A new diversion facility on Paynes Creek improves fish passage for Northern California’s salmon and steelhead
Photos by Katie Falkenberg
Flowing into one of Northern California’s most robust salmon rivers, the Lower Sacramento, Paynes Creek offers excellent spawning grounds for Chinook and Central Valley steelhead. But it’s also an important source of water for the people and agriculture of Tehama County. Like many small waterways in the area, it’s a stream that must balance many needs.
With that in mind, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) approached Trout Unlimited in 2016 to ask for help improving a relatively small, yet consequential agricultural diversion on the creek’s lower section. The project became a great example of how partnerships are the foundation of our work to reconnect fragmented habitat so that steelhead and salmon populations can recover and thrive.
“We typically think about balancing the needs of fish and people in terms of how much water is being taken from the river and when,” said Trout Unlimited’s project manager Ben Cook. “We don’t often consider the details of how the water gets diverted: How water is diverted from rivers can be just as consequential to fish and other aquatic species as quantity and timing.”
A dysfunctional diversion for fish
In operation since the 1860s, the creek’s small diversion dam and ditch remained nearly in its original form. Fish passage was added to the structure, including a screen to help exclude fish from the ditch system.
The problem revolved around a pipe intended to return fish to the creek constantly clogging. Steelhead and other fish would get entrained in the ditch between the dam and the fish screen and some would die, especially in the summer heat when water temps rose.
The dam itself was also a barrier to migration. Plywood flashboards were added to the top of the dam to push more water into the ditch. The flashboards increased the jump height for up-migrating fish and aggravated the fish entrainment problem for down-migrating smolts.
Partners help create an updated design
CDFW connected the Bend Water Users Association with TU to come up with a solution. With funding from CDFW, TU convened a technical advisory committee and hired Northwest Hydraulic Consultants to design the project with support from the Technical Advisory Committee. Over the next two years, a design unfolded that would address the problems at the diversion.
The design called for moving the fish screen to the point of diversion on the creek to completely exclude fish from the ditch system and keep them in the creek where they belong.
The new diversion facility utilizes a roughened rock ramp instead of a traditional dam. Instead of forming a barrier, the ramp, constructed from a mix of boulders, cobbles and gravel, slightly steepens the creek at the point of diversion. To fish and to anyone other than the project team, the roughened rock ramp appears to be a natural riffle in the creek.
TU put together an experienced team, including Meyers Earthwork, Intake Screens Incorporated (ISI), Tehama Environmental Solutions, Aquatic Resources Consulting Scientists, fisheries agencies and the land manager, the Bureau of Land Management. ISI built the new cone screen at their fabrication facility in Sacramento and delivered it to the project site.
A diversion that works
The new facility has been successfully operating for a full season. After a high flow event in February 2025, TU returned to the project site to monitor erosion in the area and create an adaptive management plan to fix it.
“A crucial part of projects like these is to make sure they’re working as intended,” Cook said.
“We recognize that partners like Bend Water Users Association rely on the projects we build for their livelihoods,” Cook said. “We stand by our work to ensure we’re delivering durable projects that our partners can count on.”
Today, Paynes Creek flows a little more freely into the Sacramento River, allowing salmon and steelhead to move easily upstream and downstream. Threats of entrainment are low. Also, the Bend Water Users Association continues to receive the water it depends on. That balance is at the heart of the project’s success.
Watch the progress