We are offering five different field trips during Friday May 8th, 2026. Please find descriptions, costs and details for each of them in the text below. The field trips are offered on a first come first serve basis. Bus transportation is provided for each trip, pick up and drop off from the UCD Conference Center. Registration is required and you can only register and submit fees during your general conference registration process.
1. Fish Facilities in the Flood System. FULL DAY
Guides: The tour will be led by Justin Gragg (Environmental Science Associates), Josh Martinez (Department of Water Resources), and Gabe Kopp (HDR)
Max capacity: 40
Cost: $100 incl. lunch
Time: Meet at 8:00 a.m., bus departs at 8:30 a.m. Returns to campus ~5:30 p.m.
Description: In Northern California’s Sacramento Valley, an extensive engineered flood management system has modified the Sacramento and Feather Rivers and the distribution of water and migratory fish. This tour will illustrate the physical and managed “overlay” of the current flood bypass system within the Sacramento Valley and visit new facilities at four flood weirs (Sacramento, Fremont, Wallace, and Tisdale Weirs) to investigate projects (completed and in-construction) to improve fish passage and migration success of adult and juvenile salmonids. Speakers will include agencies and contractors knowledgeable of the projects. To orient participants to the flood system, upstream and downstream passage challenges, and the history of actions to recover the species, the tour will start with a brief presentation. We’ll be visiting areas with uneven ground, and one location is an active construction site. At one location we may walk approximately 2,500 feet (one way) to reach the facility. The tour will be held rain or shine; please be prepared with field-appropriate clothing (sun-protection or rain gear). Your closed-toe footwear must be hiking boots, minimum, to enter the construction area (steel toe boots are preferred, but not required). Waders and rubber boots are not appropriate for this tour.
2. Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Fish Passage Tour. FULL DAY
Guides: Eric Ginney, Environmental Science Associates, and Tricia Bratcher US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Max capacity: 50
Cost: $100 incl. lunch
Time: Meet at 8:00 a.m., bus departs at 8:30 a.m. Returns to campus ~5:30 p.m.
Description: This tour will visit important fish passage projects on remaining "Spring-run Stronghold Streams," home to the remaining populations of imperiled Spring-run Chinook salmon, as well as Steelhead. Importantly, it will illustrate post-fire sediment dynamics in two creeks and the potential effects of fire on channel morphology, irrigation diversions, and fish passage and screening facilities, and will illustrate lessons that may be applied to other future projects. Speakers will include agencies, districts, and contractors knowledgeable of the projects. To orient participants to the species, remaining habitat, fish passage challenges, and the history of actions to recover the species, the tour will start with a brief presentation. The presentation will cover geology, geomorphology, fish population distribution and use of habitat, the 2024 Park Fire, and other factors. We’ll be visiting areas with uneven ground. The tour will be held rain or shine; please be prepared with field-appropriate clothing (sun-protection or rain gear) and closed-toe shoes. Waders are not appropriate for this tour. Rubber boots may be helpful at one location but are not required.
3. Lower Putah Creek Restoration Project Tour. HALF DAY
Guides: Max Stevenson is the Putah Creek Streamkeeper, a position formed from the Putah Creek Accord who serves as the public’s environmental liaison to the Water Agency. The Streamkeeper is tasked with overseeing and pursuing the restoration of Putah Creek as well as the watershed as a whole.
Gavin Poore is a Water Resources Engineer at Solano County Water Agency with a background in fluvial geomorphology who handles the technical aspects of restoration projects on Putah Creek as well as permitting and project management.
Sheri Brown, a Senior Landscape Architect at ICF, is managing the design of habitat restoration and public access features for the Putah Creek Davis Wetlands project on behalf of the City of Davis.
Max capacity: 50
Cost: $50 Bring your own snack, as lunch will not be provided. This is a 4 1/2 hour trip incl. transportation time.
Time: Meet at 7:30 a.m., bus departs 8:00 a.m. Returns to campus at 1:00 p.m. (at the latest).
Description: Come on a tour to see four sites on Putah Creek that are in different stages of morphology and learn about the unique processes happening on our system that dictate how restoration is performed. We’ll begin at the 106a road crossing, an unrestored and highly impaired section of the creek where a recent fish passage culvert was put in (15min drive, 45min at site). We’ll make a quick stop at Old Davis rd bridge for a side channel restoration project managed by ICF named the Davis Wetlands Project. (10min drive, 45min at site) Then we’ll move upstream to another impaired reach at the riparian reserve on Pedrick Rd where a floodplain and channel restoration project is going to be implemented next year (10min drive, 45min at site). Finally we’ll end at Winter’s Putah Creek Park, a previous channel reconfiguration project completed in 2018 that not only provided additional spawning and rearing habitat for salmon, but greatly improved the public’s access to the creek culminating in greater public interest and involvement. (15min drive, 1hr at site) Overall, with a 20min drive back to UCD it should be about 4.5 hours total. Hiking shoes/clothes are not required as most areas will have dedicated paths, although the first and second site may have some softer dirt areas that can get shoes/clothes dirty if people want to explore around. If people don’t want to get dirty they can stick to the roads and wood chip areas. There’s also potential for swimming at the last site if people are feeling adventurous and want to bring a towel.
4. Safe Through-Turbine Passage: Natel Energy Laboratory Visit.
HALF DAY
Guides/hosts and their affiliations: Abe Schneider, Sterling Watson, and Kate Stirr, Natel
Energy
Max capacity: 30.
Note: You will be asked to sign a visitor NDA and a photo waiver.
Cost: $75 includes transportation and lunch provided at Natel Energy offices in Alameda.
Time: Meet at 7:45 a.m., bus departs at 8:00 a.m. Returns to campus 1:00 p.m.
Description: This field trip to Natel Energy in Alameda includes a tour of their scale model test facility, which they use to observe and evaluate turbine passage for various fish species (white sturgeon, American eel, rainbow trout, etc.), documented by high-speed video. The lab also features a new strike rig designed to gather direct blade strike data. Participants will meet the fish on site and may have an opportunity to view a turbine passage demonstration.
5. Gold Trails to Fish Tails: Restoring Chinook Salmon Passage on the Yuba River. Full day.
Guides: Beth Lawson and Michelle Forsha, California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Max capacity: 40
Cost: $100 incl. lunch
Time: Meet at 7:30 a.m., bus departs 8:00 a.m. Returns to campus 4:30 p.m.
Description: Join us for a guided tour along the historic Yuba River, the site of some of California’s earliest large-scale hydropower development and extensive hydraulic mining. We’ll travel from the valley floor up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, visiting key locations including pilot reintroduction sites, fish collection locations, the 645-foot-high New Bullards Bar Dam, Daguerre Point Dam, and the valley Yuba River goldfields.
Along the way, we’ll explore the potential future facilities and habitats involved in the North Yuba River Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Reintroduction Program and discuss ongoing efforts to restore fish passage and reintroduce salmon to their historic range.
Expect a short amount of walking at each stop (hiking shoes recommended but not required). A picnic lunch will be provided riverside in the scenic and historic town of Downieville, California.