Lake Oroville Update - January 24, 2025

Snow Goose Festival

Celebrate one of the greatest migratory bird pathways in the world at the Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway happening Jan. 23 to Jan. 26. The festival hosts a variety of activities throughout the four-day event, including guided field trips to view the waterfowl, raptors, and Snow Geese that migrate through the Northern Sacramento Valley during the winter months.

 

DWR’s Lake Oroville Visitor Center Guides will host a free educational booth featuring kids’ activities between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25 and Sunday, Jan. 26 at the Patrick Ranch Museum in Durham. Join festival attendees with visits to the Thermalito Forebay and Afterbay, and Oroville Wildlife Area offering possible sightings of rough-legged hawk, ferruginous hawk, merlin, bald eagle, golden eagle, red-tailed hawk, burrowing owl, ducks, grebes, and other deep-water birds. Check out the Snow Goose Festival website for more details about activities, an avian art exhibit, and guided field trips during the four-day event.

 

Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey

Environmental scientists from DWR and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) participated in the National Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey in early January. This nationwide effort, coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, aims to determine bald eagle distribution and identify areas of important winter habitats. This year’s official count was 39 bald eagles for the Lake Oroville Winter Roost and 12 at the Thermalito Complex.  

  

Lake Oroville and the Sacramento Valley area provide an ideal habitat for bald eagles. Fish and waterfowl are the eagle’s main food source during this time of the year, and large water bodies like Lake Oroville provide a wide variety of fish while the nearby wetlands and flooded rice fields provide an abundant supply of waterfowl for eagle foraging. The many trees and snags (tall dead trees) near water areas provide prime roosting locations for the bald eagles that migrate to and through the area during the winter months.

 

Learn more about DWR’s bald eagle survey and the local agriculture fields that support their habitat in this California Rice Commission video.

 

Feather River Fish Hatchery Fish Planting

CDFW released approximately 777,500 yearling-size fall-run Chinook salmon into the Feather River at the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet boat ramp on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The fall-run Chinook salmon were reared at the Feather River Fish Hatchery, which supports Central Valley Chinook salmon and steelhead populations.

 

In addition, CDFW is continuing to plant Central Valley steelhead at sites along the Feather and Sacramento rivers. Approximately 540,200 yearling-size steelhead were raised in 2024 for release in local waterways between Jan. 10 and Jan. 30.

• Feather River at Boyd’s Pump Boat Launch: 348,900
• Sacramento River at Verona Boat Launch: 116,300
• Thermalito Afterbay at Wilbur Road Boat Launch: 75,000

 

Steelhead spawning operations are ongoing at the Hatchery and will continue through mid-February. These fish enter the Hatchery via the fish ladder that leads up from the Feather River Fish Barrier Dam and can be seen at the viewing windows and facility. Once the spawned fish eggs have hatched, the juvenile fish will be reared at the hatchery for a full year and then released next winter into the Feather River.

 

Like the salmon that populate the Feather River, steelhead trout migrate from the river to the ocean, returning to the river as adults to spawn. Unlike salmon, they can spawn several times during their lifetime. The name “steelhead” comes from their appearance, a more streamlined shape than Chinook salmon with a silvery or brassy color as an adult.

 

The Feather River Fish Hatchery is a California State Water Project (SWP) facility built in the late 1960s by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to mitigate impacts on fish migration resulting from the construction of Oroville Dam. DWR owns and maintains the facility and provides funding to CDFW to perform spawning, rearing, and stocking operations.

 

Oroville Recreation

DWR, the California Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks), and CDFW maintain over 92 miles of trails in the Oroville area. An interactive map of recreation facilities, including open trails and their permitted uses (hike, bike, horse, multi), is available on DWR’s Lake Oroville Recreation webpage. A paper trail map is available at various locations, including most entrance kiosks and the Lake Oroville Visitor Center.  

 

Staffed by knowledgeable guides, the Lake Oroville Visitor Center features interpretive displays on Oroville Dam, area geology, wildlife and habitat, hydroelectric power, and cultural and historical artifacts. View videos in the theater about the construction of Oroville Dam, walk or hike along nearby trails, and visit the 47-foot-tall observation tower that provides unsurpassed panoramic views of surrounding areas. Free guided tours for school and community groups are available by reservation. Parking and admission to the Visitor Center are free.

 

Lake Oroville is one of the State Water Project’s premier recreational destinations and one of California’s best fishing spots. The lake provides both warm-water and cold-water fisheries, with excellent bass fishing opportunities during the fall and winter months. Be sure to check CDFW fishing regulations before fishing. The marinas at Bidwell Canyon and Lime Saddle are open daily and provide a variety of services including a convenience store, gas, boat rentals, and more.

 

Upstream migrating fish totals through the Feather River Fish Monitoring Station between Jan. 1 and Jan. 20, 2025 are:  

• Fall-run Chinook salmon: 19
• Steelhead: 32
• To see previous year data, visit CalFish.org.

 

Current Lake Operations

Lake Oroville is at 838 feet elevation and storage is approximately 2.55 million acre-feet (MAF), which is 75 percent of its total capacity and 128 percent of the historical average.

 

Feather River flows are at 650 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the City of Oroville with 1,100 cfs being released from the Thermalito Afterbay River Outlet (Outlet) for a total Feather River release of 1,750 cfs downstream. DWR continues to assess Feather River releases daily. 

 

The public can track precipitation, snow, reservoir levels, and more at the California Data Exchange Center. The Lake Oroville gage station is identified as “ORO.”

 

All data as of midnight 1/23/2025.

 

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