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First of the Klamath dams comes down
All four dams of the Lower Klamath Project will be gone by the end of 2024. The Copco II dam on the Klamath River was only 35 feet high. With the three other dams of the Lower Klamath Hydroelectric Project, however, it completely blocked fish passage and effectively cut the Klamath River in half, decimating…
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Dams out: Maine’s Frost Gully Brook runs free again
In Freeport, Maine the rescue mission was launched with a single word. “Trout!” The operation was anticipated. Construction crews had just an hour prior knocked down a small dam on a tiny stream cutting through Freeport, Maine. As water rushed through the newly formed breach — with a pump aiding the pond-draining effort — the…
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Rapid diversification in Salmon and Steelhead Populations Following Dam Removal
John McMillan returns with a guest column about the ongoing recovery of the Elwha River. It’s been eleven years since the Elwha Dam (the lower of the two dams on the Elwha, located at river-mile five) was removed. I still remember the day the heavy equipment started to roll, and the dam started to fall. …
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Salmon Recovery Must be Built on Ambitious, Achievable Goals Instead of Bare Minimums
The communities and ecosystem of the Columbia River Basin need healthy and harvestable salmon and steelhead populations. Haley Ohms and Rob Masonis Efforts to recover salmon in the Columbia River Basin have been ongoing for more than three decades, since Snake River sockeye salmon were first protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1991. …
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Spring Chinook runs…disappointing (but unsurprising) declines continue
Now is our chance to let the Biden Administration know it is time to act. As the spring Chinook salmon migration nears its end in much of the Snake River basin, it is time to reflect on what was and was not. In February, fisheries managers forecasted 85,900 spring Chinook salmon would return to the…
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Cooling Trout Rivers in a Warming Climate
Dam removals offer hope for coldwater trout in the face of climate change. For Bryan Burroughs, dam removals are the key to trout habitat restoration in the face of climate change. They have the potential to cool long stretches of river even more than climate change is expected to warm them over the coming decades. …
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Snake River Flows Secured, For Now
Near the dramatic jagged peaks of the Teton mountains sits Jackson Lake Dam. Built in the early 1900s by the Bureau of Reclamation to control lake levels for irrigation in Idaho and reduce flooding for a rising local population, Jackson Lake Dam drives water into the Snake River and its interconnected aquatic ecosystem. The Snake…
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