The Klamath River flows 253 miles
from Southern Oregon to the California coast, draining a basin of
more than 15,000 square miles. The watershed and its fisheries
have been the subject of negotiation since the 1860s negotiations
that have intensified and continue to this day.
The river has provided irrigation to ag lands since the late 19th
century. Agricultural development drained vast areas of
wetlands on the periphery of Upper Klamath Lake and in
upstream watersheds. Some of this drained acreage has been
restored and is now managed primarily for wetland benefits.
The watershed is divided geographically into two basins, upper
and lower, divided by Iron Gate Dam, the lower most dam on the
river. The Upper Basin is dry, with annual precipitation of about
13 inches at the river’s origin near Klamath Falls, Ore.
Downstream, the climate grows wetter.
Native Americans have a significant presence in the Klamath
Basin. Four major tribes have been influential in water
negotiations: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk Tribe, the Hoopa
Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe.
The term “full allocation” is central to discussions about
water rights for farmers on and off the Klamath Reclamation
Project, but its meaning is often misunderstood. For the more
than 220,000 acres of farmland in the Klamath Reclamation
Project, a “full allocation” of water is not a single number
but a range of measurements tied to contracts, legal
adjudications, and the practical needs of crops. As poor
federal policy continues to strain the region’s water
resources, clarity on this term is essential for informed,
on-farm decision-making. According to some contracts, such as
the 1905 contract entered into by the Klamath Irrigation
District, and for Tule Lake Irrigation District, which cover
more than 100,000 acres within their borders, a “full
allocation” is defined as water sufficient for beneficial use
without waste. That number is unknowable …but able to be
roughly estimated as exceeding 300,000 acre-feet for these two
districts in an average year. –Written by Gene Souza, the executive director of the
Klamath Irrigation District.
Assemblymember Chris Rogers has introduced his bill, Assembly
Bill 263, which aims to protect salmon populations in the
Klamath River watershed while also providing local agricultural
operations with certainty regarding river flows. This was
introduced in partnership with the Karuk and Yurok Tribes, as
well as the California Coastkeeper Alliance. … Bill 263 would
allow specified emergency regulations adopted by the board for
the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds to remain in effect
until permanent rules establishing and implementing long-term
instream flow requirements for these watersheds are enacted.
According to Assemblyman Rogers, this measure is crucial for
protecting salmon populations in the Klamath River watershed
while providing certainty regarding river flows.
… President Ryan Walker of the Siskiyou County Farm
Bureau says farmers have concerns about the regulations and how
it could affect their profits.
Water managers in the Klamath Basin say, for the first time
since 2019, there will be enough water to meet everyone’s
demands this year. An unusually wet winter has been a relief
after a tough drought period. The Bureau of Reclamation
released its annual operations plan on Monday,
allocating 330,000 acre-feet of water to farmers from Upper
Klamath Lake. Water is prioritized first to protect endangered
species in the lake and river. Next, water is allocated to
farmers, and finally, it can go to wildlife refuges.
… The agency released a new plan last year that outlines
water management for the Klamath Basin over the next five
years. The removal of the dams on the Klamath River, along with
new data, has prompted the need for the plan, according to
the Bureau.
(From news release:) Anticipated water demands for Klamath
Project water contractors are likely to be met as the Klamath
Basin hydrology pivots from consecutive years of drought.
Described in the 2025
Klamath Project Annual Operations Plan, today’s
initial water supply allocations from the Bureau of Reclamation
are based on modeled estimates of water available for
irrigation delivery and incorporate current reservoir storage,
precipitation, and snowpack, as well as projected inflow
forecasts. … The 2025 Plan is used as a planning and
information tool by water users and details the volume of water
available for Project irrigated agriculture as well as water
reserved to meet Endangered Species Act requirements in the
Klamath River and Upper Klamath Basin.
Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials
today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season
for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the
decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon
fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of
time this spring. This will be the first year that any
sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022. … The
decline of California’s salmon follows decades of deteriorating
conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year,
including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers.
For the seventh time in less than a decade, Oregon’s commercial
fishermen, governor and congressional delegation are asking for
federal aid to soften the blow of climate change on the state’s
ocean salmon fisheries. … Oregon’s commercial ocean
salmon fishermen caught about 18,000 Chinook between March and
October of 2024 — about 40% of the 10-year average. From 2011
to 2015, the average catch was closer to 75,000 per year,
according to John North, an assistant fish division
administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
More than 50% of Chinook were caught in Newport in 2024, while
southern Oregon fisheries struggled with low returns due to
drought and warming waters in the Sacramento and
Klamath rivers.
