Current:Home > InvestSalmon swim freely in the Klamath River for 1st time in a century after dams removed-InfoLens
Salmon swim freely in the Klamath River for 1st time in a century after dams removed
View Date:2024-12-23 11:30:14
HORNBROOK, Calif. (AP) — For the first time in more than a century, salmon are swimming freely along the Klamath River and its tributaries — a major watershed near the California-Oregon border — just days after the largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed.
Researchers determined that Chinook salmon began migrating Oct. 3 into previously inaccessible habitat above the site of the former Iron Gate dam, one of four towering dams demolished as part of a national movement to let rivers return to their natural flow and to restore ecosystems for fish and other wildlife.
“It’s been over one hundred years since a wild salmon last swam through this reach of the Klamath River,” said Damon Goodman, a regional director for the nonprofit conservation group California Trout. “I am incredibly humbled to witness this moment and share this news, standing on the shoulders of decades of work by our Tribal partners, as the salmon return home.”
The dam removal project was completed Oct. 2, marking a major victory for local tribes that fought for decades to free hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the Klamath. Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, the tribes showcased the environmental devastation caused by the four hydroelectric dams, especially to salmon.
Scientists will use SONAR technology to continue to track migrating fish including Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and steelhead trout throughout the fall and winter to provide “important data on the river’s healing process,” Goodman said in a statement. “While dam removal is complete, recovery will be a long process.”
Conservation groups and tribes, along with state and federal agencies, have partnered on a monitoring program to record migration and track how fish respond long-term to the dam removals.
As of February, more than 2,000 dams had been removed in the U.S., the majority in the last 25 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. Among them were dams on Washington state’s Elwha River, which flows out of Olympic National Park into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Condit Dam on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia.
The Klamath was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. But after power company PacifiCorp built the dams to generate electricity between 1918 and 1962, the structures halted the natural flow of the river and disrupted the lifecycle of the region’s salmon, which spend most of their life in the Pacific Ocean but return up their natal rivers to spawn.
The fish population dwindled dramatically. In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That jumpstarted decades of advocacy from tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams.
veryGood! (2233)
Related
- Paraguay vs. Argentina live updates: Watch Messi play World Cup qualifying match tonight
- Powerball ticket sold in California wins $1.765 billion jackpot, second-biggest in U.S. lottery history
- Trump says Netanyahu ‘let us down’ before the 2020 airstrike that killed a top Iranian general
- AP PHOTOS: Crippling airstrikes and humanitarian crisis in war’s 6th day
- BITFII Introduce
- Woman accused of falsely reporting she was abducted after seeing child on road seeks to avoid jail
- What are the 10 largest US lottery jackpots ever won?
- Raoul Peck’s ‘Silver Dollar Road’ chronicles a Black family’s battle to hold onto their land
- Wall Street makes wagers on the likely winners and losers in a second Trump term
- Auto workers escalate strike as 8,700 workers walk out at a Ford Kentucky plant
Ranking
- After entire police force resigns in small Oklahoma town, chief blames leaders, budget cuts
- No. 1 pick Connor Bedard scores first career goal in slick play vs. Boston Bruins
- A Reality Check About Solar Panel Waste and the Effects on Human Health
- Israel kibbutz the scene of a Hamas massacre, first responders say: The depravity of it is haunting
- Deommodore Lenoir contract details: 49ers ink DB to $92 million extension
- The case of a Memphis man charged with trying to enter a Jewish school with a gun is moving forward
- NFL Week 6 odds: Moneylines, point spreads, over/under
- Long quest for justice in Jacob Wetterling's kidnapping case explored on '20/20'
Recommendation
-
Wisconsin’s high court to hear oral arguments on whether an 1849 abortion ban remains valid
-
Wall Street wore Birkenstocks as the sandal-maker debuted on the Stock Exchange
-
'It’s so heartbreaking': Legendary Florida State baseball coach grapples with dementia
-
A detailed look at how Hamas evaded Israel's border defenses
-
Ben Foster Files for Divorce From Laura Prepon After 6 Years of Marriage
-
WNBA Finals: Aces leave Becky Hammon 'speechless' with Game 2 domination of Liberty
-
IRS says Microsoft may owe more than $29 billion in back taxes; Microsoft disagrees
-
Titanic artifact recovery mission called off after leader's death in submersible implosion