Throughout the Santa Clara Valley watersheds, the water district
is helping protect and restore fish habitat. Concern for fish
has resulted in dramatic changes in the ways the water district
constructs flood protection projects and conducts other
business. In many areas, the water district has planted trees
for shade and strategically placed tree root wads and logs to
create fish habitat. Other efforts which benefit fish include
removal of migration barriers, spawning gravel placement, and
the creation of pools and riffles. For the first time in perhaps
six decades, steelhead are passing the district campus in search
of suitable spawning grounds in the foothills of the Santa Cruz
mountains in the Guadalupe watershed. Passage past the district
campus was made possible by completion of the fish ladder at the
Alamitos drop structure. The project allows salmonids and other
species to bypass the 1930s-era dam using a series of steps to
navigate the difference in river elevation. One of the first
migrating salmon s