{"id":213006,"date":"2025-10-10T00:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:17:09","slug":"one-year-after-klamath-dam-removal-theres-just-fish-jumping-all-over-the-place-scientists-describe-improvements-to-water-quality-and-wildlife-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213006\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, ‘There’s Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place’: Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Fish tagging on the Klamath. | Photo courtesy CalTrout.<\/p>\n

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PREVIOUSLY<\/p>\n

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A year after the Klamath River was returned to its free-flowing state by way of the world\u2019s\u00a0largest-ever dam removal project<\/a>, scientists say nature has rebounded in astounding ways.<\/p>\n

In an online press conference this afternoon, a group of scientists from regional tribes, environmental nonprofits and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reported observations and data from a year\u2019s worth of fish monitoring, spawning habitat surveys, water quality testing and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The consensus was that things have gone better than anyone could have anticipated, particularly when it comes to fall-run Chinook salmon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the fish have shown us is something extraordinary,\u201d said Damon Goodman, Mount Shasta-Klamath regional director for California Trout. \u201cThe river seemed to come alive almost instantly after removal, and the fish returned in greater numbers than I expected, and maybe anyone expected.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scientists from a broad array of organizations have united under the common goal of learning how salmon, other anadromous fish and an entire ecosystem recover. The removal of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath has allowed for the restoration of more than 400 miles of habitat.<\/p>\n


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Map of the Klamath River and tributaries showing the location of the four removed hydroelectric dams.<\/p>\n

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Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department Director Barry McCovey Jr. said the Klamath\u2019s improved water quality, including a dramatic decline in suspended algae, has been a game changer for the tribal fishermen who have fed their people through gillnet fishing since time immemorial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fall-run Chinook are entering the river earlier than they used to and traveling further upriver than they\u2019ve been in a century. The ones that returned to the Klamath in August were so robust and chubby \u201cwe call them footballs,\u201d McCovey said.<\/p>\n

In talking with tribal fishermen, sport fishermen and the community at large, he said, \u201cThere\u2019s this feeling that the river just feels different. It feels stronger. It feels cleaner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Klamath is still healing from a century of blockage behind a series of hydroelectric dams, \u201cand the scars are still fresh,\u201d McCovey said. \u201cBut the progress that we\u2019ve made in just one year is pretty incredible, and it provides us with a lot of hope for the future.\u201d (To hear more from McCovey, check out the latest episode<\/a> of the WNYC podcast \u201cScience Friday,\u201d which just came out today.)<\/p>\n

While fall Chinook have been an immediate success story, the spring-run Chinook population has a longer road to recovery. It was decimated by a century of blockage. The Klamath\u2019s population of wild spring-run Chinook is down to just a few hundred, Goodman said, adding that the nearby Salmon River hosts one of the last viable populations of spring-run Chinook, and there\u2019s a hatchery population on the Trinity River.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Klamath\u2019s population of these fish is \u201con the verge of extinction,\u201d Goodman said, though there is now optimism about its recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of work to do to get spring Chinook back in this river system, but we have an opportunity to do that now with dam removal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There were major concerns ahead of dam removal about the release of accumulated sediment behind the dams and the resulting effects on dissolved oxygen levels in the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toz Soto, senior policy and research advisor for the Karuk Tribe, said the drawdown was scheduled for last winter to minimize impacts, and while there was a spike in turbidity immediately after the last cofferdam was removed, the water quality quickly recovered.<\/p>\n


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Screenshot from today\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThankfully, it all worked out in a positive way,\u201d Soto said, noting that there was no large-scale fish kill and the Klamath\u2019s dissolved oxygen levels never fell below the California water quality standard.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, water temperatures in the Klamath have dropped, which is also a positive for fish health. The reservoirs acted as \u201cheat batteries\u201d keeping the water unseasonably warm into the fall migration season, Soto said. The lower temps since dam removal give fish an earlier opportunity to migrate while also improving their health, he explained. The cooler water has reduced the prevalence of toxic chemicals called microcystins, which are produced by algae.<\/p>\n

