Paid off....

First salmon in over 100 years seen in Klamath Basin after California dam removal

By Sam Mauhay-Moore

Biologists spotted a Chinook salmon in a tributary of Oregon’s Klamath River this week, the first time one had been seen in the Klamath Basin in over a century. The fish’s return marks the success of the historic dam removal project that finished removing four dams along the river in August. 

Fish biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife saw the fish in a tributary of the Klamath River on Wednesday, the organization announced Thursday. The salmon was seen above where the J.C. Boyle Dam stood in Oregon, one of four now-destroyed dams, the other three in California, that once blocked the salmon from completing their annual migration between the Klamath Basin and the Pacific Ocean. 

The dam removal effort was the result of decades of advocacy spearheaded by the Yurok and Karuk tribes, whose people have deep ancestral and economic ties to the river’s Chinook salmon. 

“The return of our relatives the c’iyaal’s is overwhelming for our tribe. This is what our members worked for and believed in for so many decades,” Klamath Tribes Secretary Roberta Frost said in ODFW’s press release. “I want to honor that work and thank them for their persistence in the face of what felt like an unmovable obstacle. The salmon are just like our tribal people, and they know where home is and returned as soon as they were able.”

In 2002, a lack of river flows along the Klamath River created water quality so poor that thousands of salmon died off in a massive fish kill. The event sparked the efforts of Klamath tribes and other local organizations to eventually have the dams removed, a feat that was finally completed in August. 

The salmon that was spotted on Wednesday “likely traveled about 230 miles from the Pacific,” the ODFW said.