Recently, a group of CalTrout staff, including myself, had a chance to tour the restoration sites of Iron Gate, Copco 1, and Copco 2 dams. Standing above the sites of former reservoirs, it was incredibly inspiring to see the transformation taking place. Some CalTrout staff, like Executive Director Curtis Knight, have been working towards Klamath Dam removal for over 20 years. CalTrout has been at the table - with a coalition of Tribes and Indigenous peoples, environmental NGOs, agencies, and more – working to make a free-flowing Klamath River a reality. It feels rewarding to have CalTrout staff gathered together along the Klamath River to watch its restoration in action.
Below is a short video I put together with some clips of what the river looks like now, as dam removal progresses, and some shots from previous trips of the reservoirs full for context.
As of February 2024, reservoir drawdown is complete. Reservoir drawdown refers to the slow draining of the water in the reservoirs, lowered in a controlled manner through tunnels located at the base of the dams. All three reservoirs, Iron Gate, Copco 1 and JC Boyle, created by their respective dams, have been drained, and as I write this the river is once again finding its way back to its natural river channel. Before it can do so, the river must cut a path through large amounts of silt to return to its historic riverbed.
Dam removal is messy, and there are always heavy impacts to a waterway when large amounts of sediment are released at once, but CalTrout firmly believes that for the Klamath River the long-term benefits greatly outweigh the other short-term impacts. With the removal of the Klamath dams in full swing, we understand that there are many reactions to seeing exposed reservoir bottoms, muddy river conditions, and dead non-native fish. It’s important to note that all these conditions were predicted. The building of the dams and blocking the river created an environmental disaster and reversing that damage is not going to happen overnight.
Fortunately, much of the canyon’s landscapes above and between the reservoirs are arid and volcanic without much vegetation or topsoil to run off into the river. Sediment that has been trapped by the reservoirs is mostly fine sediment which mobilizes easily and can be efficiently transported down the river towards the ocean without high risk of building up along riverbanks. Some of the larger sediment may drop out helping to create new gravel bars and tail outs.
Most of the remaining sediment will settle and be locked in place by re-vegetation efforts which are already underway within the reservoir footprints. The company Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) oversees the restoration of the reservoir footprints and newly formed river in close partnership with the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department. Tribal members have been collecting native seeds and propagating native plants in nurseries for over five years now. Over the next several years over 17 billion seeds will be planted— over 53,000 thousand pounds of native vegetation planted to assist in restoring the reservoir bottoms.
As soon as the mud within the former reservoirs was dry enough to walk on, restoration specialists were walking through it throwing seeds across the landscape. Once it was dry enough to walk on and dig in, new seedlings and starts were being planted. This is the best time of year to start new seeds and seedlindgs as the plants will have the best chance of holding and reaching their roots down into the water table.
While the majority of the project is proceeding as planned, it was unfortunate to hear about the die off of recently release hatchery fish. On March 2, 2024, we learned that, following the release of 830,000 hatchery-raised fall-run Chinook salmon fry above Iron Gate Dam, many of these fish perished below the dam. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officials attributed the mortality to gas bubble disease which these fish experienced as they migrated through the Iron Gate Dam tunnel.
While an unfortunate outcome, we know that these fish were traveling through infrastructure that will no longer be in place in 2-3 months – and this event represents just one outcome in a detailed and robust ecological plan which will play out over the next few years. CDFW is still on track to meet hatchery release production goals this year and will be releasing hatchery fish below the dam until it is removed.
More importantly, the bigger picture shows that river conditions below Iron Gate Dam have been steadily improving following the initial release of water. Water quality data from the Karuk Tribe shows >90% O2 saturation at all sites downstream of Iron Gate. Turbidity is generally dropping. Conditions throughout the entire system are slowly improving as predicted. We have also received anecdotal information of healthy wild juvenile salmon being captured in downstream traps.
Fortunately, salmonids have shown a particular resilience to large-scale environmental disturbances. We have seen time and time again these fish rebound from highly disruptive events including the Mt. St Helens eruption – when salmon were spawning in the river just a year later – and the Upper Sacramento River Cantara Loop train derailment – where fish populations fully rebounded within a few years. The Klamath River is particularly well positioned to respond to environmental disturbances due to its large number of highly productive tributaries where the vast majority of spawning and rearing take place.
Cover Photo: Former reservoir footprint by Michael Wier
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.