The steelhead trout and Chinook salmon of the American River have the Bureau of Reclamation to thank for restoring more than 15,000 tons of gravel to increase spawning habitats. A popular spawning site along a two-mile stretch of river below the Nimbus Dam had become too shallow to allow the fish to properly reproduce. “Space was limited. Eggs were laid on top of other eggs. Survival was not what it could be,” said Bureau of Reclamation Fisheries Biologist John Hannon. With the Nimbus Dam blocking downstream flow, Hannon said the good spawning gravel was being carried away by the current without being replenished. Gold mining in the 1800s had left many of the river’s side channels dried

An exhibition of 37 California state duck stamps opens Monday at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento. California has used original artwork for its duck stamp program since 1971—beginning with the artwork of Paul Johnson—when it developed the first state duck program in the nation, said deputy museum director Amanda Meeker. Hunters are required to buy the stamps and put them on their licenses, and the resulting funds are used for conservation of wetlands and geese and duck habitats, explained Meeker. She said that the program has raised $22 million since its inception. Between 1971 and 1977, and 1995 to 2008, the Department of Fish and Game commissioned artwork for the stamps, a