Just in time for fishing season, hatcheries operated by the Central Valley California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) have completed the final release of Chinook salmon. These smolts are raised in state-run hatcheries and released yearly into the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the Delta and San Pablo bay. In two years or so, they return as adults to Central Valley tributaries to spawn.
Category Archives: Wildlife
On April 15, 2020 the California Fish and Game Commission determined that a “temporary, adaptive approach was needed to give the California Department of Fish and Wildlife the ability to suspend sport fishing in any waters of the state or restrict the taking of any fish species to protect public health and safety from the immediate threat posed by COVID-19” so they created an emergency action to add Section 8.02, Title 14 to the California Code of Regulations. This allowed the Department of Fish and Wildlife with “the ability to delay, suspend, or restrict sport or recreational fishing for particular species or areas to ensure that anglers, local communities, and government employees are protected from increased risk of transmission of COVID-19.”
We’re all getting ready to go back outside. This year I’m planning on writing a couple of books about Jeeping, so I probably won’t be hiking as much as I’d like (much to my bathroom scale’s distress). I’ll still be out there – I’ve got a Mount Whitney hike planned for later this year, and I’ll be hitting some old favorites (Mounts Wilson (14 miles, 5,710’ elevation), Baldy (10 miles, 10,064’ elevation), San Jacinto (11 miles, 10,834’ elevation), as well as Cucamonga Peak (11 miles. 8,859’ elevation), San Bernardino Peak (16 miles, 10,649’ elevation), and San Gorgonio (17 miles, 11,503’ elevation)).
As we’re coming up on the feathered tailend of California’s general waterfowl season (the California waterfowl season reopens after the general closure just for young hunters in early February), hunters can look forward to some fantastic duck and goose harvesting with the arrival of cold and stormy weather. Dress appropriately and get out in those fields and marshes today!

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) biologists have captured and fitted a tracking collar to a female gray wolf in Lassen County, and confirmed that the wolf and her mate have produced at least three pups this year.
During summer and fall 2016, remote trail cameras captured images of two wolves traveling together in Lassen County. There was no evidence they had produced pups at that time. While the female’s origins remain unknown, genetic samples obtained from scat indicated the male wolf originated from Oregon’s Rogue Pack. The famous wolf OR7 is the Rogue Pack’s breeding male.
In early May 2017, partner biologists from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) found evidence of recent wolf presence in the Lassen National Forest.
You can read more about our new wolf pack HERE.
