#klamathriver — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #klamathriver, aggregated by home.social.
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4 Dams Set for Removal in #Maine Will Open Hundreds of Miles of #River for #Salmon, #Herring and #Sturgeon
By Andy Corbley, Oct 15, 2025
"In Maine, ownership of 4 large dams has been transferred to #TheNatureConservancy in a sale it hopes will return the river they operate on into prime habitat for salmon for the first time in a century.
"Operated by #BrookfieldRenewables, the dams along the lower #KennebecRiver prevent ocean going, freshwater fish like salmon from accessing #AncestralSpawningGrounds upriver.
"On September 15th, 2025, The Nature Conservancy (#TNC) and #Brookfield signed a purchase and sale agreement for the four dams totaling $138 million.
"The Kennebec River is fed by #SandyRiver in the heart of Maine before running down to the #GulfOfMaine past the towns of #SkowheganME and #WatervilleME. The Weston, Shawmut, #HydroKennebec, and Lockwood dams are located in intervals along this stretch, called the #LowerKennebec.
"The federal regulatory process for decommissioning a dam, as seen in the recent parallel in #California, where four dams were removed to make way for salmon, needed more than 5 years from start to finish. As a result, TNC will look to gather another $30 million in funding to create a nonprofit that will manage and oversee the decommissioning process, during which the dams could continue to generate power for 5 to 10 years.
"That would include working with Sappi North America, whose Somerset Mill, located between the town of Skowhegan and the #ShawmutDam, to find a solution to the company’s long-term water needs, which are currently met by this dam.
"Their twin goals in the decommissioning project are to return free-flowing conditions to the lower Kennebec River to support regionally-#endangered #NorthAtlanticSalmon, while doing so in collaboration with existing stakeholders in the dams’ activities, Sappi included.
" 'TNC and its partners are 100% committed to developing a solution with Sappi that fully addresses the Somerset Mill’s long-term water system needs,' the organization wrote in a statement. 'We understand the vital role of the Somerset Mill for the forest products industry and the state’s economy.'
"#AtlanticSalmon are considered near-threatened worldwide, but certain stocks in the North Atlantic have almost completely disappeared. Access to Sandy River via the lower Kennebec would open up hundreds of miles of prime habitat for spawning and coming of age.
"Brookfield maintains dams higher up the river, but these areas are considered to be of poor habitat quality. Those dams also happen to produce substantially more electricity than the dams along the lower stretch of the river—those set to be removed.
"The Maine Monitor reports that fishing advocacy groups have argued for the dam’s removal for 'decades.' #RiverHerring [#Alewives], the federally-protected #AtlanticSturgeon, and #AmericanEel all rely on Maine’s freshwater rivers to either spawn or feed before swimming out to sea.
"The current predicament finds around one-twelfth of the historic spawning population of Atlantic salmon returning to the Kennebec via the gulf, where they’re captured at #LockwoodDam and actually trucked up the roads past the next three dams to spawn. During the reverse journey many do not survive the journey to the gulf past the industrial infrastructure.
"The removal of the #KlamathRiver dams this time last year produced incredible results immediately, with fish finding their way back upstream far past the farthest dam to spawn within a single season, proving that ancestral instincts can remain intact despite generations of fish not being able to act on them.
"But examples also lie closer to home, with dams removed years past along another Maine river, the #PenobscotRiver, resulting in long-term economic and environmental improvements."
#SolarPunkSunday #DamRemoval #Maine #EndangeredSpecies #WaterIsLife
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#GatherTheFilm - "Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst #NativeAmericans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through #FoodSovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.
"Gather follows #NephiCraig, a chef from the #WhiteMountainApacheNation (#Arizona), opening an #IndigenousCafé as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the #CheyenneRiverSiouxNation (#SouthDakota), conducting landmark studies on #bison; and the #AncestralGuard, a group of #EnvironmentalActivists from the #YurokNation (Northern #California), trying to save the #KlamathRiver.
