Restoring the Klamath River

Where I’m from, people say, “When the salmon die, we die as people.” My name is Donald Moore and I am Yurok, Hupa, Karuk and Tolowa. I call northwestern California my home, as do all of the tribes listed above. I grew up along the Klamath River. Both sides of my family come from villages on the Klamath River, and the Klamath River is in my blood. I’ve fished on the Klamath ever since I was able to walk, and I still do until this day.

From what I was told, fishing on the Klamath River today differs greatly from when my parents fished in their day. When I was little, I remember waking up to 50 salmon in the net (gillnet, traditional way to fish). That was way more being caught than today. Salmon is the primary resource for Indigenous people who live along the Klamath, so it is sad to see such a decline. Salmon aren’t the only resource that depend on the health of the river. There are other resources that depend on the river health such as green sturgeon, lamprey eels, tanoak acorns and steelhead. I miss being able to catch enough salmon in the fall to stock my grandma’s freezer for the winter, I miss being able to swim in the Klamath River without having to worry about green-blue algae, and I miss seeing a healthy river.

The Cause of the Unhealthy River: The Dams

The reason I’m telling you about the importance of the health of the Klamath River is because it is constantly declining and threatened. The biggest threat to the river is the four hydroelectric dams on the northern part of the river and the diversion that irrigate big agriculture. Before these dams were constructed in the early 1900s, the Klamath River was the third-largest salmon producer on the West Coast. All four dams are operated by PacifiCorp which is owned by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett.

These dams block close to 400 miles of potential spawning habitat for salmon. The original purpose of these dams was to provide water to the emerging agriculture and to create energy for the increasing population in the area. The thing is that these dams don’t produce nearly enough energy that it could for how big the dams are and only make up 2% of PacifiCorp’s energy production. These dams are the reason why there is blue-green algae in the river during the summertime and are why the salmon runs are getting smaller and returning later.

Water Is Life

Water is becoming one of the scarcest resources not only in the United States but in the world. A word that has become popular the past 20 years is “drought” and there is no doubt we are going to hear it more and more as time passes on, especially in these Western states. Even though it already is an issue, I think that we will see a lot more water wars in the coming years. It does seem that the concept of dismantling dams is something that has gained popularity recently, but there are still environmental disasters that occur globally due to dams.

The Klamath River Fish Kill

One particular environmental disaster happened in 2002 on the Klamath River, it was called the “Fish Kill.” In 2001, California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho all suffered severe droughts, where they declared state of emergencies due to drought. The Klamath Basin was hit especially hard as it stretches from California and Oregon dry climates. For the first time in 94 years, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation severely curtailed the amount of watering going to Klamath farms, arguing that tribes and salmon took precedence over agricultural interests. During this time, Southern Oregon farmers were the ones protesting. Canals were created to allow more water to flow to their farms, as they created man made diversions to irrigate their farms. Signs were posted in southern Oregon reading: “Federally Created Disaster Area” or “No Water, No Barley, No Beer.” The Bureau of Reclamation eventually diverted more water to farmers in the summer of 2002 which was the main reason for the fish kill. A former Klamath Riverkeeper, Konrad Fisher states, “If anyone is to blame it's government water managers—not water users,” and “People built a livelihood around a certain allocation that is not sustainable.” (Danovich 2008). Ich and columnaris is what the fish were infected with which was the official result of their death. Weeks prior to the fish kill, water temperatures reached up to 74 degrees. The previous 4 years water temperatures were averaging 71 degrees during the summer and that is when ich became present and deadly. Scientists, biologists, non-profits, and local tribes months prior warned the government and PacifiCorp that if water wasn’t to be let out into the river an environmental disaster would occur. About 34,000 salmon (Chinook and Coho) were floating above water days after September 18, along with 15,000 other fish such as sucker, cutthroat trout, green sturgeon and shad. This not only affected that year’s fish run, but many years after that as well. This disaster didn’t hurt no one, besides people who depend on salmon which were the Indigenous people along the river.

Efforts Made to UnDam the Klamath

That single event sparked the conversation of removing the four PacifiCorp dams. In 2010, the agreement was made between tribes, KRRC (Klamath River Renewal Corporation) and PacifiCorp to plan to remove the dams. For the next 10 years, talks continued to complete this project. A major component that aided the removal were the constant “Undam the Klam” protests that have been happening the past 20 years.

