Save California Salmon

Save California Salmon (SCS) is a Native-led organization dedicated to policy change, community advocacy, and culturally relevant environmental education for Northern California’s salmon and fish dependent people. The organization was founded in 2017 to support Tribal members and communities fighting for dam removal, flow restoration, and clean drinking water on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, and has since expanded to work on the Eel River, North Coast, Sacramento River system, and the Bay Delta, with Tribes including the Wintu, Pit River, Hoopa Valley, Yurok, Karuk, Miwok, and Pomo.

SCS’s current policy advocacy focus is their Water for Fish/Tribal Water Project. Through community outreach and organizing, inter-Tribal coordination, targeted advocacy campaigns, policy engagement, and legal support, SCS works with Tribal partners and local communities to maintain flows for salmon in key watersheds, fight bad water projects, and encourage the state of California to recognize Tribal water rights and the rights of rivers, estuaries, and salmon. Among SCS’s key policy priorities are:

• Protecting the Delta and Klamath. SCS consistently engages with the CA State Water Resources Control Board and other agencies in administrative processes for the Bay-Delta Plan Updates, Delta Conveyance Project, Sites Reservoir Project, Klamath dam removal, Scott and Shasta Rivers Pollution and Flows Plans, and Trinity and Sacramento River flows through the Central Valley Water Project; and helps organize Tribal participation in public comment.
• Tribal Beneficial Use Implementation. Engaging with the State and regional water boards to include Tribal beneficial use implementation in the Bay-Delta Plan Updates and other water management plans.
• Racial Equity and Water. After successful involvement this year in the State Water Board’s Racial Equity Action Plan and the North Coast Water Board’s Racial Equity Resolution, SCS is working to ensure agencies follow through on their promises and to expand racial equity work to other regions.
• 30x30 Conservation Plan. SCS is consistently involved in efforts to ensure that Tribes are included in the 30x30 process and in advocating for the return of resources to Tribal stewardship.

On the education and youth empowerment front, SCS has developed an Advocacy and Water Protection curriculum and a Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Science and Management (TEK) curriculum which are currently offered in several elementary, K-8 and high schools in Northern California. SCS is expanding its education work into the Central Valley and partnering with Cal Poly Humboldt, UC Davis, and California Environmental Educators to expand its teacher training to serve teachers across the state. SCS also hosts summer camps, river trips, and outdoor education classes for Native youth and local young people.