From CBS News, Channel 13 – A habitat restoration project in the lower Yuba River is complete. The project not only helps the local fish population but also those who live along the river’s banks.

“The Hallwood Fish Habitat Project”  restored the natural flow of the Yuba River after decades of collecting debris from hydraulic mining during the Gold Rush. Aaron Zettler-Mann, executive director of the South Yuba River Citizens League, said he’s proud of the project and the flood plain it’s created. “Prior to this project, really, the Yuba River was characterized by training walls, so massive piles roughly 80 feet tall of just aggregate,” Zettler-Mann said. Willie Whittlesey, general manager of the Yuba Water Agency, said these training walls within the Yuba Goldfields are where hundreds of millions of cubic yards of hydraulic mining sediment were deposited in the lower Yuba River through the early 1900s. (more)