klamath river

Klamath River dam removal is underway, with drawdown of the three largest reservoirs occurring now and physical removal of these dam structures scheduled for this summer. The dams have impacted the river for over a hundred years and dam removal has its own environmental impacts. While fish biologists and water quality scientists are confident that the long-term benefits will outweigh the short-term impacts, a loud group of dam removal antagonists have glommed onto the ‘messy’ part of this massive ecosystem restoration project — temporary increases in suspended sediment and associated impacts to water quality and the recent mortality event of hatchery juvenile salmon— to continue their fight against dam removal.

Luckily, Toz Soto, Senior Fisheries Biologist with the Karuk Tribe, and Dr. Maia Singer, Senior Scientist at Stillwater Sciences, join the show to help sort fact from fiction.

For more information about Klamath Dam removal, check out:

Lower Klamath Project – Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) | California State Water Resources Control Board

Klamath Dam Removal Overview Report for the Secretary of the Interior an Assessment of Science and Technical Information, Version 1.1, March 2013 | FWS.gov

Klamath Dam Removal Studies | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)

Klamath River Renewal (klamathrenewal.org)

Klamath Basin Monitoring Program

The Klamath River 2nd episode. In the Spring of 2025, a group of teenagers from several Tribal Nations of the Klamath River Basin and greater region will descend the newly undammed Klamath River from source to sea. These teens began learning how to kayak in 2022 and 2023, began learning about river policy and fish science, and are bringing their family stories to the river with them. In the summer of 2023 The River Radius spent a week with these young paddlers on the water and on the microphone capturing their story. 

SPONSORS
NRS LEAD Program
NRS website
NRS Instagram
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Students of PTW
Danielle Frank, aka Ducky, Instagram, Vogue Magazine interview
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters
Klamath River Renewal Corporation, Ren Brownell

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

THE RIVER RADIUS

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After 100 years of dams stagnating the flows of the Klamath River and killing the Salmon runs, a group of teenagers from the tribal nations of the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath from source to sea to usher in the post-dam Klamath.  In this 1st of 2 episodes on the topic, the founders of Rios to Rivers & Paddle Tribal Waters explain how their own paddle experiences and time travel, brought the inception of this powerful passage. 

SPONSORS
NRS  @nrsweb
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Ashia Grae Wolf Wilson  Rios to River bio
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Weston Boyles  Instagram  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

On this episode, Amuktha and Nicole discuss the ring of fire solar eclipse, ROC suspension from the Olympics, and the restoration of the Klamath River's salmon population. Listen to hear about the stylish spacesuits Prada is designing for the 2025 Artemis III mission to the moon as well.

Every year since 1984, American Rivers has released a report called America's Most Endangered Rivers. To be highlighted by this report, rivers must have significance to human and natural communities, face consequential threat, and have an upcoming major decision that the public can help influence. This episode is an interview with Sinjin Eberle and Amy Souers Kober on what makes this report an effective river conservation tool, the most endangered rivers of 2023, and tangible actions that we as listeners can do to engage with the most endangered rivers of 2023.

GUESTS 

American Rivers

Instagram

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2023

Storymap

Amy Souers Kober

Sinjin Eberle

SPONSOR

Denver Area Nissan Dealers website

Instagram

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

Despite the wildly wet year, the Bureau of Reclamation has threatened to reduce flows in the Klamath River below the mandatory minimum for salmon. Such an action will dry up critical habitat for salmon at a time when salmon populations are critically low. Now, the Yurok Tribe and fishermen are in court together to challenge the low flows. 

Amy Cordalis, legal counsel for the Yurok Tribe and a tribal member, and Glenn Spain, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association join the show to discuss their new litigation and other issues imperiling salmon runs in the Klamath River.

REQUIRED READING:

• ”Yurok Tribe and Fishermen’s Associations Sue Feds Over Water Flow Reductions on the Klamath,” March 27, 2023.

On Thursday, we celebrated the expiration of PG&E’s 50-year license for the Eel River dams. Next up comes license surrender, decommissioning and ultimately dam removal. 

Tune in to hear about what this process might look like and why it is so important to act swiftly to seize the opportunity for recovery of the Eel River’s wild runs of salmon and steelhead.

And in other celebratory news: Klamath dam removal is on track to begin by the end of this year. Two of California’s largest rivers are in for monumental change over the next few years!

LINKS:

• Friends of the Eel’s Potter Valley Project page
• Caltrout’s Eel River Dams page
• Potter Valley Project
• Undam the Klamath

This Week’s Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, and Tiny Victories listeners get 10% off their first month at:  BetterHelp.com/tiny

Things You Should Stop Worrying About This Week

Water rides in New Jersey

Everyone quitting their jobs

The growing popularity of glamping

All the baby salmon dying in Northern California’s Klamath River

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Congressman Jared Huffman joins Gang Green to talk about this legislative session. Top of his mind, as always, is his public lands bill—the “Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act”—which packs together new Wilderness designations with fuel breaks, trespass cannabis clean up, new trails and visitor centers and more. Sen. Padilla has taken up the bill in the Senate and is proving to be an effective advocate. 

Also on the docket is dam removal on both the Eel and Klamath Rivers, protections for forage fish in the Magnuson Stevens, and the long problem of Trump’s judiciary for the environment. Listen in!

Mike Belchik, senior fisheries biologist with the Yurok Tribe, joins Gang Green to give an update on  Klamath dam removal (spoiler: it's on track to be completed by 2024!) and helps resolve a number of myths concerning the Klamath dams that you might see shared on social media. 

To wit: (1) No, it won't increase in-stream water temperature (dams do that); (2) No, it won't result in severe flooding (these are hydroelectric dams, not flood control dams, and don't operate to control flooding); Yes, while there is a loss of power generation, that power generation is not very large (~170MW at full capacity, which hardly ever happens) and the power is not particularly low-carbon when you consider the methane produced by the reservoir behind the dams. 

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission either moved along the Klamath Dam removal project, or else it threw a big wrench in the works. S. Craig Tucker, consultant to the Karuk Tribe, and Mike Belchik, senior water policy analyst with the Yurok Tribe, joins Scott Greacen (Friends of the Eel) and Tom Wheeler (EPIC) for a spirited discussion on the new news about the state of dam removal. What does the FERC ruling mean? Will it speed up dam removal or slow it down?

Spring-run chinook and summer-run steelhead are exceedingly strange creatures. What makes them different from their (more numerous) winter-run colleagues? Why are they an important indicator of the health of a river? What’s their future?

Scott Greacen (Friends of the Eel River) and Tom Wheeler (Environmental Protection Information Center) host a discussion on these odd fish, with Bill Tripp of the Karuk Tribe, consultant Craig Tucker and fish researcher Samantha Kannry.

The Klamath River is now a person with full legal rights under Yurok Tribal Law. Amy Cordalis, General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe, joins the green gang to talk about what this means for the river and why giving recognizing “personhood” for the river is both a big and little leap under the law. 

(As Mitt Romney sez: “Corporations are people too, my friend.”)