From California Trout: Rindge Dam, located three miles upstream from Malibu coastline, is listed as one of the Top 5 California dams to remove in our latest report.

Built in 1926, it once provided water for irrigation and household use in Malibu. However, after just 30 years, the 100-foot dam became obsolete after the reservoir filled entirely with sediment. Today it is part of Malibu Creek State Park and remains a total barrier to southern steelhead migration.

Removing Rindge Dam will reconnect access to over 18 miles of high-quality spawning and rearing habitat for the federally threatened southern steelhead.

Reopening the upper reaches could restore the fishery and establish it as a nursery for this particular strain of steelhead so that the population can recover and become abundant once again.

It’s been a decades-long battle but CalTrout remains committed to removing Rindge Dam and reconnecting habitat for endangered southern steelhead.

See you on the river, Jim Burns