In 2022, California launched a trial floating system in Shasta Reservoir to help restore endangered winter-run Chinook salmon to their habitat in the McCloud River. The California Department of Water Resources led the four-year pilot project. It tested whether young salmon migrating downstream could be collected before dispersing into the reservoir and transported around Shasta Dam. The construction of Shasta and Keswick dams in the 1940s blocked access to high-elevation, cold-water rivers where Chinook salmon spawned. In an update in January 2026, DWR reported that redesigning and relocating the collection system lessened predator presence around it and increased the number of fish collected. These improvements represent progress in testing a fish-passage strategy, though they do not yet demonstrate that the fish population has recovered.
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