The new Carmel River channel with step pools and resting pool at the former San Clemente Dam site

"Water flowed freely through the Carmel River’s new route about midway up the 36-mile river during a visit to the site. It rushed over a series of step pools and swirled into resting pools along a quarter-mile stretch of the river specifically designed to provide the best possible passageway for the endangered Steelhead to swim upstream and allow the river’s crucial downstream habitat to begin the recovery process."

From: Monterey Herald
Photo by Jim Johnson

Carmel River Step Pools

"Restoration efforts are already paying off for fish too—biologists sighted the first adult threatened Steelhead trout in one of the step pools on Feb. 11th!"

From NOAA Fisheries

Complete the historic Carmel River restoration effort and remove the obsolete Los Padres Dam.

In order to achieve the historic watershed and Steelhead recovery effort underway on the Carmel River, an unnecessary dam upstream now needs to be removed. On the heels of the San Clemente Dam removal project, it is time to remove the Los Padres Dam

From DamNation
Photo: Demolition of 106-foot tall San Clemente Dam. California Department of Water Resources (Aug. 3, 2015)