As California dam removal hits final stage, river flows freely for first time in a century
“We had a really incredible moment to share with tribes as we watched the final cofferdams be broken,” Ren Brownell, KRRC’s public information officer, told SFGATE. “So we've officially returned the river to its historic channel at all the dam sites. But the work continues.”
The fight to
remove dams along the Klamath began over two decades ago, when poor water quality and river flows caused tens of thousands of the river’s fish, mostly Chinook salmon, to die in a
massive fish kill in 2002. For thousands of years, Chinook salmon have been a fundamental source of physical, spiritual and economic sustenance to tribal communities throughout the Klamath Basin.
After the fish kill, tribes like the Yurok and Karuk began a fierce advocacy campaign that insisted that removing the dams is a necessary step toward reviving the original ecosystems, migratory routes and spawning grounds of the salmon. A plan to begin the dam removal process was approved by federal regulators in 2022.
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