The Klamath River flows 253 miles
from Southern Oregon to the California coast, draining a basin of
more than 15,000 square miles. The watershed and its fisheries
have been the subject of negotiation since the 1860s negotiations
that have intensified and continue to this day.
The river has provided irrigation to ag lands since the late 19th
century. Agricultural development drained vast areas of
wetlands on the periphery of Upper Klamath Lake and in
upstream watersheds. Some of this drained acreage has been
restored and is now managed primarily for wetland benefits.
The watershed is divided geographically into two basins, upper
and lower, divided by Iron Gate Dam, the lower most dam on the
river. The Upper Basin is dry, with annual precipitation of about
13 inches at the river’s origin near Klamath Falls, Ore.
Downstream, the climate grows wetter.
Native Americans have a significant presence in the Klamath
Basin. Four major tribes have been influential in water
negotiations: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk Tribe, the Hoopa
Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe.
Ruby Williams’ birthday was not your average 18th. She
celebrated it on the Klamath River, with a group of young
people making a historic journey paddling from the river’s
headwaters in southern Oregon to its mouth in the Pacific
Ocean, just south of Crescent City, California. It marked the
first time in a century that the descent has been possible,
after the recent removal of four dams allowed the river to flow
freely. Williams, together with fellow paddler Keeya Wiki, 17,
spoke to CNN on day 15 of their month-long journey, which they
are due to complete on Friday. At this point, they had just 141
miles (227 kilometers) of the 310-mile (499 kilometer) journey
left to go and had already passed through some of the most
challenging rapids. … [Wiki said] “I think we’re all just so
grateful, knowing that the salmon can finally go from the mouth
to the headwaters, and that we can go from the headwaters to
the mouth too.”
Swimming past the California-Oregon border, a lost fish — one
of thousands — finds its way home after an exile of over 100
years. As swarms of salmon migrate north to Oregon along
the Klamath River, youth from across the region’s indigenous
tribes kayak south through northern California to the Pacific
Ocean — a 300-mile celebratory journey that would not have been
possible just a year ago. What’s changed? Beneath the fish
and kayaks lie the watery graves of four dams, built in the
early 20th century and dismantled over the past two years at a
cost of $500 million, the largest and most ambitious dam
removal in history. The return of salmon to the upper
Klamath River represents a victory for nature, an exhibition of
the century-long transition in how Americans view the
environment, and a signal achievement of the 1973 Endangered
Species Act.
Other dam removal and anadromous fish restoration news:
… Long before the dams came down, tribal nations in the
Klamath Basin had already developed
sophisticated scientific programmes. … The Yurok Tribal
Fisheries Department tracks water quality and habitat projects,
while the Karuk Department of Natural Resources blends
traditional ecological knowledge with advanced scientific
tools, even modelling cultural fire regimes in partnership with
universities. By 2006, both tribes were already deeply
involved in project planning and managing long-term water
quality data for the Klamath. Today, the Klamath Basin
Monitoring Program continues this model of collaboration, with
water quality data gathered by both USGS scientists and tribal
teams. The more recent Klamath River Monitoring Program,
launched in July 2024, formalises this approach further: tribal
representatives from the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath Tribes appear
alongside federal agencies and NGOs on its leadership
roster.
Global restoration and conservation of freshwater biodiversity
are represented in practice by works such as the Klamath River
Renewal Project (KRRP), the largest dam removal and river
restoration in the United States, which has reconnected 640
river kilometers. With dam removals, many biological outcomes
remain understudied due to a lack of pre-impact data and
complex ecosystem recovery timeframes. To avoid this, we
created the KRRP molecular library, an environmental specimen
bank, for long-term curation of environmental nucleic acids
collected from the restoration project. We used these initial
samples, environmental DNA metabarcoding, and generalized
linear mixed-effects models to evaluate patterns of pre-dam
removal fish richness and diversity. Demonstrating the
suitability to resolve biological differences, the baseline
shows that tributary and mainstem streams had greater native
fish diversity and 2.3–10.7 times greater native fish species
richness than reservoirs.