Gather is coming to Netflix in the US on November 1, 2021! Gather is now available to stream on iTunes (US/UK/Canada), Amazon (US/UK) and Vimeo-on-Demand (rest of the world)."
FMI (includes preview):
https://gather.film/#AnimalProducts #SolarPunkSunday
#TraditionalFoods #Bison #Salmon #CulturalSurvival #EnvironmentalActivism #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #SiouxNation #ApacheNation -
Farmworkers Heal Climate-Scarred Land With #NativeSeeds
At #California’s #HedgerowFarms, specialists produce seeds to #revegetate burned areas, reestablish #wetlands, and transform drought-prone #farmland
By Caleb Hampton
July 7, 2025
"Quiroz and Gómez are seed-cleaning specialists and field workers at Hedgerow Farms, a native seed farm near the #CentralValley town of #WintersCA. Hedgerow’s collectors gather seeds from native plants in the wild, and field workers grow them out at the 300-acre farm to produce more seeds. This spring, neat rows of #mugwort, #PurpleNeedlegrass, and #CaliforniaPoppies sprouted in the midst of neighboring almond orchards, tomatoes, and alfalfa.
"Government agencies, tribes, and other land managers use the seeds to revegetate #FireRavagedAreas, transform #AbandonedFarmland, reestablish wetlands, and repair other damaged or altered lands, creating environments that support local #ecosystems and #biodiversity.
" 'We’re doing something for the planet,' Quiroz said in Spanish.
"Recreational areas have benefited too: Hedgerow Farms’ #SilverbushLupine grows in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and its #NativeGrasses can be found in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area outside Sacramento. The farm also supplies native seeds to seed packet retailers, helping sow #DroughtResistant plants and establish #pollinator habitat in #urban environments.
"Some projects, such as the ongoing restoration of the #KlamathRiverBasin in Oregon and California, involve billions of seeds — from various suppliers, including Hedgerow — spread across thousands of acres. 'Native vegetation is the foundation of a healthy #ecosystem,' the #YurokTribe said in a social media post showing #wildflowers blooming this spring in the scar of a former reservoir.
"After four dams were removed from the #KlamathRiver, the tribe began #revegetating the riverbanks last year, planting species such as #milkweed — a key food source for #MonarchButterflies — that once flourished in the watershed."
Read more:
https://civileats.com/2025/07/07/farmworkers-heal-climate-scarred-land-with-native-seeds/#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #RegenerativeAgriculture #Restoration #GardeningForPollinators #RestorativeAgriculture
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New USGS Dataset Uncovers The Santiam River’s Underwater Topography To Aid In Fish Habitat And Water Flow Management
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https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/new-usgs-dataset-uncovers-santiam-rivers-underwater-topography-aid-fish <-- shared article
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https://apps.nationalmap.gov/lidar-explorer/#/ <-- USGS 3DEP LiDAR Explorer (open data)
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #remotesensing #LiDAR #topobathymetry #topobathy #example #usecase #wildfires #rivermanagement #climatechange #waterresources #SantiamRiver #Oregon #KlamathRiver #PotomacRiver #ColoradoRiver #USGS #USACE #3DEP #opendata #topography #elevation #3DTNM #water #hydrology #hydrospatial #pilotproject #prototype #infrastructure #navigation #engineering #riverbed #sediment #sedimentation #habitat #river #waterbody #flowmanagement #dams #salmon #steelhead #fish #WillametteValley #flood #flooding #risk #hazard #model #modeling #FIM #watersupply #agriculture
@USGS @USACE -
'Anything that can be built can be taken down': The largest dam removal in US history is complete – what happens next?
The #KlamathRiver is free of four huge dams for the first time in generations. But for the #Yurok tribe, the river's restoration is only just beginning – starting with 18 billion seeds.
by Lucy Sheriff, September 3, 2024
"This is decades and decades in the making," says Thompson. 'We were told it was never going to happen. That it was foolish to even ask for one removal. We were asking for four.'