Sami Jo Difuntorum, cultural Preservation officer with the Shasta Indian Nation, focused her comments largely on the impacts to the surrounding landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been called the tribe the dams were built on and it is literally true,\u201d Difuntorum said. \u201cThe dams were built on our villages.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she looked at the landscape immediately after the reservoirs were drained, \u201cIt was really stark, really barren,\u201d she said. \u201cNothing had grown there for, what, 100 years.\u201d While most everyone involved was ecstatic, Difuntorum didn\u2019t immediately share their sentiment. \u201cIt didn\u2019t really feel joyous to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she heard the river rushing through the canyon, hearing rocks popping as water hit them for the first time in 100 years, that she felt happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it said to me was \u2026 the earth and the rocks were welcoming the water back, and so that meant healing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Later in the press conference, during a Q&A period with journalists, Goodman said that the Klamath River monitoring work has been impacted by recent federal funding cuts<\/a>, including the Department of the Interior\u2019s decision to terminate CalTrout\u2019s funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis loss in funding was a setback for our scientific data collection on the world\u2019s biggest restoration project, but our team is finding other ways to make it work \u2026 ,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile we\u2019re already seeing that the Klamath dam removal is a success, we need consistent and accurate data to understand how much of a success this project was, and we\u2019re currently fundraising to fill the gap for that lost funding.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Restored landscape in the Klamath River Basin. | Photo courtesy the Yurok Tribe.<\/p>\n

Below is a press release with more information:<\/p>\n

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KLAMATH RIVER, Calif.\u00a0\u2013 This October marks the first anniversary since the removal of the four lower Klamath dams, and scientists, advocates and Tribes are celebrating dramatic ecological improvements for the Klamath River. Ongoing scientific monitoring, which started years prior to dam removal, has enabled the documentation of significant advances in water quality, water temperatures, and the rapid return of native salmon populations to previously blocked habitats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Klamath is showing us the way. The speed and scale of the river\u2019s recovery has exceeded our expectations and even the most optimistic scientific modeling, proving that when the barriers fall, nature has an incredible power to heal itself,\u201d said Barry McCovey Jr., Director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department.<\/p>\n

News of fish passing the former dam sites came the same week as the project\u2019s completion in early October 2024. While scientists were actively monitoring fish movements and spawning activity in the weeks and months following the restoration of natural flows to the river, it took several months of analysis to finalize specific data related to fish activity above the former dam sites. We now know that more than 7,700 Chinook Salmon swam upriver of the former Iron Gate dam site (the lowermost dam in the system) last fall to access habitat previously blocked by the dams. This number comes from a combination of monitoring techniques, including the use of SONAR, spawner surveys, and redd counts. This year the monitoring continues, and salmon have made it over the Link River Dam into Upper Klamath Lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most collaborative and comprehensive restoration studies ever undertaken with agencies, Tribes, and NGOs all coming together to monitor the recovery of the Klamath River salmon post-dam removal,\u201d said Damon Goodman, Shasta-Klamath Director for California Trout. \u201cWhat we witnessed was extraordinary\u2014the river came back to life almost instantly, and fish returned in greater numbers than anyone imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most immediate and vital sign of the river\u2019s healing is the dramatic improvement in water temperature\u2014a crucial factor for the Klamath\u2019s ecosystem. The dams and their reservoirs created artificially warm water temperatures in late summer and fall, when fish were returning to the system to spawn, and excessively cold water in the spring, when juvenile salmon out-migrate to the ocean. Ongoing monitoring of water temperatures both pre- and post-dam removal shows that temperatures have returned to a more natural regime that provides improved conditions for salmon during adult spawning migration and juvenile outmigration.<\/p>\n

Hand-in-hand with this temperature recovery is a demonstrated monumental improvement in water quality, especially the precipitous decline of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and their associated microcystin toxins. Data collected by the Karuk Tribe since 2006 shows a powerful recovery: while 58% of samples below the former dam once exceeded public health limits, post-dam removal, 100% of water samples have tested within safe limits for people and wildlife. This combination of cooler, cleaner water is creating a resilient, thriving future for both fish and people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the dams were removed, temperature, algae, and dissolved oxygen levels have all dramatically improved,\u201d said Toz Soto, Senior Policy and Research Advisor for the Karuk Tribe\u2019s Department of Natural Resources. \u201cThe process of removing the dams created temporary water quality impacts as sediments impounded by the dams were mobilized through the system. When we look back at the data over the last year, we see that those short-term impacts were worth it, and the immediate improvements to the system are clearly documented in the data collected by the Karuk Tribe and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first year of a dam-free Klamath River demonstrates a powerful trajectory towards salmon recovery and an ecosystem with significantly improved health with significant cultural and community benefits for Tribes and others in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fish tagging on the Klamath. | Photo courtesy CalTrout. ### PREVIOUSLY ###…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-213006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}