A group of young Indigenous kayakers is headed to the mouth of
the Klamath River in free-flowing water after portaging around
two dams and paddling through four former dam sites. They
launched into the Klamath River headwaters two weeks ago and
are now more than halfway through a momentous 30-day journey.
So far, they’ve paddled through waves on a treacherous lake,
portaged around the two remaining dams on the river, plunged
into canyons with class 3, 4 and 5 rapids, and paddled through
four former dam sites where removal operations wrapped up last
fall. The nonprofit Rios to Rivers organized the event, which
is the first source-to-sea descent of the Klamath since dam
removal. Their Paddle Tribal Waters team aims to reach the
mouth of the river by July 11 and celebrate the removal of J.C.
Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate dams.
Last August, Northwest salmon caught a break when four dams on
the Klamath River, which flows from mountain country in
southwest Oregon through northern California to the Pacific
Ocean, were demolished. But it was a limited break. The goal of
that $500 million project, possibly the largest of its kind in
American history, remains unreached, and serious effort still
is needed to fulfill it. A fully free-flowing Klamath River may
be beyond us for a while, but certain half-measures could
help. Hanging over it is the shadow of the decision this
month by the Trump administration to abandon a regional
agreement involving breach of the four lower Snake River dams
in Washington state, also partly for fish run purposes.
… Some news stories at the time proclaiming the return
of a free run of the Klamath River spoke too optimistically. In
Oregon, much of the upper river is blocked by the last two
dams, the Keno, west of Klamath Falls and near the same-named
unincorporated community, and the Link River, which impounds
and partly creates Upper Klamath Lake.
The remote and rugged Klamath River in Oregon and California,
one of the mightiest in the American West and an ancient
lifeline to Indigenous tribes, is running free again, mostly,
for the first time in 100 years after the recent removal of
four major dams. At the burbling aquifer near Chiloquin, Ore.,
that is considered the headwaters, a sacred spot for native
people, a group of kayakers, mostly Indigenous youth from the
river’s vast basin began to paddle on Thursday. Ages 13 to 20,
they had learned to kayak for this moment. Stroke by stroke,
mile by mile, day by day, they plan to reach the salty water of
the rugged Northern California coast, more than 300 miles away,
in mid-July. If all goes as planned, the kayakers will
pass the rehabilitated sites of the largest dam-removal project
in U.S. history. They will pass salmon swimming upstream
in places that the fish had not been able to reach since the
early 1900s. They will pass through the ancient territory of
their tribes — the Klamath, Shasta, Karuk, Hoopa Valley and
Yurok among them.
Along the Klamath River in Northern California, where logging
companies once cut ancient redwood trees, vast tracts of land
have been returned to the Yurok Tribe in a years-long effort
that tribal leaders say will enable the restoration of forests
and the protection of a watershed that is
vital for salmon. The effort, which unfolded gradually over the
last 23 years, culminated in May as Western Rivers Conservancy
turned over 14,968 acres to the Yurok Tribe. It was the last
portion of 47,097 acres that the nonprofit group acquired and
transferred to the tribe in what is thought to be the largest
“land back” deal in California history. Members of the tribe
say they are celebrating the return of their ancestral lands
along Blue Creek, a major tributary that meets
the Klamath about 40 miles south of the Oregon border. Blue
Creek holds cultural and spiritual significance for the Yurok,
and its cold, clear waters provide a refuge for salmon.
In celebration of the largest dam removal project in U.S.
history, a group of native youths will embark today on a
kayaking descent of the Klamath River from its headwaters in
Southern Oregon 250 miles to its mouth in Northern California —
the first source-to-sea journey on the newly undammed river.
Decommissioning and razing four of the six dams along the
Klamath, which stood for more than a century and generated
hydroelectric power, took decades of advocacy from
environmentalists, fishing groups and in particular the
region’s indigenous tribes, who regard the mighty waterway,
with its historic salmon runs, as the pillar of life. Two
remaining dams on the river, both in Oregon, are being left
alone due to their importance managing flood water and
supporting agriculture. … Now, to commemorate the
milestone, about 30 young people belonging to tribal
communities across the Klamath River Basin are launching on a
monthlong expedition to see the powerful, freeflowing river in
its entirety.
