Supporting the Health and Healing of the Klamath River Basin.
The Klamath River Fund is a new program of Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation (HAF+WRCF) focused on community-led climate resilience and restorative justice work. Following the unprecedented dam removal in 2023 and 2024, the Klamath River Fund will invest in and amplify restoration and revitalization efforts in the entire Klamath basin in the decade that follows.
The removal of the dams is the result of generations of work to bring healing to the Klamath River basin. Now we have another generational project ahead of us, restoring the ecosystem so the region can thrive, ecologically, culturally, economically, and beyond.
Klamath Dam Removal Efforts
The Klamath dam removal is the largest dam removal project and largest river restoration project in U.S. history, with monumental impacts for river and ecosystem health, economic and workforce development, revitalization of Tribal and rural communities, and restorative justice to Tribes and Indigenous people who have lived along the river since time immemorial. Led by the Yurok and Karuk Tribes in partnership with nonprofit organizations, lawyers, scientists, and activists, the project will reopen 400 miles of habitat for coho salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and other threatened fish species, and allow the lower Klamath River to flow freely for the first time in more than a century.
The 257-mile-long Klamath River was once the third largest salmon-producing river on the U.S. West Coast, and an important source of food for Tribes across the basin. Dams, combined with over-allocation of limited water supplies and climate-driven mega-drought, have contributed to declines in salmon and steelhead abundance. This has impacted Tribal, recreational, and commercial fisheries and the communities and economies they support.
In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended canceling the 2024 California salmon season due to plummeting Chinook populations. This recommendation mirrors their decision in 2023 when they also advised closing the fisheries. Unfortunately, this closure had significant impacts on Tribes and commercial fishing businesses, resulting in the loss of approximately 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in revenue for California.
Klamath River Fund Goals
The Klamath River Fund was established with seed funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and additional launch funding from the James Irvine Foundation, Roundhouse Foundation, and an anonymous funder. HAF+WRCF is now inviting philanthropic partners that share our goals to join us in this exciting and momentous opportunity.
The Klamath River Fund seeks to accomplish the following goals over the next 10 years (2023-2033):
- Create a comprehensive effort to advance climate and community resilience within the Klamath River watershed from the headwaters in Klamath Lake in Oregon to its mouth in Requa, California.
- Scope and facilitate effective grantmaking, strategy coordination, and technical assistance to support Tribal and local community-driven restoration and revitalization priorities.
- Increase philanthropic and public funding for Tribal and rural community needs in the basin.
- Demonstrate how river restoration, of which dam removal is only the first step, is an investment in climate resilience, community resilience, and restorative justice.
Program Priorities
The program’s first priority is to build and deepen relationships within the Klamath Basin with community leaders, cultural leaders and elected Tribal officials; listen to needs and desires; and co-design strategy and priorities. This will lay a groundwork of understanding around opportunities and community hopes, where strength, power, activities, resources and existing funding currently reside, and where there are gaps. This will allow for strategic planning and program design that is based on community input and accounts for long-term commitment and support.
The program will enhance and strengthen relationships between and among community members and leaders, Tribal Nations, agencies, and philanthropy throughout the Klamath Basin; increase collective narrative and understanding of how restoration is defined, envisioned, and implemented, including individual relationships to the river; and support decision making systems that are respectful, informed, and empower self-efficacy.
HAF+WRCF has made a commitment to a minimum of 60 percent of granted funds will be directed toward Tribes and/or Indigenous-led and -serving organizations in the basin.
Grantmaking focus areas and priorities will be determined with community input and shared decision-making criteria. Potential areas of focus include: Science and Restoration, Tribal Self-Determination, Regenerative Agricultural and Environmental Stewardship, Community Healing, and Climate Resilience. Grant funds will also leverage public dollars into the region by funding capacity building, technical assistance, pre-development needs, and/or match dollars.
If philanthropy works together to leverage this moment that Tribes, activists, landowners, agencies and nonprofits have worked toward for decades, restoration of the Klamath River could someday be cited as a premier example of climate resilience and restorative justice on an unprecedented scale. We hope you will join us in this exciting opportunity.
General Inquiries?
For general inquiries, email the Klamath Team or contact:
Pimm Tripp-Allen (Karuk/Yurok), Senior Advisor, Tribal & Native American Relations; pimmt@hafoundation.org
Gina Zottola, Vice President, Advancement & Philanthropic Innovation; ginaz@hafoundation.org
Keytra Meyer, Departmental Director, Advancement & Philanthropic Innovation; keytram@hafoundation.org