October 16, 2025 — The U.S. state of California has decided to cut production at one of its main salmon hatcheries in response to a drop in federal funding for the facility.
The Nimbus Hatchery on the American River was established to offset the loss of salmon habitat caused by the building of the Folsom and Nimbus dams. The hatchery is technically owned by the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), which provides funding to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to operate the facility. However, the bureau is slashing its financial support, providing just USD 2.5 million (EUR 2.1 million) for the current fiscal year, according to the Daily Kos.
“This is below the USD 3.16 million [EUR 2.7 million] required to maintain historical production levels and falls short of meeting federal mitigation obligations under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act. Exacerbating the problem, budget reductions are compounded by increasing production costs, tariffs, and inflation. To give an idea of cost, fish food alone can exceed USD 500,000 [EUR 428,000] annually at standard production levels,” CDFW Spokesperson Steve Gonzalez told the publication.
In order to adapt to the lost funding, operators plan to cut fall-run Chinook salmon smolt production by 50 percent this year to 2.25 million fish. Steelhead trout production will also be halved, with the facility producing just 215,000 fish.
With commercial salmon fishing in California closed for the third straight year, the state has relied on hatchery operations – as well as habitat restoration – to help the struggling stocks recover. According to Gonzalez, Nimbus provides between 7 percent and 30 percent of the regular ocean salmon harvest.