Now is the time to make your voice heard for one of the Bay Area's most impactful watershed restoration and dam removal opportunities! Submit a comment by April 17 to urge the California Department of Water Resources, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Stanford University to pursue a project alternative that includes full removal of Searsville Dam – restoring a free-flowing creek, better protecting communities from flood risk, and recovering threatened steelhead in the Bay Area's backyard.

For over two decades, CalTrout and our partners have been advocating for the removal of this over century-old dam, which blocks one of the few remaining wild steelhead runs in the South Bay, traps sediment needed to sustain Bay wetlands and protect communities, and sits precariously along the San Andreas Fault as a structure classified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a "High Hazard" dam. Now, for the first time, dam removal is officially on the table: Stanford University's formal environmental review of the Searsville Watershed Restoration Project includes dam removal as an alternative – a direct result of decades of advocacy by supporters like you and a coalition of groups including Beyond Searsville Dam, California Trout, and Friends of the River.

The California Department of Water Resources and US Army Corps of Engineers is accepting public scoping comments through 5pm on April 17th. The scoping comment period here is an important opportunity for the public to make their voices heard to support dam removal and the recovery of the entire watershed.

Send your comment letter now to ensure the comprehensive evaluation of a safer, phased, dam-free alternative – one that pairs dam removal with nature-based flood solutions like offstream floodwater capture and groundwater recharge basins that Stanford’s own Water in the West Program experts have promoted for years. The draft Environmental Impact Report is now expected to be released in November 2026. We are excited to kick off that process with momentum as we lean on the expertise of fisheries practitioners, water rights lawyers, fish passage consultants, climate accountants, and groundwater experts.

We encourage you to join CalTrout in advocating for full dam removal and to share your personal comments and stories about why you wish to protect Bay Area steelhead populations, the San Francisquito Creek watershed, and the San Francisco Bay. We pre-populated the comment letter with an easy-to-use and send template but feel free to personalize it – any comment helps!