Klamath Dams Breached

The last two cofferdams on the Klamath River have been breached by workers, allowing the river to run free for the first time in a century.  Excavator removed boulders and earth used to divert the river while two dams, Iron Gate and Copco No.1 were demolished as part of a project to restore the river and its native salmon run, once the third largest on the West Coast.  The fish have suffered tremendously during that time, and tribes have seen their salmon catch dwindle to nothing.  A Yurok tribe member and attorney for the tribe cried as she watched the river regain its course. Tribes fought for decades for dam removal. The federal government approved the project in 2022.  The $500 million restoration It is funded by the ratepayers of Pacific Corp. and taxpayers. [photo: tribal leader at the site of Cohelo Falls on the Columbia River]

Pacific Corp built the four Klamath dams between 1918 and 1962 to generate electricity, but they now only account for less than 2% of the company's energy generation. They exerted a heavy cost on salmon-- disrupting their migration upstream to spawn and degrading water quality. Wildlife authorities resorted to fishing bans in order to protect the remaining fish whose numbers dwindled dramatically. There are two smaller dams still on the river upstream equipped with fish ladders   It may be some time before the fish repopulate the entire river, and fishing can return to normal. Fishing did not return to Washington's Elwha River for ten years after its dams was removed.  The head of the NGO created to oversee the removal, told AP,“I don’t know if anybody knows with any certainty what it means for the return of fish,” he said. “It’ll take some time. You can’t undo 100 years’ worth of damage and impacts to a river system overnight.”

Klamath dams' removal is part of a national movement to restore riverine habitat where feasible. As of February 2,000 dams have been removed in the US, the majority of those in the last 25 years. Salmon are culturally and spiritually significant to northwest tribes as well as being an important food source.  Not only the fish have suffered, but natives too.  The US recognized for the first time in June that dam building devastated Native Americans by inundating their homes and decimating salmon runs. All done in the name of developing the dominate culture's infrastructure. The Biden Administration announced a plan to spend $1 billion restoring salmon runs before they are extinguished. The plan stops short of advocating dam removal on the Snake River, which conservationists and federal fisheries experts say is necessary to restore the Columbia River Basin salmon populations.  The goal of removing the Snake River dams has been condemned by Repugnant lawmakers in Washington.