A small panel managed to extract a glassful of clean water from
the bone-dry air of Death Valley in California, which suggests
that the device could provide the vital resource to arid
regions. The atmosphere over extremely dry land can hold large
volumes of water, but extracting this in significant quantities
without power is difficult. In the past, researchers have come
up with innovative ways to tap into this reservoir, such as
fog-catching nets made from simple mesh fabrics or spider
silk-like artificial fibres, but they have struggled to make
them work effectively in real-world conditions. Now,
Xuanhe Zhao at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
his colleagues have developed a power-free water-collecting
device that is about 0.5 metres tall and 0.1 m across. It is
comprised of a glass panel that contains an absorbent hydrogel,
a jelly-like substance made from long-chain polymers, and
lithium salts that can store water molecules.
Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the
Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed
upstream into the long-blocked waters along the
California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows
considered crucial to the fish’s future. The return of salmon
to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal
and a measure of the project’s success. However, a problem
emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles
upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam,
the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a
fish ladder that’s supposed to help with fish passage, but it
didn’t prove to work. While many proponents of dam removal
say they’re thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of
the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn’t reach before
the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable.
On the afternoon of May 22, a wildfire sparked next to Highway
395 near the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve in the
Eastern Sierra Nevada, causing major damage to the reserve’s
infrastructure. The Inn Fire took off quickly, fueled by
high and erratic winds that caused it to jump across the
highway, where flames burned into the reserve.
… Officials are still assessing the extent of the damage
caused by the Inn Fire. One home burned down soon after the
fire ignited, and flames destroyed vegetation in the Inyo
National Forest, burning up toward the mountains. In the state
reserve, Jackson said flames burned into protected wetland
habitat and around the tufas. But the tufas are undamaged, she
noted. … The California State Parks Sierra District is
working with local land managers and other partners to plan how
to rebuild the boardwalk and the interpretative signs that were
lost in the fire.
… Last year, the final of four hydroelectric dams on the
Klamath River were removed in the largest project of its kind
in US history. Forged through the footprint of reservoirs that
kept parts of the Klamath submerged for more than a century,
the river that straddles the California-Oregon border has since
been reborn. The dam removal marked the end of a
decades-long campaign led by the Yurok, Karuk and Klamath
tribes, along with a wide range of environmental NGOs and
fishing advocacy groups, to convince owner PacifiCorp to let go
of the ageing infrastructure. The immense undertaking also
required buy-in from regulatory agencies, state and local
governments, businesses and the communities that used to live
along the shores of the bygone lakes. As the flows were
released and the river found its way back to itself, a new
chapter of recovery – complete with new challenges – emerged.
The Yurok Tribe, California’s largest federally recognized
tribal nation, was given 73 square miles of land — or
47,097 acres — along the eastern side of the lower Klamath
River on Thursday. The land exchange is being called the
largest single “land back” deal in California history. … The
73 square miles of land is now owned and managed by
the Yurok Tribe as the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and
Yurok Tribal Community Forest. … These lands — comprising
forests, river corridors, and prairies — support essential
habitat for many imperiled species, including coho and Chinook
salmon, marbled murrelets, northern spotted owls, and Humboldt
martens. In the face of climate change, Blue Creek remains a
crucial cold-water refuge for salmon, steelhead, and other
native fish.
… Roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of
homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling
the tribe’s land holdings, according to a deal announced
Thursday. Completion of the land-back conservation deal along
the lower Klamath River — a partnership with
Western Rivers Conservancy and other environmental groups — is
being called the largest in California history. The Yurok
Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold
Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from
settlers. … The Yurok people will now manage these lands
and waterways. The tribe’s plans include reintroducing fire as
a forest management tool, clearing lands for prairie
restoration, removing invasive species and planting trees while
providing work for some of the tribe’s more than 5,000 members
and helping restoresalmon
and wildlife.
