Over the past month, salmon have congregated in the clean ponds of the Salmon River as they return to their spawning grounds.
This undammed river, a tributary of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border, is one of the last remaining bastions of a type of salmon species increasingly threatened with extinction: the spring-run Chinook.
The salmon population here has declined rapidly in the last decade. but recently removal of four dams There is new hope among biologists, environmental activists and indigenous leaders on the Klamath that the fish can begin to recover.
Workers use heavy equipment to remove remains of the Copco No. 1 Dam along the Klamath River on August 14.
“There could not be a better time to remove the dam,” said Toz Soto, fisheries program manager for the Karuk Tribe. “We really need to build this population back up before we lose it completely.”
Biologists hope that now that the dams are removed and the Klamath is flowing freely, native fish of all types will benefit, including fall-run and spring-run Chinook as well as coho salmon, steelhead trout and Pacific lamprey Are. The breaching of the dams will allow salmon to swim upstream and spawn more than 400 miles up the Klamath and its tributaries, providing access to cold spring waters that have been inaccessible for more than a century.
Aggressive and influential reporting on climate change, environment, health and science.
Spring-run Chinook were once abundant along the river. They return from the sea in the spring, and unlike other types of salmon, they bring large amounts of fat, which enables them to spend months maturing in fresh water and move upstream into the rocks and rapids of mountain rivers. Makes. They lay eggs between late September and early October.
Juvenile steelhead trout caught during a fish monitoring survey have been released back into Woolley Creek, a tributary of the Salmon River.
Their high fat content traditionally made the fish a tasty and valuable food source for the natives who caught them. But they were largely destroyed when dams were built and access to many of their original habitats was blocked.
Scientists expect that declining populations of spring-run Chinook will make their recovery more difficult and time-consuming than other types of salmon, and that human intervention will be required to restore them to their historic habitats in the upper Klamath River. Will happen.
For now, there are two areas where spring-run Chinook return annually to the Klamath’s lower tributaries: one in the Trinity River, where some spawning takes place at a hatchery, and one in the undammed Salmon River and the creeks that feed it.
One morning in mid-August, Soto stood by the roadside, observing the slow-flowing Salmon River.
“There he is. Meet him?” Soto said. “It’s definitely a springer.”
He pointed to a dark shape in the water flowing where the rocky bottom descended into a deep pool.
The fish, which was more than two feet long, was difficult to identify. Then, for a moment, its silver side gleamed in the sunlight.
Karuna Greenberg stands along the Salmon River, where Chinook salmon have recently returned to spawn.
Karuna Greenberg, the nonprofit’s restoration director, also stood by the river. Salmon River Restoration Council,
Each summer in July, Greenberg helps conduct an annual snorkel survey in which dozens of volunteers swim along the river and count the number of spring-run Chinook salmon, as well as summer steelhead.
From 1990 to 2016, surveys found an average of more than 700 salmon annually, with some years more than doubling. But over the past decade, the numbers have declined. This year, the survey found only 115 salmon – the fourth lowest number ever.
“It’s been pretty frustrating the last several years,” Greenberg said.
California declared the Klamath population of spring-run Chinook endangered in 2022. Greenberg’s group and the Karuk Tribe have also petitioned the federal government to protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act.
The Salmon River, at left, flows into the Klamath River in Northern California.
“Dam removal is probably the No. 1 most important thing that can happen to help spring Chinook,” he said. “So I’m really, really hoping that it’s not too little, too late, and it certainly offers a lot of hope and a lot of possibilities.”
Greenberg stood near a spring-fed creek fed by water from the mountain meadows. He said he’s excited about the broader habitats salmon will now have access to in Klamath, including cold headwater streams that will provide productive spawning areas.
“Now whole watersheds are opened up to them, and it can really help energize the entire population and build up the Klamath River population, not just this tiny, tiny Salmon River population,” he said. Trying to keep up.” ,
In recent years, salmon have suffered declines in rivers throughout Northern California as they face persistent drought caused by climate change, as well as other pressures such as diverting large amounts of water to supply farms and cities. Has been diverted for.
Most years, fishing crews line up in boats along the California coast catching fall chinookMost variety. But due to low population number in the state Commercial and recreational salmon fishing banned For the last two years. Members of the Karuk and Yurok tribes continue to fish for small-scale livelihoods.
