The Hoopa Valley Tribe and California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced a historic partnership integrating tribal Traditional Ecological Knowledge with scientific monitoring to improve salmon management and support tribal harvest practices. The program consolidates two separate weir operations on the Trinity River into a single facility on the Hoopa Valley Reservation.
The consolidated weir replaces the CDFW Willow Creek Weir, which since 1978 provided critical information used to evaluate salmon and steelhead population trends including annual run size estimation, species composition, age structure, hatchery composition and migration timing. The tribe's selective fish harvest weir, operated since 2016 downstream of the Willow Creek site, supported those monitoring efforts while also providing opportunities for selective harvest and the distribution of fish for tribal ceremonial, subsistence and community use.
Beginning this season, both monitoring and selective tribal harvest will be consolidated at the tribe's on-reservation weir. Combined tribal and state personnel, equipment and field operations will improve coordination and make more effective use of funding and staffing resources. Replacing two separate weir operations is expected to improve passage and in-river survival by reducing the number of times fish encounter in-river infrastructure and handling operations.
The tribe's weir is based on traditional fish harvest methods the Hupa people have practiced since time immemorial. The modern weir design reflects centuries-old conservation principles protecting genetic attributes of naturally reproducing fish populations through selective harvest techniques. Through operations coordinated with CDFW, the tribe will harvest fish in accordance with established fishery management objectives while allowing remaining fish to continue upstream to spawning grounds.
"By combining our monitoring programs and selective harvest into a single operation, we are improving efficiency, reducing impacts to migrating fish, strengthening the scientific foundation of fisheries management and continuing to support the cultural, subsistence, and economic needs of the Hupa people," said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Joe Davis.
The collaborative program strengthens the government-to-government relationship between the Hoopa Valley Tribe and California. Through shared staffing, standardized monitoring protocols, joint training and coordinated decision-making, both agencies are building a model for cooperative fisheries management that balances conservation, scientific monitoring and tribal resource stewardship.