"The #KlamathBasin covers more than 12,000 square miles (31,000 sq km) in southern Oregon and northern California, and was home to the JC Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate dams, all owned by #PacifiCorp, an electric utilities company. The Klamath was once the third-largest salmon producing river on the US's West Coast before the construction of the dams blocked fish from accessing almost 400 miles (640km) of critical river habitat for almost 100 years.
"Fall #ChinookSalmon numbers plummeted by more than 90% and spring chinook by 98%. #SteelheadTrout, #CohoSalmon and #PacificLamprey numbers also saw drastic declines, and the Klamath tribes in the upper basin have been without their salmon fishery for a century, since the completion of #Copco 1 in 1922. The situation became so bad that Yurok tribe – who are known as the salmon people – began importing Alaskan salmon for their annual salmon festival, traditionally held to celebrate the first return of fall chinook salmon to the Klamath River.
"The dams also had a severe impact on #WaterTemperature and quality – growth of #ToxicAlgae behind two of the dams resulted in health warnings against water contact.
"'It was painful,' says Willard Carlson, a Yurok elder who is known as a #RiverWarrior and was part of the inter-generational campaign. 'All those years seeing our river damaged like that. I remember as a kid we'd have other people from nearby tribes making fun of our river. 'Oh, you're Yurok, your river is dirty.' For us, the #dams were a monument to the [#coloniser] people who conquered us."
[...]
"Restoring the land
But something that does need "a helping hand is the restoration of 2,200 acres (890ha) of land that is above ground for the first time in a century following the emptying of four reservoirs.
"'Removing the dams is one thing, restoring the land is quite another,' says Thompson, a civil engineer and part of the crew working on the restoration project – which is being managed by Resource Environmental Solutions, an ecological restoration company."
#KarukTribe #YurokTribe #KlamathRiverRenewal #RestoreNature #Decolonize #WaterIsLife #NativeAmericans
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The largest dam removal project in the US is completed a major win for #Indigenous tribes
The #KlamathRiver dams removal project was a significant win for tribal nations on the #Oregon-#California border who for decades have fought to restore the river back to its natural state.
By Rachel Ramirez, CNN
Published Sep 2, 2024"The largest dam removal project in US history is finally complete, after crews last week demolished the last of the four dams on the Klamath River. It’s a significant win for tribal nations on the #OregonCalifornia border who for decades have fought to restore the river back to its natural state.
"The removal of the four hydroelectric dams — #IronGateDam, #CopcoDams 1 and 2, and #JCBoyleDam — allows the region’s iconic #salmon population to swim freely along the Klamath River and its tributaries, which the species have not been able to do for over a century since the dams were built.
"Mark Bransom, chief executive officer of the #KlamathRiverRenewal Corporation, the nonprofit group created to oversee the project, said it was a 'celebratory moment,' as his staff members, conservationists, government officials and tribal members gathered and cheered on the bank of the river near where the largest of the dams, Iron Gate, once stood.
"Federal regulators approved the plan to raze the dams in 2022. The next year, the smallest of the four dams, Copco No. 2, was removed. Crews then began releasing water from the dams’ reservoirs at the beginning of this year, which was necessary before dismantling the last remaining dams.
"The river system has been steeped in controversy: During the recent historic #WesternDrought that dried up the #KlamathBasin, an intense #WaterWar pitted local farmers against #Indigenous tribes, government agencies and conservationists.
"But anxiety turned to joy for the #IndigenousPeople who have lived for centuries among the Klamath and its tributaries.
"'We all came together in the moment with a feeling that ranged from pure joy to anticipation to excitement,' Bransom told CNN. 'For the first time in over 100 years, the river is now back in its historical channel, and I think that was an extraordinarily profound moment for people to actually witness that — the reconnecting of a river.'
"The #Yurok Tribe in Northern California are known as the '#SalmonPeople.' To them, the salmon are sacred species that are central to their culture, diet and ceremonies. As the story goes, the spirit that created the salmon also created humans and without the fish, they would cease to exist."
#RestoreNature #ProtectTheSacred #WaterIsLife #SolarPunkSunday