State wildlife officials say the removal of dams on the Klamath, along with other efforts, should provide a significant boost to salmon runs in the coming years.
Indigenous leaders and activists have celebrated the demolition of the dams as a major victory came in response to years of protests,
A member of the Karuk Tribe survey team attempts to net juvenile salmon while snorkeling in Woolley Creek.
Utility PacifiCorp agreed to remove the old dams – which were used for power generation, not water storage – after determining it would be less expensive than bringing them up to current environmental standards. The $500 million project budget includes funding from California and surcharges paid by PacifiCorp customers.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Plan Re-establishing wild, self-sustaining salmon populations in Klamath requires monitoring fall-run Chinook and Coho salmon as well as steelhead and lamprey, as the fish gradually decline over three or four generations over the next 12 to 15 years. Slowly it moves to the upper regions.
Charlton Bonham, the department’s director, said the idea is that “if we can stay out of most of the way, these fish populations will recover themselves, sustain themselves.”
Plan Initially called for to supplement fall-run Chinook and coho salmon populations by increasing them at the newly constructed Fall Creek Fish Hatchery, located on a tributary river, the fish can now be accessed upstream from where the Iron Gate Dam once stood.
However, the state plan warns that spring-run Chinook cannot repopulate their historic habitats on their own because those areas are located more than 100 miles upstream from the waters where they survive. Scientists with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Klamath Tribes have developed a release plan Spring-run Chinook established at hatcheries in Oregon. Researchers are studying juvenile salmon by releasing them with tracking tags to follow their movement and determine where reintroducing the fish will be successful.
Soto said this approach is necessary because, although a small number of spring-run salmon may make it upstream, it will not be enough to rapidly increase the population.
Soto is optimistic about the restoration plans, which the tribes have helped develop with state and federal agencies.
“it will take time. “It’s going to take generations,” he said.
Soto observed a group of men wearing wetsuits, masks and snorkels swimming in Woolly Creek, a tributary of the Salmon River, searching for juvenile Chinook and Coho salmon in the clear water.
Karuk Tribe fisheries team members survey juvenile salmon in Woolley Creek.
Using the seine, the Karuk tribe’s fishing team formed a circle and hauled in their catch. At first, they found only steelhead trout. But after a few tries, the net was filled with tiny, wiggly salmon.
After emptying the fish in the bucket the team got to work. They inserted tracking tags into small coho salmon, and cut small pieces from Chinook salmon fins and placed them in envelopes for genetic testing.
The tests will provide data that can support efforts to rebuild salmon populations.
The bay provides a rare cold-water refuge for salmon, which is especially important as climate change warms water temperatures and other bays will now become similar refuges, Soto said.
“We have tripled the amount of housing. So that’s pretty exciting,” Soto said.
Decommissioning of the four dams, which began in June 2023 and involves hundreds of workers, is the largest dam removal effort in U.S. history. In August, workers Channels carved into the remains of two damsFor the first time in more than a century, water was allowed to flow freely in more than 40 miles of the Klamath.
The nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corp. announced Wednesday that the dam removal work is now finished. But other efforts to restore the watershed to a more natural state will continue for many years. Teams are scattering millions of seeds of native plants restore vegetation On the 2,200-acre reservoir bottom land that had been under water for generations.
“Having that free-flowing river, and all the restoration that goes with it, is going to be extremely beneficial to salmon in California,” Greenberg said. “There aren’t a lot of rivers that will be able to sustain salmon over time with climate change, and I think this really gives us a fighting chance.”
It is a center of culture and fishing traditions of the native tribes along the Salmon River.
Cooking and eating salmon is an important part of their celebrations. And indigenous leaders say they hope the eventual recovery of the salmon will help the people strengthen their ancestral connection to the river.
Since the removal of the dams, the Klamath River is flowing freely and has returned to its historic channel.
“All these years we’ve been trying to maintain our culture, religion and all these things, and trying to restore what’s been lost,” said Leif Hillman, an elder and ceremonial leader of the Karuk tribe. ” “The only major ceremony that we have not reinstated is the spring salmon ceremony.”
This is a ceremony held to ensure the continuation of the spring-run Chinook. But when the dams still existed, he said, it seemed impossible.
“Now, people are thinking about the event that many of us have wanted to bring back for a very long time,” Hillman said.
The potential return of those special fish is bringing hope that one day the Karuk people may consider holding that ceremony once again, he said.
