The River
came Home
On September 4, the Tuolumne flowed into a brand-new bend near La Grange for the first time. Days later, crews closed the old channel. Now the whole river runs through habitat built for salmon.
A generation ago, the Tuolumne had the largest salmon run in the entire San Joaquin Valley.
Today it has the smallest.
99%
— the decline in the Tuolumne’s
salmon run from what it once was
Because of you, the Tuolumne is running wild again, one bend at a time.
All summer, crews worked a bend of the Tuolumne just below La Grange. For years, this stretch was cut off from the life of the river: a straightened channel and old mining gravel where salmon couldn't spawn and young fish had nowhere to feed or hide.
In September, the river found its new path. Water now winds through a fresh meander, over gravel the river will keep sorting on its own. Next, crews will replant the floodplain. Beyond that, more meanders, side channels, and floodplain are on the horizon.
The habitat you helped build is open to the river now.
The work isn't finished.
Every bend we restore brings a river one more step back toward life.
Your gift goes
straight to
the ground
Restoration is slower and less glamorous than the word suggests. It takes many partners working together. Most of it happens with no one watching: crews out in the heat, moving gravel the river will sort for itself, planting the young trees that will one day shade the water.
Bring the salmon back, and the rest of the river comes with them: the birds, the wildlife, and the clean flows that towns and farms downstream depend on.
Your gift is what carries this work into its next phase.
Where your water begins
Imagine turning on the tap and getting nothing. For more than 3 million Californians, the water in that glass starts as Sierra snow and melts into Yosemite's rivers long before it reaches home. Take six minutes to see where it begins.
The story doesn't stop at the park boundary. Downstream, these rivers carry far more than most people ever see.
Yosemite Nature Notes 18: Water (2012). Courtesy of Yosemite Conservancy. Licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.
3 Million
Californians drink water carried by these rivers
480,000
Acres of Central Valley farmland nourished by these watersheds
600+
wildlife species supported
40+ years of on-the-ground conservation
run wild
with us
The river has its new path. Now we carry the work forward: replanting the floodplain, restoring more of the Tuolumne, and protecting the water that flows from Yosemite to millions of homes and farms. Will you help keep it running wild?
750ft
New channel meander
Know someone
who loves
this river?
Not every gift is a dollar. Sharing this page puts the river in front of someone who has been waiting for a reason to stand up for it.
Thanks to the partners already committed to this river: the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Wildlife Conservation Board.