The heavy rains in California late last year were welcomed by farmers, urban planners, and the endangered Coho salmon that had not been seen for 25 years.

According to the National Weather Service, California received more precipitation from October to December compared to the past 12 months.

Preston Brown, the director of watershed conservation for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, said they had seen fish in places where they have not been for almost 25 years, the Guardian reported.

Abundant Rains in California Bring Back Endangered Fish Coho Salmon

The abundant rain and snow arrived just in time for the spawning season in the resource-rich Tomales Bay watershed, north of San Francisco, allowing some fish to reach tributaries to the Lagunitas Creek.

The spawning season in the Tomales Bay watershed is from November to January. Experts noted that some fish had been discovered a mile upstream from where the San Geronimo Creek was blocked until a little over a year ago.

The rain could be a temporary break from the state's 20-year drought, which has made it difficult for water officials to keep fish, crops, and growing cities supplied. According to experts, the state would require several wet years in a row to replenish reservoirs.

Right now, the fish are benefiting, laying eggs in nests where the babies will hatch and spend the majority of their juvenile lives. As adults, they will swim out to sea, returning to the same area to spawn later.

"They like these really tiny small streams, and that's where their survival is the highest... If we give the fish a fighting chance at survival, they will come back," said Todd Steiner, executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network.

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Coho Salmon Back to California Streams

The sight of Coho salmon jumping waterfalls and cavorting in creeks where they've never been before has surprised and encouraged the area's environmental community after several years of severe drought.

"You're watching something that's been occurring for 10,000 years in this watershed," Steiner noted.

Steiner and other environmentalists were concerned about the impact of the state's prolonged drought on the fish that had embarked on a three-year journey to the ocean and returned, following an inner compass down twenty-five miles of the stream back to their birthplace.

The Lagunitas Watershed is one of the final spawning grounds for the endangered fish in California. While Steiner noted that it would take months to thoroughly count the number of returning fish this year, evidence of multiple sightings so far is encouraging.

According to Steiner, the fish had returned this year to smaller creeks in the San Geronimo Valley, such as Montezuma and Larsen Creeks, where they have not been seen in years. The massive rains that made that journey feasible may have also gotten a little help from humans.

Over the past years, Steiner's group has been working on a project to rehabilitate the stream at the former San Geronimo Golf Course, where a dam and fish ladder were destroyed and replaced with enlarged creek beds to help disperse water during heavy storms and give juvenile fish a greater chance of survival.

For Steiner, who has spent decades fighting for salmon, their return, especially after such dangerous dry conditions, is a testament to nature's tenacity.

"It's really incredible that this life history event is occuring," he remarked.

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Written by: Jess Smith

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