The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good
spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off
federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized
programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding
sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty,
and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin
ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments,
nonprofits and Native tribes. In a region where conflict over
water has simmered for the last quarter-century, trust was
already fragile. Now it is smashed to smithereens. Through the
21st century the Klamath has lurched from crisis to crisis,
usually related to the extended drought that has hovered over
the basin most of that time. What distinguishes the current
debacle is that it has no relation to natural phenomena. It’s
entirely man-made — and entirely unnecessary. –Written by Jacques Leslie, author of “Deep Water: The
Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the
Environment.”
After decades of efforts to remove dams on the Klamath River
near the California-Oregon border, the project was completed
last year. It was the largest dam removal project in U.S.
history and, as the Associated Press reported, the removal was
a victory for tribes in the region who had fought to free the
river from four hydroelectric dams which, advocates said, had
contributed to environmental damage, including disrupting the
life cycle of salmon in the region. … A special episode
of OPB’s “Oregon Field Guide” series, titled “Klamath: After
the Dams,” will explore issues that exist in the wake of the
dam removal, including challenges to repair salmon habitat,
dealing with water shortages, and other conflicts.
On “The Evergreen,” we’ve talked about the history behind the
largest dam removal project in the United States: the long
fight over water in the Klamath basin between Tribes and
farmers, the process of getting the dams out, and what dam
removal means to the Tribes along the river. Today, we’re
bringing you up to date. What’s on folks’ minds now that all
the dams are out a year later — and what still needs to be done
to piece this basin together again? Cassandra Profita is an
editor and reporter at OPB. She’s been covering the Klamath Dam
removal for years and joins us to talk about the challenges
that remain to repair salmon habitat.
… A lot of hope was pouring into the river along with those
fish as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the
Klamath Tribes entered the beginning stages of starting a new
run of spring chinook salmon. … The country’s largest dam
removal project took four dams off the Klamath River in
Southern Oregon and Northern California over the past two
years. A free-flowing river has reemerged where
Copco 1 and 2, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle dams used to be. For
Indigenous tribes, including the Klamath, Shasta, Karuk, Hoopa
Valley and Yurok, the project was a huge victory. Painful water
conflicts have dragged on for decades in the Klamath Basin,
with farmers, fish and tribes all suffering. Now four dams are
out, bringing renewed hope for salmon restoration. But on the
Klamath, it’s going to take a lot more to piece the basin
together again.
Last year, Indigenous tribes in California and Oregon realized
a longstanding dream: the removal of four hydroelectric dams on
the Klamath River. It was the largest such environmental
restoration project in U.S. history, opening the way for salmon
to return home to the Klamath and for tribes and other
advocates to begin restoring the ecosystem that once flourished
there. And last week, Grist’s Jake Bittle and Anita
Hofschneider published a five-part, 14,000-word feature delving
into the decades-long history of how it all happened. In their
story, they describe the dam removal as “the result of an
improbable campaign that spanned close to half a century, roped
in thousands of people, and came within an inch of collapse
several times. Interviews with dozens of people on all sides of
the dam removal fight, some of whom have never spoken publicly
about their roles, reveal a collaborative achievement with few
clear parallels in contemporary activism.”
At Tuesday morning’s Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
meeting, the supervisors spent 27 minutes taking public comment
and discussing a request from 5th District Supervisor Ted
Williams to provide a letter of support for state
Assemblymember Chris Rogers’ Assembly Bill 263. AB 263,
sponsored by the Karuk Tribe and supported by California
Coastkeeper Alliance, would extend emergency water flow
regulations to the Scott and Shasta river watersheds. Both
rivers are tributaries of the Klamath River and flow through
Siskiyou County. … (Board Chair John Haschak)
suggested the Board monitor the bill’s progress and potentially
revisit the issue in the future. AB 263 will be heard at
the California State Assembly on April 8 by the Committee on
Water, Parks and Wildlife.
The Klamath Water Users Association announced Elizabeth Nielsen
has accepted a position as executive director of the
organization, effective April 7, 2025. Nielsen currently serves
as deputy county administrator for Siskiyou County, California.
