Mohler Restoration Snorkel Surveys on the Stanislaus River, San Joaquin County, CA, 2024-2025

The East Stanislaus Conservation District, Cramer Fish Sciences, and cbec, inc. ecoengineering, funded by a Bureau of Reclamation Central Valley Project Improvement Act program grant, are designing, constructing, and monitoring the Mohler Salmonid Habitat Restoration project, aimed at improving juvenile rearing and outmigration habitat on the lower Stanislaus River. The project is located approximately 20 km upstream from the confluence with the San Joaquin River, an area where little habitat restoration has been done. The project has the potential to create approximately 5.8 acres of seasonally inundated rearing and outmigration habitat for Central Valley fall-run Chinook Salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
) and steelhead ( O. mykiss
)
. The project is anticipated to be constructed in 2025 or 2026 with two year of post-project monitoring following. This work supports effectiveness monitoring of the project via rearing (snorkel) surveys and is ongoing.