Imagine the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers so teeming with steelhead and salmon you could nearly "walk across the river on the backs of so many fish." This is not folklore but the experience of locals within our lifetime. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has determined that in order to recover listed populations of salmon and steelhead in the Central Valley, reintroduction to high elevation habitats with abundant cold water is necessary.

Currently NMFS is working with a new consortium of NGOs, tribes, and government agencies--including Mariposa's Upper Merced River Watershed Council--to evaluate the feasibility of reintroducing steelhead and/or spring-run Chinook salmon to the upper Tuolumne and Merced Rivers.

Join Watershed Council's Kristina Rylands as she shares how this collaboration is going beyond our wildest imaginings to overcome challenges for this type of reintroduction while building partnerships with a diverse coalition of interest groups.