Session Coordinators: 
Cynthia Le Doux-Bloom, Ph.D., Humboldt State University
Mike Belchik, Yurok Tribe

In July 2018, the California Fish and Game Commission received a petition to list Upper-Trinity River Spring-Run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.

Nearly two decades earlier, the Central Valley Spring-Run ESU was originally proposed as endangered, but instead listed as a threatened species after NMFS concluded that the this ESU was likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. The complete extirpation of the Spring-Run from the San Joaquin River, and the loss of historical spawning habitat above the dams in the Sacramento and Klamath River basins have resulted in greatly reduced distributions of Spring-Run Chinook salmon in Northern California. Is the possibility of a renaissance for the Spring-Run Chinook fact or fiction?

The session will feature a range of insightful topics, including: (1). Spawning Migration Timing; (2). Juvenile Life-History; (3). Physiological Responses; (4). Re-Introduction Planning and Implementation; and (5). Genetics.

The Persistence of Spring-run Alleles and Implications for Conservation
Tasha Thompson UC Davis, Animal Science Department, Davis, CA

Ocean Fisheries and Central Valley Spring Run Chinook Salmon
Will Satterwaite, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA

The Evolutionary History of Spring Chinook
Michael Miller, UC Davis, Animal Science Department, Davis, CA

The Genomic Basis Of Ecotypic Differentiation In Chinook Salmon In California
J. Carlos Garza, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA

Effects of Wildfire on salmon: A Spring Chinook Story
Rebecca Flitcroft, USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, Corvallis, OR

An Engineer’s Perspective On Spring-Run Fish Passage Improvements and Reintroduction Efforts
Jon Mann, State Of California, Department Of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, CA