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 U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution
designed to shield Klamath Project irrigators from adverse
impacts of dam removals and species restoration, as well as
costs from two dams that remain. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore.,
authored HR 7938, which was passed by a voice vote with
two-thirds majority and without objection Dec. 17. “This long
overdue legislation is necessary if the federal government is
to honor critical commitments it has made to farmers and
ranchers,” Bentz said, in his floor statement. … Under the
legislation, federal agencies would not be allowed to pass on
the costs of operating or maintaining Keno and Link River dams,
infrastructure built and formerly operated by PacifiCorp. While
four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River were removed this
year, Keno and Link River dams will remain in place upstream.
Tracey Liskey, Klamath Water Users Association president, said
in a news release that the resolution was an important
achievement and great news for local irrigators.
Over a hundred years ago, the Klamath River was caught up
in the audacious endeavor to tame the West. Engineers built
the Klamath Hydroelectric Project over a 60-year period
starting in 1902, harnessing hydropower for a growing region.
Six dams were built on a 55-mile stretch of river flowing
through the shrubby basalt landscape of Southern Oregon and
Northern California. Within a few short decades, the dams came
to be seen as part of a fixed landscape—inevitable even. But of
course, infrastructure projects and landscapes aren’t fixed.
Rivers change course, bridges collapse, and even mountains
move—acts of God, or nature, or human failing.
I was fortunate to be raised in a traditional Karuk
family—where dipnet fishing, renewal ceremonies, and cultural
fire were practiced in concert with the annual cycles of the
natural world. When I was growing up, my dad would drive an old
rust-colored Chevy home from the dipnet fishery at Ishi Pishi
Falls in Northern California, the truck’s bed full of
glimmering áama, or salmon. We would stay up late
processing fish, hanging strips in the smokehouse, and chasing
away bears. As Káruk Va’áraaras, we are salmon people. We are
river people. We are fix-the-world people. We are taught that
our relationship to the fish is reciprocal and that as long as
there is one Káruk Áraar fishing, the salmon will continue to
be called to make the journey up our river to provide for us.
By Molli Myers, a member of the Karuk Tribe and a
co-founder of the Klamath Justice Coalition and COO of Ridges
to Riffles
… On Aug. 28, 2024, history was made as crews dismantled
the final dam on the Klamath River, restoring over 400 miles of
salmon habitat after more than a century of obstruction. Tribes
like the Karuk, who led a 20-year fight against the dams,
celebrated this milestone. “This day was inevitable because,
without this day, there’s no future for our people,” said Karuk
Tribe member Leaf Hillman. He and his wife, Lisa, were among
the many Indigenous people who spent the last two decades
fighting to remove the four dams responsible for harmful algae
blooms and fish kills downstream. … Hillman. Behind the
dam lies more than 17 million cubic yards of sediment — enough
to fill 1,500 Olympic-sized pools. Since demolition began eight
months ago, the release of this sediment has severely impacted
the Klamath River, reducing oxygen levels, killing aquatic life
and disrupting ecosystems along the riverbanks. The sediment’s
movement highlights the environmental challenges of removing
dams after decades of buildup.
… The tangle-net surveys are part of the comprehensive
monitoring that’s happening since four dams were completely
removed from the Klamath River earlier this year. Agencies,
tribes, conservation organizations, and researchers are eager
to follow fish as they explore the reconnected habitat above
the dams. “The major questions we’re answering are really
foundational,” says Damon Goodman, Mount Shasta-Klamath
regional director at California Trout. “How many fish are
entering their historical habitats? What species, and where do
they go?” Actually answering these questions requires many
hands. On this day alone, Whelan’s crew includes technicians
and biologists from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Karuk Tribe,
and the Bureau of Reclamation. The first site is at the top of
Ward’s Canyon, just below the old Copco 2 powerhouse.
… Earlier this year, at the behest of tribal nations, state
and local governments, the power company PacifiCorp and others,
the Klamath River Renewal Corp. oversaw the removal of four
hydroelectric dams from the mainstem of the Klamath River. The
dams, which either lacked or had inadequate fish ladders,
blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of upstream habitat
… Salmon runs plummeted. Coho were listed as federally
threatened. Scientists had expected salmon to return, but the
appearance of so many so soon — several hundred above the dam
sites by late October — has filled many people, including
seasoned biologists, with wonder and optimism.
… Built between 1908 and 1962 to generate electricity for
nearby communities, these four hydroelectric dams submerged
indigenous lands, blocked salmon passage, and created pockets
of warm water where toxic blue-green algae thrived.
Deconstructing them promises to repair significant social and
environmental damage … This change promises, in the
long-term, to improve water quality and allow salmon to reach
their former upstream spawning grounds. But there are unwelcome
tradeoffs … Since the dams have come down, property values
along the former lakes have declined. The region’s sprawling
farms and ranching families also fought the project because the
dams routed water to their lands. And some environmentalists
question whether salmon can or will return to upriver spawning
grounds. Rafting outfitters anticipate significant financial
losses now that dam releases no longer produce the rapids that
attracted boaters.
… The speed of the salmon’s return has astonished even the
most seasoned biologists. … News of the salmon’s return
prompted a flurry of texts and excited phone calls among fish
advocates. Their return is especially poignant to members of
the Klamath Tribes, whose ancestral lands include the upper
Klamath Basin above the dam sites. With the construction of the
dams, salmon, or c’iyaals, had been absent from the Upper
Basin for over 100 years. Now attention is shifting from the
massive dam-removal project to the equally enormous task ahead:
restoring the Klamath watershed. Biologists will look to the
fish themselves for guidance.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today
announced the award of $17 million in grants for 18 restoration
and protection projects throughout the state, including
projects to benefit disadvantaged communities, salmon and
steelhead in the Klamath-Trinity watershed, wetlands and
meadows and watersheds impacted by cannabis cultivation.
Today’s awards continue the ongoing efforts to support critical
restoration projects with funding made available in late 2022
through the Nature Based Solutions (NBS) Initiative and
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds, funding through CDFW’s Cannabis
Program, as well as funding dedicated to habitat restoration
through Proposition 68.
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.
