We are so happy to see this river flowing again as it is supposed to. We need the Oklawaha to flow again here in Florida.
There are no good reasons to keep Rodman Dam.
Read the original article here in USA Today.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Klamath River flows free after the last dams come down, leaving land to tribes and salmon
Debra Utacia KrolPHOENIX – The last of the four dams that nearly destroyed salmon populations on the Klamath River at the California-Oregon border was demolished last week, marking a significant victory for tribes and environmentalists who fought for decades to restore the river.
Brook Thompson was 7 years old when her world turned upside down. Thompson, who is now 28 and a member of the Yurok Tribe, had witnessed the 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River.
“It was devastating seeing thousands of dead bodies the same size as me in the river,” Thompson said.
That horrific event spurred Thompson and many other Yurok, Karuk, Hupa and Klamath Tribes people to lead a two-decade campaign to save the Klamath River from death. Their solution: remove four dams that impeded the free flow of the river and had bred deadly algae that led to the 2002 fish die-off.
River and salmon protectors cheered and cried tears of joy as the coffer dams at Iron Gate and Copco I were broken open and the waters flowed down the river’s ancient channel. It’s the beginning of the end of a more than 20-year battle to remove the dams and restore the river during the nation’s largest-ever dam removal project.
It’s also the beginning of the next chapter in Klamath Basin restoration.
And as the salmon’s numbers diminished, so did the spirit of the Native peoples who have called the Klamath home for uncounted centuries. Salmon is at the heart of the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Shasta, Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Paiute peoples. They measured their lives by spring and fall salmon runs. Combined with other nourishing foods like acorn, berries, and, along the coast, seaweed, the Klamath’s human inhabitants were only as healthy as the river that flowed through their homelands.
Klamath Tribes member Jeff Mitchell, who’s served his tribe in various capacities for over 50 years, said his people had been raising awareness of the issue for nearly two decades before that.
“The dams completely wiped out our fisheries and ruined the water quality,” he said. A quarter of the tribe’s subsistence needs came from salmon, steelhead, and other fish, Mitchell said.
Also, government actions like channelizing the Sprague River and draining its wetlands allowed vast amounts of phosphorus to cascade down the waterway and into Upper Klamath Lake, which already had elevated phosphorus levels.
The presence of very high amounts of nutrients, or hypereutrophic levels, coupled with the government’s decision to allow the lake’s wetlands to be drained for agriculture, bred a toxic stew of algae that proved to be deadly to many fish, especially the c’waam and koptu. The algae destroyed critical habitat and left juvenile fish vulnerable to attack from bigger fish.
Those two species of sucker fish are central to the Klamath Tribes’ culture and nutrition. They have been driven to the brink of extinction and are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Mitchell, along with other tribal representatives up and down the river, worked to make their new neighbors aware of the interconnectedness of the basin for years to almost no avail.
Then in 2002, an estimated 70,000 salmon perished in the historic fish kill brought on by toxic algae washed down the river from the reservoirs that bred the deadly stuff. After that, the tribes’ determination to heal their river and their people coalesced.
Over the following 20 years, the “Undam the Klamath” campaign was formed to remove the dams and restore the salmon. The tribes, environmentalists, and their allies angrily filled legislative chambers, corporate headquarters, and agency offices to demand the dams be removed.
‘Justice for the Shasta people’:Shasta tribe will reclaim land long buried by a reservoir on the Klamath River
The removal of the final coffer dams means that salmon and other migratory fish now have an unimpeded aquatic highway to Upper Klamath Lake and the Sprague and Williamson rivers.
What’s next after the dams come down
The final deconstruction, including some remaining riverside infrastructure, is slated to be completed by the end of September. Resource Environmental Solutions’ project to restore lands and tributary creek beds once covered under often algae-infested waters will continue for several years to further the work of healing the river from “surgery” to unclog its channel and recreate long-dormant salmon redds, or nursery nests.
Thompson said the dam removal has been inspirational for tribal youth.
The Shasta Indian Nation will also soon celebrate as it finalizes an agreement with California to restore 2,800 acres of land reclaimed from reservoir removal that had been taken in the early 20th century to build the dams.
The rush of water carried some silt and old algae with it, resulting in a temporary loss of water quality, a spokesperson for the Klamath River Restoration Corporation said. But the river will rapidly carry the small quantity of dead materials and silty deposits away. The salmon downriver have not been affected to date by the blob of dirty water, they said.
Although he’s celebrating the end of the dams, Mitchell said more work needs to be done to ensure the salmon, steelhead and other migratory fish again form an essential part of the Klamath Tribes’ diet by enabling them to journey back to their ancient spawning areas as well as ensure a sustainable, healthy Klamath River Basin.
“We’ve got to make sure the fish have a real home,” he said. “Everything is interconnected.”
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture, and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. You can reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com or follow her on X @debkrol.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.
