VACAVILLE — The Solano County Water Agency has agreed to fund for another year the University of California, Davis salmon research on Lower Putah Creek.

“We will be able to use data from DNA comparisons to estimate how many Chinook salmon in Putah Creek originate from past spawners in the system. In addition, we will be able to track juvenile salmon migrations within and outside the system to understand their survival rates and outmigration dynamics, including potential methods for boosting survival,” Andrew Rypel, associate professor and the California Trout Chair in Coldwater Fish Ecology at UC Davis, said in a statement.

“Increasing understanding of the salmon run on Putah Creek is critical to managing the health of this ecosystem in the future,” Rypel said.

The Solano County Water Agency has agreed to pay an additional $285,459 through the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year to fund the ongoing study.

To date, the research has identified only a single salmon that may have been hatched in Putah Creek and returned to spawn, but other origins could not be ruled out.

Still, the increase in the number of fish coming to Putah Creek since 2004 and the number of juvenile salmon hatched there do give researchers hope that a Putah Creek-spawned “race” of salmon can be established.

The research includes “monitoring the abundance and population dynamics of salmon in Lower Putah Creek,” according to the statement.

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