I have protested at a few protests at the California state capitol in Sacramento and they are protests that carry a lot of energy. Many of the leaders of these protests such as Annelia Hillman and Dana Colegrove are people who would give their lives fighting for the Klamath River. They created a huge following of not only locals, but people of all backgrounds from all over the country. These protests are nonviolent, but involve a lot of interaction with law authorities that could result in arrests. The head Indigenous group that led the dam deconstruction protests was the Yurok people. These efforts were performed not only locally, but internationally was well. In 2004, 26 protesters made up of environmentalists, academic organizations and tribal members traveled to Scotland to lobby Scottish Power which is a parent company to PacifiCorp. Other protests during the following years occurred at locations such as Portland, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Salem.

The tactic that these protests used was to confront the companies controlling the dams whether it was individuals or parent companies of PacifiCorp. Frequently there would be meetings held by shareholders and government officials to discuss contract renewals or water diversions. Leaders of this movement would rally their followers and protest at the exact locations of these meetings. These protests definitely can be scary as you are literally putting yourself against the law and could indeed end up in jail, but the purpose of this movement is worth the sacrifice. Today, the ongoing battle of dam removal is still occurring even though the agreement has already been reached. The tribes, California Governor Newsom, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, CEO of KRRC Mark Bransom are all on board to deconstruct the dams, but PacifiCorp is trying to pull out even though they already agreed to transfer the license. This project is expected to cost $450 million with PacifiCorp paying for a majority of it and would be the world’s largest dam removal project in history.

This Is My Home, Heart and Life

The Klamath River is very important to not only me, but to all the people who call the Klamath River home. These dams need to come down, as they aren’t producing much energy and are causing a drastic amount of environmental damage. There is no reason that the fish wouldn’t benefit from the dam removal. The Elwha River in Washington had two dams removed in 2012 and there is data being shown that salmon are benefitting from the removal, so I believe the Klamath salmon will also benefit. It would be nice to catch salmon for my family in abundance again. I miss swimming in the river, I miss catching a lot of fish and I miss seeing the river somewhat healthy. It’s time to UNDAM THE KLAMATH. 

References

American Rivers. November 24, 2020 “Klamath River.” American Rivers.     https://www.americanrivers.org/river/klamath-river/ 

Belchik, Michael, Dave, Hillemeier, Pierce, Ronnie M. February 2004. “The Klamath River Fish Kill of 2002; Analysis of Contributing Factors.” Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program.  https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/exhibits/docs/PCFFA&IGFR/part2/pcffa_155.pdf 

Contreras, Rebecca. June 4, 2011. “Native Americans and Environmentalists Campaign to Remove Klamath Basin Dam, 2004-2010.” Global Nonviolent Action Database, June 4, 2011.  https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/native-americans-and-environmentalists-campaign-remove-klamath-basin-dam-2004-2010 

Danovich, Tove. September 11, 2008. “In California, Native American Tribes Gained Fishing Rights. Are There Fish?” The Counter. https://thecounter.org/yurok-tribe-klamath-river-salmon-fish-wars/ 

KCET. October 26, 2016 “‘We're All Gonna Die Right Here': The Klamath Salmon Wars.” KCET.  https://www.kcet.org/shows/tending-the-wild/were-all-gonna-die-right-here-talking-about-the-klamath-salmon-wars 

Lohan, Tara. October 1, 2018. “The Elwha’s Living Laboratory: Lessons From the World’s Largest Dam-removal Project.” The Revelator.  https://therevelator.org/elwha-dam-removal/ 

Native American Netroots. April 24, 2012. “The Klamath River Salmon War.” Native American Netroots.  http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1331#:~:text=The%20Salmon%20War%3A,in%20the%20Klamath%20River%20estuary.&text=Federal%20agents%20began%20to%20assert,and%20confiscated%20their%20salmon%20catch .

Plaven, George. August 13, 2019. “Cost, Timeline for Removing Klamath River Dams Updated.” Capital Press, August 13, 2019. https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/water/cost-timeline-for-removing-klamath-river-dams-updated/article_1601e596-bd46-11e9-a7f8-ab87f07d9e06.html 

Water Education Foundation.“Klamath River Basin Chronology.” Water Education Foundation, Accessed on April 9, 2021.  https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/klamath-river-basin-chronology 

Pictures

 "File:Klamath Basin map.png"  by  Shannon1  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 

 "Klamath Wild and Scenic River, Oregon"  by  mypubliclands  is licensed under  CC BY 2.0 

 "Klamath Banner - Shareholder's Meeting"  by  International Rivers  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

 "Protesters March to Steps of California State Capital"  by  International Rivers  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

All other pictures were taken by either myself, my father or stepfather and permission has been given to use these photos

Video

https://youtu.be/Isd4iZcfSOc