The Yurok Tribe and the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC), in collaboration with the Shasta Indian Nation, recently started preparing a stretch of the Klamath River to flow freely for
The soon-to-be dismantled Klamath Hydroelectric Project has blocked fish passage and altered river flows for over 100 years. In Kikacéki, a place sacred to the Shasta Indian Nation, there is an area commonly known as Ward’s Canyon where the river has lacked consistent flows for nearly a century. In 1925 the construction of Copco No. 2 dam was completed, diverting the river into a tunnel that traveled nearly 2 miles downstream to a powerhouse, dewatering the historic reach of river canyon. In the absence of sustained river flows, a dense stand of trees colonized the riverbed within the steep canyon. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation and Yurok Fisheries Department, in coordination with KRRC, Shasta Indian Nation, and Heli-Dunn, a locally owned helicopter company, are clearing the alder and cottonwood trees from the river corridor, while leaving all floodplain vegetation intact. The trees are being transported to a staging location for later use in the restoration of the 2,
For more than a century, four hydroelectric dams along the Oregon-California border have cut off habitat to fish swimming up the Klamath River from the ocean. Now, researchers are in the midst of a project to learn how fish will use this ecosystem once the dams are removed.