… Nielsen has worked on Klamath Basin watershed issues for
the past 14 years in various capacities, including with the
Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls. In her current
position, her responsibilities include overseeing Siskiyou
County’s natural resources department. In recent years, Nielsen
has been instrumental in the work of the “Tri-Counties,” a
coalition among Klamath County Siskiyou and Modoc counties in
California, that has engaged effectively on water issues
regionally, statewide, and nationally.
… The removal of the four dams on the Klamath, which were
owned by the power utility PacifiCorp, represents the first
real attempt at the kind of river restoration that Indigenous
nations and environmentalists have long demanded. It is the
result of an improbable campaign that spanned close to half a
century, roped in thousands of people, and came within an inch
of collapse several times. Interviews with dozens of people on
all sides of the dam removal fight, some of whom have never
spoken publicly about their roles, reveal a collaborative
achievement with few clear parallels in contemporary
activism.
Klamath County in Oregon and Siskiyou and Modoc counties in
California (Tri-Counties) announced Friday that the Bureau of
Reclamation is anticipating a full allocation from Upper
Klamath Lake to support the Klamath Project. The Klamath
Project would provide water to about 240,000 acres of cropland
in south central Oregon and north central California. A news
release from the Tri-Counties on Friday said the project would
help agricultural communities by providing resources to
irrigators and the greater Klamath Watershed.
The dam removal projects- aimed at sustaining the salmon
population, are underway, with the latest drawdown being three
reservoirs on the Klamath River. The removal process has
already dramatically changed the landscape in Southern Oregon
and far Northern California, along the course of the river. The
lowest of the three remaining dams- Iron Gate, was initially
breached on January 9, followed by the J.C. Boyle reservoir on
January 16. A concrete plug in the tunnel at the base of Copco
1 was blasted away on January 23, with the reservoirs draining
quickly, leaving vast expanses of fissured mud that was the
consistency and color of chocolate cake batter. Shaping its new
course, the Klamath River is winding through the bare
landscape, but the transformation has had some unintended
consequences and saddened some residents.
…Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board took
action to protect the salmon,
unanimously extending the region’s
expired emergency drought measures. Ground and surface
water for farms will be restricted for another year if flows in
the Shasta and Scott rivers dip below minimum thresholds. State
officials say these measures are likely to kick in next
year. Water board chair Joaquin Esquivel said action
is needed because “a fish emergency” remains on the rivers.
“Time isn’t our friend,” he said at a previous meeting in
August. “There is an urgency.” The water board also
is investigating the possibility of permanent requirements to
keep more water in the rivers, after the Karuk Tribe and the
fishing industry petitioned the state for stronger protections.
That decision, however, could take years.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
Headwaters are the source of a
stream or river. They are located at the furthest point from
where the water body empties or merges with
another. Two-thirds of California’s surface water supply
originates in these mountainous and typically forested regions.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
The Klamath River Basin is one of the West’s most important and
contentious watersheds.
The watershed is known for its peculiar geography straddling
California and Oregon. Unlike many western rivers, the
Klamath does not originate in snowcapped mountains but rather on
a volcanic plateau.
A broad patchwork of spring-fed streams and rivers in
south-central Oregon drains into Upper Klamath Lake and down into
Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls. The outflow from Ewauna
marks the beginning of the 263-mile Klamath River.
The Klamath courses south through the steep Cascade Range and
west along the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to a redwood-lined
estuary on the Pacific Ocean just south of Crescent City,
draining a watershed of 10 million acres.
A bounty of resources – water, salmon, timber and minerals – and
a wide range of users turned the remote region into a hotspot for
economic development and multiparty water disputes (See
Klamath River
timeline).
Though the basin has only 115,000 residents, there is seldom
enough water to go around. Droughts are common. The water
scarcity inflames tensions between agricultural,
environmental and tribal interests, namely the basin’s four major
tribes: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk, Hoopa Valley and Yurok.
Klamath water-use conflicts routinely spill into courtrooms,
state legislatures and Congress.
In 2023, a historic removal of four powers dams on the river
began, signaling hope for restoration of the river and its fish
and easing tensions between competing water interests. In
February 2024, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
announced a “historic” agreement between tribes and farmers
in the basin over chronic water shortages. The deal
called for a wide range of river and creek restoration work and
modernization of agricultural water supply infrastructure.
Water Development
Farmers and ranchers have drawn irrigation water from basin
rivers and lakes since the late 1900s. Vast wetlands around
Upper Klamath Lake and upstream were drained to grow crops. Some
wetlands have been restored, primarily for migratory birds.
