News from the Basin - Humboldt Area Foundation

Klamath Dam Removal Exceeds Expectations

Four smiling people gather around a laptop outside — The fish monitoring program, which included SONAR imaging, netting, radio telemetry, and spawner surveys was made possible in part by the first Klamath River Fund grants awarded to a collaborative partnership that included California Trout, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries office, the Karuk Tribe, the Yurok Tribe, and Klamath Tribes. Photo courtesy Shane Anderson, Swiftwater Films.

Victory

This year was marked by a series of milestones and celebrations by Klamath dam removal advocates. Press conferences, parties, and all manner of celebration marked reservoir drawdowns, dam breaches, and finally the complete removal of the lower four Klamath River dams. But the biggest celebratory moment came four days after the construction teams left the site. On the evening of October 8, a sonar device at the site where Iron Gate stood days earlier registered a lone blip. A curious Chinook salmon rediscovered the entrance to the Upper Klamath Basin. But that was just the beginning.

Single blue blip on sonogram representing a Chinook Salmon at the Upper Klamath Basin — Imaged captured by sonar of the first salmon to enter the Upper Klamath Basin in over a century. Courtesy Northfork Studios.

Exceeding Expectations

No one knew exactly what to expect after dam removal. The consensus among the experts was that dam removal would temporarily impact water quality as sediment was released, but how bad and for how long? Experts also expected some fish to venture to areas upstream of the dam sites this year, but how many and how far? We did not have to wait long to find out.

On October 16, 12 days after dam removal was completed, biologists with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife were stunned when they saw the first salmon in Spencer Creek – 60 miles upstream of Iron Gate Canyon!

Salmon laying out in the basin — Spawned out Chinook in Spencer Creek, just 12 Miles from Klamath Falls, Ore. Photo by Craig Tucker.

In the ensuing weeks, biologists and the salmon curious public reported seeing fish all over the dam removal reach. Virtually every tributary between Iron Gate Canyon and Keno Dam now has salmon spawning in them. In short, the fish exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. While it will take time for all the data to be collected and interpreted, we know that at one point in early November over 200 Chinook were counted in Spencer Creek, a place that had not seen salmon in over a century.

Immediate Impacts, Good and Bad, to Water Quality

Everyone working on Klamath dam removal knew that a significant amount of fine sediment would be released when the reservoirs were drained and again when the dams were breached. The agencies and Tribes working with Klamath River Renewal Corporation on the dam removal plan devised their dam removal strategy to minimize the impacts to fish by timing the sediment releases to avoid the times of year fish were spawning. The engineers managing the dam removal work relied on a system of water quality monitoring stations operated by the Karuk Tribe to keep an eye on suspended sediment concentrations and dissolved oxygen. The initial drawdown of the reservoirs resulted in a precipitous drop in dissolved oxygen in the reach immediately downstream of Iron Gate dam. This led to the demise of many macroinvertebrates like crayfish, suckers, and some juvenile salmonids. However, the impact was short-lived and limited in scope. While the river was muddy much of the summer, the sediment load and dissolved oxygen levels were managed to minimize adverse effects to wildlife by slowly removing the last remnants of dams.

There were also immediate benefits to water quality. According to the Karuk Tribe’s water quality team, water temperatures in late summer and early Fall were about 5 degrees Celsius lower than they had been with the dams in place which is great news for migrating salmon. Also of note is the data presented by Julie Alexander, Oregon State Professor of Microbiology, showing that the population of polycheate worms that serve as the intermediate host for fish disease causing parasites diminished. This suggests we will see a reduction in fish diseases in coming years.

First-hand reports by tribal fishers also reveal water quality benefits. Yurok and Karuk fishers reported fish harvested this year were in excellent condition, as shown by their bright chrome color. Yurok reported that fishers did not need to clean dead algae from their nets after a night of fishing as they have in recent years. This tracks with the fact that the algae toxin microcystin, that led to health warnings along the river almost every year for the last two decades, was not detected in the river this year.

Next Steps

The Klamath River became a living laboratory overnight. Scientists from all over the world are anxious to collect data to understand how large rivers respond to the removal of large dams. But dam removal is not the end of restoration efforts, in many ways it is the first phase of the world’s largest salmon restoration project. There is still a need to secure adequate flows in the mainstem Klamath and along several key tributaries such as the Trinity, Scott, and Shasta rivers. Areas that were submerged beneath reservoirs for decades must be restored and replanted in native vegetation. And we must decide the role that hatcheries will play in reintroducing runs of salmon that are near extinction, such as coho and Spring Chinook. Dam removal did not solve all the Klamath’s woes, but it certainly served as a huge leap in the right direction. But to take full advantage of the opportunity afforded by dam removal more work is necessary.

The Klamath River Fund will support Klamath communities as they continue to work towards a restored fishery and climate resilient communities. Our region continues to set an example for others around the globe and we are honored to support this work.