#klamathriver — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #klamathriver, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/944493/ America the Undammed – The New York Times #AmericanRivers #Bedford(Pa) #ConservationOfResources #demolition #Environment #HydroelectricPower #KlamathRiver #LeveesAndDams #Rivers #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom #UnitedStates
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‘Salmon Everywhere’ One Year After Klamath Dam Removal
“There are salmon everywhere on the landscape right now”
by The Source Staff November 25, 2025
"A little more than a year after the historic removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) scientists are seeing salmon reoccupying just about every corner of their historic habitat.
" 'The speed at which salmon are repopulating every nook and cranny of suitable habitat upstream of the dams in the Klamath Basin is both remarkable and thrilling,' said Michael Harris, Environmental Program Manager of CDFW’s Klamath Watershed Program. 'There are salmon everywhere on the landscape right now, and it’s invigorating our work.'
"While adult returns of salmon are ongoing and final estimates won’t be available until January, initial reports indicate a stronger fall-run Chinook salmon return than last year with widespread dispersal of the fish. Recent signs of salmon recovery throughout the Klamath Basin include:
- The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Klamath Tribes report seeing widespread salmon spawning within the Oregon portion of the Klamath River, including within multiple tributaries upstream of Klamath Lake where salmon haven’t been seen in more than century.
- Fish-counting stations on newly accessible tributaries within the former reservoir footprints in California have recorded 208 adult Chinook salmon in Jenny Creek and 260 adult Chinook salmon in Shovel Creek to date. While multiple state and federal agencies,Tribes and non-governmental organizations are monitoring salmon throughout the Klamath Basin, CDFW is particularly focused on monitoring these newly accessible tributaries. CDFW field crews are surveying regularly for salmon nests and adult fish.
- CDFW snorkel crews this summer documented juvenile salmon and/or steelhead occupying nearly all of the newly accessible tributaries in the reservoir footprints. In Fall Creek, one of the newly accessible tributaries upstream of the former Iron Gate Dam location, approximately 65,000 wild juvenile Chinook salmon were counted.
- CDFW’s Fall Creek Fish Hatchery, a $35 million state-of-the-art facility in its second year of operation, began spawning returning fall-run Chinook salmon in mid-October. To date, the hatchery has spawned 416 female fish and collected roughly 1.27 million eggs – four times the number of salmon spawned this time last year. More than 1,200 Chinook salmon have entered the hatchery so far.
- Temperature monitoring in 2024 and 2025 along the mainstem Klamath River following the removal of the four dams reveals the return of natural, seasonal fluctuations of water temperatures benefiting salmon. Post-dam removal water temperatures are cooling sooner in the fall when adult fall-run Chinook salmon are returning and need that cool water most followed by warming temperatures in the spring when juvenile salmon are rearing and out-migrating to the ocean.
- Scientists are seeing a lower prevalence of Ceratonova shasta – or C. shasta – a parasite that plagued juvenile salmon prior to dam removal. Harmful algal blooms in the Klamath River are smaller now and less frequent since dam removal.
A primary goal of Klamath River dam removal was the reestablishment of viable, wild, self-sustaining populations of salmon and other anadromous fish species for conservation, for their ecological benefits, and to enhance Tribal, commercial and recreational fisheries."
#KlamathRiver #KarukNation #KlamathDamRemoval #KlamathRiverRestoration #Salmon #YurokNation #KlamathRiverTribes #DamRemoval #KlamathRiverBasin #Rewilding #Restoration #Nature #SolarPunkSunday
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From June, 2025... #California’s #YurokTribe gets back ancestral lands that were taken over 120 years ago
By Associated Press
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2025 at 9:34 AM PDTON THE KLAMATH RIVER, Calif. (AP) — "As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in #BlueCreek amid northwestern California redwoods.
"Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by #TimberCompanies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands.
"When McCovey started working as a fisheries technician, the company would let him go there to do his job.
" 'Snorkeling Blue Creek … I felt the significance of that place to myself and to our people, and I knew then that we had to do whatever we could to try and get that back,' McCovey said.
"After a 23-year effort and $56 million, that became reality.
"Roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling the tribe’s land holdings, according to a deal announced Thursday. Completion of the land-back conservation deal along the lower #KlamathRiver — a partnership with #WesternRiversConservancy and other #EnvironmentalGroups — is being called the largest in California history.
"The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the #CaliforniaGoldRush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
" 'To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible,' said McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department."
Read more / listen:
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/06/05/californias-yurok-tribe-gets-back-ancestral-lands-that-were-taken-over-120-years-ago/#NativeAmericans #LandBack #YurokNation #IndigenousNews #KlamathRiver #KlamathRiverRestoration #TraditionalFoods #WaterIsLife #IndigenousFoodways #Genocide #SettlerColonialism #AncestralLands
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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 -
@andrewabernathy OPB film "First Descent" has the authentic voices of young people. They learned to paddle whitewater! #DamRemoval #KlamathRiver
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For the first time in more than a century(!!), salmon are returning to the Klamath River's headwaters following the completion of a major dam removal project.
A good reminder that nature can rebound if we just let it 🐟https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/dam-removal-klamath-salmon-21110145.php
#salmon #fish #EndangeredSpecies #klamath #klamathriver #chinook #chinooksalmon
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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 -
Dam removal on the Klamath River has helped salmon in Oregon and California much sooner than expected.
' Salmon can now swim more than 400 miles of the river, and biologists believe the salmon found in Oregon likely swam around 230 miles from the Pacific Ocean to get there. Reed and other members of the Karuk tribe have been able to return to their ancestral fishing traditions and have been catching fall-run salmon. '
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#Salmon swim freely in #KlamathRiver for first time in more than 100 years https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/07/salmon-klamath-river-california-oregon
"For the first time in more than a century, salmon are swimming freely along the #Klamath River and its tributaries, just days after the largest #DamRemoval project in US history was completed... The dam removal project was completed on 2 October, marking a major victory for local #tribes that fought for decades to free hundreds of miles of the Klamath."
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'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."
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"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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“Over the last few weeks, crews have nearly finished removing the last of the four dams that once held back the #KlamathRiver near the #California-#Oregon border.”
“The dismantling of four hydroelectric dams, which began in June 2023 and has involved hundreds of workers, is the largest dam removal effort in U.S. history.”
"enabling chinook and coho #salmon to swim upstream and spawn along 400 miles of the Klamath and its tributaries.”
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-08-28/klamath-river-dam-removal-completed
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What a moment!
"Workers breached the final dams on a key section of the #KlamathRiver on Wednesday, clearing the way for salmon to swim freely through a major watershed near the #California-#Oregon border for the first time in more than a century as the largest #damremoval project in U.S. history nears completion." -
Depressing how much work needs to be done to undo all the things that should never have been done in the first place, but it is nice to see some progress on #DamRemoval, #Rewilding, and #HabitatRestoration
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/08/03/klamath-river-dams-removal-nears-completion/