From CBSNews – A salmon habitat restoration project in the American River is hoping to make life easy for the struggling fish headed up for the fall run. The stretch of the American River near Carmichael has always been an integral part of salmon spawning — fall-run Chinook salmon, in particular. The populations have dwindled so much, that the fishing season for them was actually suspended for this year. The Sacramento Water Forum has been trying to change that over the past 15 years, making this area sleep better habitat. The changes include grinding rocks down to gravel so instead of just popping into the river, they end up becoming gravel which can become life-saving for fish when they spawn. “Thirty to 50% of the spawning on the river happens in our project sites, so we know that this construction is very important,” said Erica Bishop with the Sacramento Water Forum. (more)