Contributions to the Biology of Central Valley Salmonids 1 Chinook Salmon in the Lower American River, California’s Largest Urban Stream

The American River now supports a mixed run of hatchery and natu-rally-produced fall-run chinook averaging about 30,000 spawners; the spring-run was lost to dams. Salmon in the river have been much studied over the last 20 years, largely because of litigation over pro-posed diversions, but much uncertainty remains about various aspects of their biology and about the environmental conditions needed to support them. This paper briefly reviews what is known and not known about salmon in the American River and makes rec-ommendations for future work