The First Descent Expedition of the Klamath River by young
members of Tribes living along the river will begin Thursday,
June 12. Participants in the Ríos to Rivers Paddle Tribal
Waters Program will lead the first-ever 30-day source-to-sea
descent of the newly undammed Klamath River. An opening
celebration marking the beginning of the month-long,
310-plus-miles expedition will be held June 12 at the
headwaters of the Wood River, an invitation-only event. From
the starting point, the kayakers will cross Upper Klamath Lake,
portage around the Link River Dam, and cross Lake Ewauna to the
Klamath River. … Organizers said the event will “explore
the long-awaited return of Chinook salmon to their ancestral
spawning grounds, the far-reaching benefits of dam removal and
the revival of an entire ecosystem. Experts will share
insights on water quality improvements, habitat restoration and
the lasting impacts on wildlife and river communities.”
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
The dam removal projects- aimed at sustaining the salmon
population, are underway, with the latest drawdown being three
reservoirs on the Klamath River. The removal process has
already dramatically changed the landscape in Southern Oregon
and far Northern California, along the course of the river. The
lowest of the three remaining dams- Iron Gate, was initially
breached on January 9, followed by the J.C. Boyle reservoir on
January 16. A concrete plug in the tunnel at the base of Copco
1 was blasted away on January 23, with the reservoirs draining
quickly, leaving vast expanses of fissured mud that was the
consistency and color of chocolate cake batter. Shaping its new
course, the Klamath River is winding through the bare
landscape, but the transformation has had some unintended
consequences and saddened some residents.
…Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board took
action to protect the salmon,
unanimously extending the region’s
expired emergency drought measures. Ground and surface
water for farms will be restricted for another year if flows in
the Shasta and Scott rivers dip below minimum thresholds. State
officials say these measures are likely to kick in next
year. Water board chair Joaquin Esquivel said action
is needed because “a fish emergency” remains on the rivers.
“Time isn’t our friend,” he said at a previous meeting in
August. “There is an urgency.” The water board also
is investigating the possibility of permanent requirements to
keep more water in the rivers, after the Karuk Tribe and the
fishing industry petitioned the state for stronger protections.
That decision, however, could take years.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
Headwaters are the source of a
stream or river. They are located at the furthest point from
where the water body empties or merges with
another. Two-thirds of California’s surface water supply
originates in these mountainous and typically forested regions.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
The Klamath River Basin is one of the West’s most important and
contentious watersheds.
The watershed is known for its unusual geography straddling
California and Oregon. Unlike many western rivers, the
Klamath does not originate in snowcapped mountains but rather on
a volcanic plateau.
A broad patchwork of spring-fed streams and rivers in
south-central Oregon drains into Upper Klamath Lake and down into
Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls. The outflow from Ewauna
marks the beginning of the 263-mile Klamath River.
The Klamath courses south through the steep Cascade Range and
west along the rugged Siskiyou Mountains to a redwood-lined
estuary on the Pacific Ocean just south of Crescent City,
draining a watershed of 10 million acres.
A bounty of resources – water, salmon, timber and minerals – and
a wide range of users turned the remote region into a hotspot for
economic development and multiparty water disputes (See
Klamath River
timeline).
Though the basin has only 115,000 residents, there is seldom
enough water to go around. Droughts are common. The water
scarcity inflames tensions between agricultural,
environmental and tribal interests, namely the basin’s four major
tribes: the Klamath Tribes, the Karuk, Hoopa Valley and Yurok.
Klamath water-use conflicts routinely spill into courtrooms,
state legislatures and Congress.
In 2023, a historic removal of four powers dams on the river
began, signaling hope for restoration of the river and its fish
and easing tensions between competing water interests. In
February 2024, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
announced a “historic” agreement between tribes and farmers
in the basin over chronic water shortages. The deal
called for a wide range of river and creek restoration work and
modernization of agricultural water supply infrastructure.
Water Development
Farmers and ranchers have drawn irrigation water from basin
rivers and lakes since the late 1900s. Vast wetlands around
Upper Klamath Lake and upstream were drained to grow crops. Some
wetlands have been restored, primarily for migratory birds.
In 1905, the federal government authorized construction of the
Klamath Project, a network of irrigation canals, storage
reservoirs and hydroelectric dams to grow an agricultural
economy in the mostly dry Upper Basin. The Project managed by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation irrigates about 240,000 acres and
supplies the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake national wildlife
refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Water Management
Since 1992, federal mandates to restore populations of fish
protected by the Endangered Species
Act have led in some dry years to drastic cuts in
water deliveries to Klamath Project irrigators.
