Castillo, an employee of a Silicon Valley computer company, saw his first salmon on the Guadalupe in 1984. For years, he spent his time trying to convince his friends, DFG and county water officials that there was indeed a natural, self-sustaining run of salmon and steelhead in downtown San Jose;

Eventually, his efforts paid off as he documented, through videos and hundreds of photographs, the annual return of king salmon to the river. In the past few years, two fishery biologists were hired by the water district, minimum flows were established on the Guadalupe, summer dams were removed from Los Gatos Creek, and the City of San Jose began to incorporate the river's fishery into its park and flood control plans. Now the dams, which the city, water district and other entities wouldn't take responsibility for, are finally coming down.

The return of salmon and steelhead to the Guadalupe is the result of the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, mandating the release of non-toxic water into the streams, as well as a rise in the valleys water table.

"When the, valley was mostly agricultural, the water table dropped because of pumping of well water," he said. "However, the groundwater percolation system of the valley and the big rains of recent years have brought the water table back up. Now they have to pump clean, artesian water out of buildings and basements in downtown San Jose and the airport."

It's hard to believe, but Castillo on the day of the celebration showed me an artesian well that was pumping clear and cold water from under the freeway by Bird Avenue into Los Gatos Creek in downtown San Jose.

The river had an estimated run of between 400 and 1000 salmon in 1994 and around 200 fish in the last several years, according to Castillo. Steelhead, because they come up during the high winter flows, are harder to document, but good numbers of steelhead smolts were found when the water district biologists electro-shocked the fish in the creek as the fish ladder was being constructed.

Ed Suefert, a heavy equipment operator for the water district and member of the South Bay Chapter of United Anglers, is coordinating the crew that is removing the weir. "The creek was full of 3500 tons of broken concrete," he said. "We have removed all of the broken concrete and the jagged concrete apron that made it so difficult for fish to get up the river."

"In the place of the broken concrete and jagged apron," he added, "we have created four rock weirs to channel the water and the salmon and steelhead into the center of the creek. In the past, this barrier has been passable only in storm flows. Now we have made it passable in low flows also."

The district obtained the cobble and round rock they are putting into the river from San Benito County's Granite Rock Company, who ran their plant for 18 hour days to produce enough rock, sold at cost to the district, for the project.

The project, even with the relative low cost, will cost $250,000. Along with other removal of dams and obstacles on the creek, including one already completed downriver at Branham Avenue and the fish ladder scheduled for completion in 1999 at Almaden, the fish will be able to get up in low flows unencumbered. The total project will cost $850,000, made possible from a grant to the water district from the Cal-Fed Program for Bay Delta restoration.

"We had to do something to save the fish," said the enthusiastic Suefert. "I would like to take my daughter down to the river in 20 years and show her a river full of salmon. I took my daughter to the river in September and she saw 4 salmon jump just a half mile down the road from here."

At a time when salmon and steelhead are listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts and the northern and central California coast are seeing declines in their runs, it's encouraging that an urban river in the center of the Silicon Valley has wild salmon and steelhead returning to spawn.