Recent Stories

The final Restoration Allocation and Default Flow Schedule was made on May 13. This allocation was based on a forecasted unimpaired inflow into Millerton Lake (Friant Dam) of 1,072,000 acre-feet. This is a “Normal-Dry” water year type for the period October 2021 to September 2022. The Restoration Allocation totals 232,470 acre-feet. Due to dry hydrologic […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The San Joaquin River Restoration Program, a multi-agency effort to restore the upper 152-miles of the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence with the Merced River, recently received the Department of the Interior’s highest honor for environmental restoration. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya […]

On April 1, Reclamation will start deliveries to the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors from Friant Dam. Normally, Exchange Contractor water supply is met from north-of-Delta water delivered through the Delta-Mendota Canal. However, because this is a “Shasta Critical” water year, Exchange Contractors are scheduled to receive 75% of their normal allocation, a total of […]

For over 60 years, the San Joaquin River saw no adult spring-run Chinook salmon make their annual migration from the ocean to spawn – the fish had been cut-off from their native spawning grounds by Friant Dam and the population died out. But all of that changed in 2019 when the San Joaquin River Restoration […]

In another step forward for the Program, the upper weir on the Merced National Wildlife Refuge has been successfully removed to aid with fish passage in the Eastside Bypass. The weir is the second such diversion weir removed by the Program for fish passage improvements in the Eastside Bypass. The weirs, which were constructed to […]

San Joaquin River Restoration Program Postpones Restart of Restoration Flows This notice serves to inform the public that the Restoration Administrator, a court-appointed position selected by the Friant Defendants and Plaintiffs in the Settlement, has postponed the resumption of Restoration Flows. Restoration Flows will resume no earlier than October 1. Restoration Flows were ceased on […]

Fire created unknowns, many are hopeful new data will benefit San Joaquin River management After a record-setting season of catastrophic wildfires in California, no single fire in 2020 burned more than the Creek Fire in the Upper San Joaquin River watershed east of Fresno. The Creek Fire, the largest single-source fire in California history, ravaged […]

2020 Virtual Science Meeting Videos Now Live! Click Here! Don’t worry if you missed the 2020 SJRRP Virtual Science Meeting! All of the sessions are free and available in their entirety. If you have you have any questions or are unable to access the videos, please contact snewcom@usbr.gov.

Spring-run Chinook Return to San Joaquin River Despite Low Water Year 2020 Brings Generational Variety, New Information If there’s one certainty in these uncertain times, it’s that nature is resilient, and one needn’t look further than the San Joaquin River as an example.  For a second year in a row, and for only the second […]

In April 2020, the Department of Water Resources, a partnering agency of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program, began work on approximately two miles of levee along the Eastside Bypass. The project purpose was to improve seepage and stability requirements to allow for higher Restoration Flows. Prior to construction, the levee was constructed of sand […]