Whiskeytown Lake is part of the Central Valley Project, a system of dams, reservoirs, canals, and power plants created to control floods, supply water, and generate power for millions of Californians from Redding to Bakersfield. By the 1990s, California’s Central Valley had lost more than 90% of its river and streamside forests and wetlands, and salmon spawning grounds had shrunk from 6,000 stream miles to less than 300. Past agricultural and industrial activities and development by the Central Valley Project shared responsibility for this decline. In response to public will and new laws, the Central Valley Project is working to restore critical spawning habitat, and the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act amended its mission to provide for fish and wildlife protection.