The early 20th century wrought significant damage and changes to the Eel River and its fish populations through zealous overfishing and blockage of key tributaries by railroads and dams, which limited salmon and steelhead’s ability to recover.

But projects are now underway to restore these tributaries to their previous state with the hope of simultaneously restoring the once bountiful runs in state’s third largest river basin.

“It’s like turning on a whole new watershed,” California Trout’s North Coast Regional Director Darren Mierau of Arcata said, who is leading the project. “This will be a major piece of habitat restored and accessible to salmon and steelhead now.”

Groundbreaking has already begun at Woodman Creek in Mendocino County where the construction of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad blocked off about 14 miles of prime fish habitat for more than a century, according to CalTrout.

Mierau said railroad workers at the time filled in about 500 feet of the creek and blasted a large hole in the bedrock in order to complete a bridge. These changes altered the mouth of the creek so that fish would now have to leap 12 feet vertically to access the creek, which Mierua said essentially cut off access to most fish.

With the aid of local businesses like Pacific Earthscapes, Pacific Watershed Associates and Mike Love & Associates, the project is now working to shift the mouth of the creek back to its original outlet, which will be done by exhuming the sediment placed there more than 100 years ago, Mierau said.

About 4,000 feet of railroad will also be removed, though the Woodman Creek bridge will remain, Mierau said. Construction is set to be completed by September.

CalTrout states about 12 full-time prevailing wage jobs will be created by the project. The project is being funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Restoration Grant Program, according to CalTrout.

“This is a $2.2 million project so we’re bringing in significant funding to the local economy, and then the outcome is also is very beneficial,” Mierau said. “Restoring salmon and steelhead populations in the Eel River will eventually allow us to have a commercial fishery again.”

Commercial fishing on the Eel River was banned in 1926 after decades of overfishing. A report issued last year by UC Davis and CalTrout estimated that nearly 75 percent of the state’s 31 salmon, steelhead and trout species are likely to become extinct in the next century if current trends continue.

The Eel River is believed by researchers to have once supported salmon runs that exceeded a half-million fish, but salmon runs now hover around 15,000.

The Woodman Creek project is seven years in the making, time which was used to get the buy-in of the North Coast Railroad Authority — which was created in the 1980s to protect and restore the rail line — and to obtain the nearly $2.2 million needed to complete the project.

While the railroad authority has since stated it has no intention of restoring the rail line through Eel River Canyon — a project that is estimated to cost more than $1 billion — Mierau said that wasn’t the case when he approached the authority in 2012.

Railroad authority board member and 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell said that finding productive ways to remove and update the old rail lines through the canyon is now one of the authority’s top priorities.

“Restoring fish passage on Woodman Creek is critically important for native fish populations in the Eel River,” Fennell said in a statement.

CalTrout completed a similar project in 2014 at Bridge Creek in Humboldt County in which an earthen dam and culvert system built during the railroad’s construction was removed to allow for fish passage.

The Eel River Canyon may see another large change should the Great Redwood Trail Act, also known as SB 1029, be approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill by North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) would run a trail along the rail line through the Eel River canyon from the Bay Area to Humboldt County.

Mierau said they are in conversations with McGuire about looking at other stream crossings in the canyon that might be blocking fish passage.

Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.