Ruby Williams\u2019s pink kayak pierced the fog shrouding the mouth of the Klamath River, and she paddled harder. She was flanked on both sides by fellow Indigenous youth from across the basin, and their line of brightly colored boats would make history when they reached the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the sandy dunes \u2013 they were going to do it together.<\/p>\n
The final of four hydroelectric dams were removed last year from the Klamath River, in the largest project of its kind in US history<\/a>. The following July, 28 teenage tribal representatives completed a 30-day journey that spanned roughly 310 miles (500km) from the headwaters in the Cascades to the Pacific. They were the very first to kayak the entirety of the mighty river in more than a century.<\/p>\n It marked a new beginning for the once-imperiled river and its sprawling basin that straddles the California-Oregon border, an important biodiversity hotspot and a region that\u2019s been at the heart of local Indigenous culture for millennia. It also served as a bridge, bringing together river advocates from around the world eager to replicate the restoration happening on the Klamath.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been only a year without the dams and the reservoirs created by them, and already there are successes to share.<\/p>\n Just days after the dams were demolished, threatened coho salmon<\/a> made it farther upriver than they had in the previous 60 years. Shortly after the one-year mark, Chinook salmon were spotted in headwaters for the first time in more than a century<\/a>.<\/p>\n Construction crews removed the top of the cofferdam that was left from the Iron Gate Dam, allowing the Klamath River to run in its original path for the first time in nearly a century, near Hornbrook, California, on 28 August 2024. Photograph: San Francisco Chronicle\/Hearst Newspapers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Native seeds strewn across the riverbanks and their adjoining hillsides began to bloom. Scores of birds and animals \u2013 from bald eagles, to beavers, to bears \u2013 returned to the waterway. Insects, algae and microscopic features of the flourishing systems that feed this ecosystem were sprouting.<\/p>\n \u201cThese kids will be the first generation who get to grow up alongside a clean Klamath River,\u201d said Ren Brownell, the former spokesperson for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a non-profit created to oversee and implement the removal<\/a>. \u201cThey can now carry this momentum to other watersheds,\u201d Brownell said.<\/p>\n That sentiment fueled the idea to have tribal youth be the first to navigate the river. The \u201cPaddle Tribal Waters\u201d program is part of R\u00edos to Rivers<\/a>, an advocacy organization that fosters environmental stewardship by connecting thousands of Indigenous students across seven countries.<\/p>\n For the finish, people traveled from China and the Bolivian Amazon. There were M\u0101ori people from New Zealand there and members of the Mapuche-Pehuenche tribe who live along the Biob\u00edo river in Chile. Representatives from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe in the Snake River Basin in the western US also joined.<\/p>\n While the Klamath youth cultivated a deeper connection to their wild river being reborn, they also inspired Indigenous-led movements working to protect or restore other rivers around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a great David-and-Goliath story,\u201d Brownell added. \u201cIt turns out that you can win.\u201d<\/p>\n Klamath\u2019s first year<\/p>\n A project of this scale had never been attempted before Klamath\u2019s dams came down, and even with an abundance of hope and extensive modeling, there was uncertainty about how the river would rebound.<\/p>\n Even with years of work left to do, the speed of recovery has surprised everyone.<\/p>\n Without the large reservoirs that kept waters stagnant and warm during the summers, toxic markers that used to consistently spike outside healthy ranges have stayed at safe levels through the seasons. Water temperatures too have returned to their natural regimes, providing the coolness fish need to migrate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe river seemed to come alive right after dam removal,\u201d said Damon Goodman, the Mount Shasta-Klamath regional director for CalTrout during a meeting on the one-year anniversary. \u201cThere\u2019s just fish jumping all over the place, bald eagles, all sorts of wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n The unprecedented project required an equally unprecedented fish-monitoring effort that relied on a range of tools, including sonar, boat surveys, netting and tagging, and video, to observe adaptation, migration, spawning and habitat.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data is coming out so fast it is hard to keep up with the findings,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n Ruby Williams on the Klamath River. Photograph: Erik Boomer\/River Roots Productions<\/p>\n Barry McCovey Jr is the senior fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe and has warned local communities and the public about the challenges that still lie ahead. Two dams remain on the river and it will take decades to heal \u201cthe massive scars\u201d left by the dams that were removed, McCovey Jr said, adding that what might seem like a happy ending is just the beginning.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean he isn\u2019t celebrating.<\/p>\n \u201cWe called them footballs, they were so robust and healthy,\u201d he said, referring to the fish now completing long journeys they haven\u2019t been able to for more than a hundred years. One year in, \u201cthe big-picture update is the river is continuing to heal\u201d, McCovey Jr said. \u201cIt has a different feel to it now \u2013 and it is only going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n For McCovey Jr, the wins go beyond the fish getting a renewed chance to thrive, along with the ecosystems that support them. After working to restore this basin for most of his life, his son, who completed the first descent, is now connecting with the river as it rebounds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe river needed those kids \u2013 they are part of the solution,\u201d he said. They will play an important role to lead restoration work needed into the future. But they are also helping to spread an important message.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been part of the goal to show people around the world that something like this is possible,\u201d McCovey Jr said. \u201cYou just have to look to the Klamath to see that crazy things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n A new story<\/p>\n The removal of the four dams was still an abstract idea when Williams first began training for the adventure of a lifetime. She was one of about a dozen in the Klamath inaugural class, launched in 2022, when she was a sophomore in high school.<\/p>\n Williams mastered the kayaking skills required to traverse challenging and unknown rapids that would emerge from under the reservoirs \u2013 including the harrowing and awe-inspiring K\u2019\u00edka\u00b7c\u2019\u00e9\u00b7ki Canyon run<\/a>, more than 2.5 miles of class IV rapids that winds through an ancient and steep basalt chasm, held sacred to the Shasta Indian Nation<\/a>. It\u2019s a run that sparked fear even among the most experienced guides.<\/p>\n She turned 18 early on in the journey, her birthday falling on a grueling day spent battling strong headwinds and sharp sunlight that left her eyes and skin burning. But the memories of exhaustion are outweighed by those of camaraderie. Williams said she still talks to the friends she made during the program nearly every day.<\/p>\n Weston Boyles, founder and director of R\u00edos to Rivers, said the program forged links among youth from across the Klamath basin: \u201cEveryone within a basin is connected to that river. Through the love of a common sport like kayaking, you can connect communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Ruby Williams on the Klamath River. Photograph: Erik Boomer\/River Roots Productions<\/p>\n Boyles and others on his team hatched the plan to help Indigenous youth lead the first descent in 2021 along with Rush Sturges, a professional kayaker and film-maker who cut his teeth on a Klamath tributary, the Salmon River. The curriculum they designed not only gave kids the skills needed to paddle the river but also helped them engage with what they were studying.<\/p>\n Students, including Williams, were also taken on trips around the world to meet other youth dedicated to fighting for their rivers. Among them were youth from the Bolivian Amazon, where dams being proposed would displace more than 5,000 Indigenous people and flood a portion of biodiverse Madidi national park.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work in these rivers is allowing [people] to jump in a time machine and go to the future to see what could happen \u2013 what their basins would look like if the dams were built,\u201d Boyles said. \u201cWe have all the information and we know all the answers here. There are actually solutions that are obtainable.\u201d<\/p>\n