"The Salmon Are Everywhere" In OR/CA's Klamath River 1 Yr After Dam Removals, Even In Upstream Tributaries [View all]

The naysayers said for many years that it couldn't be done — that salmon wouldn’t return to their original habitat in the Upper Klamath Basin once the four Pacific Corp dams on the Klamath River were removed. Well, the naysayers have been proven wrong again. 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,” according to a CDFW press release.

“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, in a statement. “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 in preparation for the Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings that craft the ocean and river salmon seasons on the West Coast, initial reports indicate “a stronger fall-run Chinook salmon return than last year with widespread dispersal of the fish,” the CDFW wrote.

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“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.

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