On a recent field trip to the Klamath River, local school children were able to witness a momentous example of nature’s ability to rebound: salmon spawning in a creek upstream from the former Iron Gate dam after decades of absence.
It’s one of many ecological milestones being reached following the largest dam removal project in the nation’s history, with the official completion on Oct. 2 signaling the end of an era and a new beginning for the Klamath River, now flowing free after being released from the stranglehold of the Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, J.C. Boyle and Iron Gate dams.
The November visit to Jenny Creek — part of a collaborative program of the Karuk Tribe, Save California Salmon, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council and education partners — marked the third year of such trips for students attending schools within Siskiyou County and the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District.
According to Save California Salmon, “hundreds of middle school and high school students living along the Klamath River” have participated in the program that uses the “river as a platform,” weaving in lessons on “ecosystems, water quality and local Tribal culture” with on-the-ground experiences of watching the mammoth undertaking unfold in real time.
“My class is filled with students whose ancestors are the original stewards of the Klamath River, whose direct relatives are current stewards, and they themselves are the future stewards,” Orleans Elementary teacher and Yurok tribal member Clarissa Readen said in the release. “I am so grateful we were able to see the dams before they were taken down and the results after.
“They have seen their parents and community members fight for dam removal their entire lives, and it’s such a full-circle moment for them to witness this historic event,” Readen continued. “Seeing the salmon spawn in ‘their sacred spawning grounds,’ as one of my students put it, for the first time in 100 years, is as important as any curriculum in the classroom.”
Echoing those thoughts was Junction Elementary School student Wally Marshall, a 13-year-old member of the Karuk Tribe.
“I went to the Iron Gate dam, but this time there was no dam. It was really amazing to see that the river wasn’t being held back anymore,” Marshall said in the release. “The last time I went, there was no reservoir. This time we also saw a bunch of fish spawning that had come back after 100 years of being trapped — I thought that was incredible.”
A community gathering to celebrate the removal of the Klamath dams, featuring art, speakers and live bands, is taking place Dec. 7 at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. For more information and to purchase tickets for the event sponsored by the Karuk and Yurok tribes and other organizations, including Save California Salmon, visit tinyurl.com/DamRemovalCelebration-Tickets.
Bringing down the dams was the result of decades of efforts by tribal nations, including the Karuk and Yurok tribes on the lower Klamath, whose traditions and way of life have been intricately linked to the river and the salmon in its waters since time immemorial.
Now hundreds of miles of the Klamath River and its tributaries once blocked off to salmon and other species have been reopened and the fish are finding their way back.
“They said it was going to take 10 years for the salmon to return to the Upper Basin,” Karuk Tribe Vice Chairman Kenneth Brink said in the release. “Once the dams were out, it took 10 days.”
In mid-October, fisheries biologists with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife documented the first Chinook salmon since 1912 in the Klamath Basin above the former J.C. Boyle dam — and that was just the beginning. A month later, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported the first returns of coho salmon to their historic habitat in the upper Klamath River Basin in more than 60 years.
The threatened fish were spotted at the agency’s new hatchery on Fall Creek, “a formerly inaccessible Klamath River tributary about 7.5 miles upstream of the former Iron Gate Dam location,” according to a CDFW release.
“To see coho successfully returning this quickly to this new habitat post-dam removal is exciting,” Senior Environmental Scientist Eric Jones, who oversees CDFW’s north state hatchery operations, said in the agency’s release. “We’ve already seen the Chinook make it back and now we’re seeing the coho make it back.”
The seven coho counted on Nov. 13 — four males and three females — were being kept at the hatchery pending genetic testing, according to CDFW, after which geneticists will determine which “are the least related genetically and direct the spawning of those pairs to maximize genetic diversity.”
CDFW states the agency “has an annual production goal of raising 75,000 coho salmon to help restore populations in the upper Klamath River Basin post dam-removal” at the Fall Creek hatchery.
At nearby Jenny Creek, where the students saw salmon spawning, a video fish counting weir “recorded 310 adult Chinook salmon and one Pacific lamprey entering the tributary from the Klamath River,” as of Nov. 22, according to CDFW.
Meanwhile, the agency recently released “approximately 270,000 yearling, fall-run Chinook salmon into Fall Creek,” marking the first release since the four dams came down.
The CDFW notes “multiple state and federal agencies, Tribes and non-governmental organizations are monitoring salmon throughout the Klamath Basin” with agency’s management strategy being “to mostly allow these ocean-going fish species to naturally repopulate the 420 miles of newly accessible habitat as they are now doing.”
On land, the replanting of native vegetation is continuing on more than 2,000 acres once covered by the waters of the reservoirs, with those efforts and monitoring of the work continuing for the next several years.
Local students have also been taking part in restoration efforts, including the planting of seeds, according to Save California Salmon, noting the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, which oversaw the dam removal project, and Resource Environment Solutions, the restoration contractor, have been supportive of involving students and families.
In the nonprofit’s release, KRRC spokesperson Ren Brownell expressed appreciation for Save California Salmon, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council and the Karuk Tribe’s efforts with the program.
“The field trips allowed students to understand why dam removal was happening, see the changes happening on their river and participate in the restoration,” Brownell said. “ I hope they take away the lesson that fixing things isn’t always easy, but it is possible and worth the effort.”
This article appears in Holiday Gift Guide 2024.
My stepfather Crow Munk worked on this, and didn’t live to see the results. Looking forward to good water in the Klamath once again.