Salmon returning to Bay Area creek for first time in 70 years could be sign of environmental renewal to come

SUNOL – For the first time in 70 years, adult Chinook salmon have been spotted swimming the 86 vertical feet needed to return to Alameda Creek in lower Niles Canyon – and it could be a turning point in the decades-long effort to restore the East Bay’s watersheds.

Chinook salmon, along with the endangered steelhead trout, are considered indicator species for the environment, suggesting that other animals such as otters, eagles, beavers and bears may also return to the Sunol Valley region, which increases the diversity and resiliency of its “food web,” a term for interconnected food chains.

Since the beginning of November, volunteers from the nonprofit group Alameda Creek Alliance — which has worked to remove dams and install fish ladders since 1997 — have recorded nearly a dozen specimens