Water in Upper Klamath Lake must be kept above certain
levels for the endangered shortnose and Lost River suckers. Lake
levels and Klamath River flows below Iron Gate Dam also must be
regulated for the benefit of threatened coho salmon (See
Klamath Basin
Chinook and Coho Salmon).
Conflict
In 2001, Reclamation all but cut off irrigation water to hundreds
of basin farmers and ranchers, citing a severe drought and legal
obligations to protect imperiled fish. In response, thousands of
farmers, ranchers and residents flocked to downtown Klamath Falls
to form a “bucket brigade” protest, emptying buckets of water
into the closed irrigation canal. The demonstrations stretched
into the summer, with protestors forcing open the irrigation
headgates on multiple occasions. Reclamation later released some
water to help farmers.
In September 2002, a catastrophic
disease outbreak in the lower Klamath River killed tens of
thousands of ocean-going salmon. The Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations sued Reclamation, alleging the Klamath
Project’s irrigation deliveries had violated the Endangered
Species Act. The fishing industry eventually prevailed, and
a federal court ordered an increase to minimum flows in the lower
Klamath.
Compromise
The massive salmon kill and dramatic water shut-off set in motion
a sweeping compromise between the basin’s many competing water
interests: the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the
Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The 2010 agreements
included:
Removal of four hydroelectric dams
$92.5 million over 10 years to pay farmers to use less water,
increase reservoir storage and help pay for water conservation
and groundwater management projects.
$47 million over 10 years to buy or lease water rights to
increase flows for salmon recovery.
Dam Removals
Congress never funded the two agreements, allowing the key
provisions to expire. The restoration accord dissolved in 2016.
The hydroelectric pact, however, was revived in an amended
version that did not require federal legislation.
The new deal led to the nation’s largest dam removal project ever
undertaken.
California and Oregon formed a
nonprofit organization called the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation to take control of the four essentially obsolete
power dams – J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate –
and oversee a $450 million dam demolition and river restoration
project.
Taking out the dams will open more than 420 miles of river and
spawning streams that had been blocked for more than a century,
including cold water pools salmon and trout need to survive the
warming climate.
Demolition crews took out the smallest dam in 2023 and all four
dams were taken down by the end of 2024.
The images of yellow heavy machinery tearing into the dam’s
spillway gates prompted a cathartic release for many who have
been fighting for decades to open this stretch of the Klamath.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” said Toz Soto,
the Karuk fisheries program manager. “This is actually
happening…It’s kind of like the dog that finally caught the car,
except we’re chasing dam removal.”
On the Klamath River, the Upper Klamath Basin’s aquatic
ecosystems are naturally very productive due to its
phosphorus-rich geology.
However, this high productivity makes the Basin’s lakes
vulnerable to water quality problems.
Nutrient loads in the Upper Klamath Basin are a primary driver of
water quality problems along the length of the Klamath River,
including algal blooms in the Klamath Hydroelectric Project
reservoirs. Municipal and industrial discharges of wastewater in
the Klamath Falls area add to the nutrient load.
The Klamath Basin’s Chinook salmon and coho salmon serve a vital
role in the watershed.
Together, they are key to the region’s water management, habitat
restoration and fishing.
However, years of declining population have led to federally
mandated salmon restoration plans—plans that complicate the
diversion of Klamath water for agriculture and other uses.
This issue of Western Water examines the challenges facing state,
federal and tribal officials and other stakeholders as they work
to manage terminal lakes. It includes background information on
the formation of these lakes, and overviews of the water quality,
habitat and political issues surrounding these distinctive bodies
of water. Much of the information in this article originated at
the September 2004 StateManagement Issues at Terminal Water
Bodies/Closed Basins conference.
The story of the Klamath River is the story of two basins.
In the upper basin, farming has long been the way of life. Even
before passage of the 1902 Reclamation Act, settlers had begun
the arduous process of reclaiming vast tracts of wetlands and
transforming them into rich farmland.
