Direct Enhancement

Summer low flows and high temperatures can create deadly conditions for juvenile salmonids. MSG provides an alternative environment for the fish while the natural river habitat improves. All projects operate intermittently depending on permits.

Hatchbox Program: Staff artificially spawn Chinook salmon, and raise them from eggs to fry in "hatchboxes" and rearing ponds, to safeguard them from predators, high winter flows and suffocating sediment.

Headwaters Rescue Rearing: Staff divert a percentage of over-summering juvenile Chinook and coho salmon into rearing ponds for the summer months to protect them from low flows and disconnected pools.

Chinook Survival Enhancement: Staff divert a percentage of outmigrating Chinook salmon into rearing ponds for the summer to increase survival and protect them from degraded estuarine and lower mainstem habitat conditions.