Klamath River flows free after the last dams come down, leaving land to tribes and salmon

PHOENIX — 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.

On Tuesday, the final impediment was removed and the Klamath was again a free-flowing river. The coffer dams, which had diverted water from the last two outdated hydroelectric dams undergoing demolition, were breached, allowing the river to reclaim its ancient course and reopen up to 400 miles of salmon spawning and nursery habitats.

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.

River, Indigenous peoples in recovery

The Klamath River has been hammered by more than 100 years of mismanagement and injustices against tribal communities. Some of those included building dams on ancestral Shasta Nation lands, replumbing the Upper Klamath Basin for agriculture and channelizing a key tributary resulting in massive amounts of phosphorus flowing into the Upper Klamath Lake and eventually, the lower river.

Salmon and other fish populations, deprived of hundreds of miles of quiet pools to lay their eggs and for the juvenile fish to survive and thrive, shrank by about 95%, which led to the federal government enacting protections for some salmon populations.

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.

The dams, coupled with fire suppression, over-industrialization of the forests, and basin replumbing all took their toll on the river. People deprived of their ancestral ways and healthy foods wallowed in despair. Suicide rates spiked, as did domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and other such ailments. Diabetes and other diseases related to poor nutrition ran rampant in tribal communities. Thompson said several of her friends perished before the age of 30.

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 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the final approval for the removal of the lower four Klamath River dams in November 2023, and removal started shortly afterward. Two other dams upriver from the four that were removed, the Link River Dam and the Keno Dam, have fish ladders installed.

The removal of the final coffer dams means that salmon and other migratory fish now have an unimpeded aquatic highway to Upper Klamath Lake, the Sprague, and the 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.

"They're able to see the tribe has made progress, and they see they can be part of solutions," she said.

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.