In 1905, the federal government authorized construction of the
Klamath Project, a network of irrigation canals, storage
reservoirs and hydroelectric dams to grow an agricultural
economy in the mostly dry Upper Basin. The Project managed by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigates about 240,000 acres and
supplies the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake national wildlife
refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Water Management
Since 1992, federal mandates to restore populations of fish
protected by the Endangered Species
Act have led in some dry years to drastic cuts in
water deliveries to Klamath Project irrigators.
Water in Upper Klamath Lake must be kept above certain
levels for the endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers. Lake
levels and Klamath River flows below Iron Gate Dam also must be
regulated for the benefit of threatened coho salmon (See
Klamath Basin
Chinook and Coho Salmon).
Conflict
In 2001, Reclamation all but cut off irrigation water to hundreds
of basin farmers and ranchers, citing a severe drought and legal
obligations to protect imperiled fish. In response, thousands of
farmers, ranchers and residents flocked to downtown Klamath Falls
to form a “bucket brigade” protest, emptying buckets of water
into the closed irrigation canal. The demonstrations stretched
into the summer, with protestors forcing open the irrigation
headgates on multiple occasions. Reclamation later released some
water to help farmers.
In September 2002, a catastrophic
disease outbreak in the lower Klamath River killed tens of
thousands of ocean-going salmon. The Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations sued Reclamation, alleging the Klamath
Project’s irrigation deliveries had violated the Endangered
Species Act. The fishing industry eventually prevailed, and
a federal court ordered an increase to minimum flows in the lower
Klamath.
Compromise
The massive salmon kill and dramatic water shut-off set in motion
a sweeping compromise between the basin’s many competing water
interests: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the
Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The 2010 agreements
included:
Removal of four hydroelectric dams
$92.5 million over 10 years to pay farmers to use less water,
increase reservoir storage and help pay for water conservation
and groundwater management projects.
$47 million over 10 years to buy or lease water rights to
increase flows for salmon recovery.
Dam Removals
Congress never funded the two agreements, allowing the key
provisions to expire. The restoration accord dissolved in 2016.
The hydroelectric pact, however, was revived in an amended
version that did not require federal legislation.
The new deal led to the nation’s largest dam removal project ever
undertaken.
California and Oregon formed a
nonprofit organization called the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation to take control of the four essentially obsolete
power dams – J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate –
and oversee a $450 million dam demolition and river restoration
project.
Taking out the dams will open more than 420 miles of river and
spawning streams that had been blocked for more than a century,
including cold water pools salmon and trout need to survive the
warming climate.
Demolition crews took out the smallest dam in 2023 and the others
were scheduled to come down by the end of 2024.
The images of yellow heavy machinery tearing into the dam’s
spillway gates prompted a cathartic release for many who have
been fighting for decades to open this stretch of the Klamath.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” said Toz Soto,
the Karuk fisheries program manager. “This is actually
happening…It’s kind of like the dog that finally caught the car,
except we’re chasing dam removal.”
On the Klamath River, the Upper Klamath Basin’s aquatic
ecosystems are naturally very productive due to its
phosphorus-rich geology.
However, this high productivity makes the Basin’s lakes
vulnerable to water quality problems.
Nutrient loads in the Upper Klamath Basin are a primary driver of
water quality problems along the length of the Klamath River,
including algal blooms in the Klamath Hydroelectric Project
reservoirs. Municipal and industrial discharges of wastewater in
the Klamath Falls area add to the nutrient load.
The Klamath Basin’s Chinook salmon and coho salmon serve a vital
role in the watershed.
Together, they are key to the region’s water management, habitat
restoration and fishing.
However, years of declining population have led to federally
mandated salmon restoration plans—plans that complicate the
diversion of Klamath water for agriculture and other uses.
This issue of Western Water examines the challenges facing state,
federal and tribal officials and other stakeholders as they work
to manage terminal lakes. It includes background information on
the formation of these lakes, and overviews of the water quality,
habitat and political issues surrounding these distinctive bodies
of water. Much of the information in this article originated at
the September 2004 StateManagement Issues at Terminal Water
Bodies/Closed Basins conference.
The story of the Klamath River is the story of two basins.
In the upper basin, farming has long been the way of life. Even
before passage of the 1902 Reclamation Act, settlers had begun
the arduous process of reclaiming vast tracts of wetlands and
transforming them into rich farmland.
