento River’s winter-run Chinook salmon as among the most at-risk endangered species. The fish have been cut off from historic higher-elevation cold-water spawning grounds by the Shasta and Keswick dams, and their eggs have been left in water that is too warm during typical summer conditions. Keeping spawning waters cold enough for the salmon can also limit how much water federal managers can deliver from Lake Shasta, a key irrigation supply for Central Valley farmers.
In 2022, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife joined with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and federal fisheries agencies to relocate endangered salmon eggs from a hatchery below Lake Shasta to the McCloud River. The project moved the eggs to a cold, spring-fed tributary where the fish could swim upstream for the first time in more than 80 years, tribal restoration officials said. The restoration effort then expanded in subsequent agreements, with the state and federal agencies finalizing a framework for the tribe’s involvement.
Tribe officials said the salmon restoration is now running up against a hard stop in funding. They said there are no plans to transport fertilized eggs above the dams this year, and the tribe expects its state funding will be gone by the end of June. The tribe also reported laying off personnel as leaders weigh whether the work can continue long term.
Rebekah Olstad, the project manager for the Winnemem Wintu’s salmon restoration efforts, said she is losing her job as part of the cut. Olstad said the tribe had received a little over $6 million since 2023 for McCloud projects and that a grant was set to end this year. She said the tribe expected that, under the co-management framework, it would receive partnership support to secure additional funding needed to keep restoration capacity in place.
The restoration effort has also supported efforts to bring wild descendants of McCloud salmon back to California from New Zealand, Olstad said. Winnemem Wintu Chief and spiritual leader Caleen Sisk said that work, too, risks being interrupted without continued support, warning that staff cuts leave the tribe with “bare-bones” personnel and that the reduction “pretty much shuts down all of our efforts.”
Tribe liaison Gary Mulcahy said the abrupt end of state support has caused deep disappointment within the tribe and damaged trust after the Newsom administration’s earlier public backing for salmon projects. Mulcahy said the tribe felt it had been told it would be a co-manager, and then “all of a sudden” the support disappeared.
Sisk and Mulcahy said they raised concerns with California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and with then-state Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham, and said they also met with current Fish and Wildlife Director Meghan Hertel. Sisk said the officials acknowledged the program’s importance but asked where the funding would come from. Stephen Gonzalez, a department spokesperson, emphasized that the program was a pilot and said that while the initial on-the-ground phase is ending, it has established a scientific, operational and partnership foundation for informing next steps.
The UC Davis researcher Carson Jeffres said he studies conditions and monitors salmon in the McCloud under a separate state grant that also recently ended, and he warned that disruptions to science can damage trust and create setbacks that are difficult to recover from. Jeffres said he would give up research funding to keep the program going with the tribe, while the state continues to weigh what comes next as the restoration’s immediate funding window closes.