For those of you who don’t know, the manipulation and use of Klamath River water in southern Oregon and far Northern California has been very contentious in recent years, and has involved several groups, including farmers, Native American tribes, environmentalists, fishermen, Pacific Power, and of course, the government at the local, state, and national levels.
I’ve written earlier about the importance of protecting Northern California streams:
Hikers need to pay attention to water. Many of our favorite hikes travel along streams, and we want the waterways healthy and vibrant. Of course, many hikers also fish and thus have a special interest in helping streams.
Now comes some potentially big news regarding the removal of the dams on the Klamath River:
PacifiCorp said Thursday it had reached an agreement with state and federal officials that could lead to eventual removal of four dams on the Klamath River.
The agreement in principle sets up a process through which the dams will presumably be transferred to the federal government, which could then begin the process of having them torn down.
The four dams provide electricity and irrigation water to customers in the California-Oregon border region. At the same time, they also impede salmon migrations.
I’m still educating myself on this complex issue, but I favor Klamath River dam removal. Tom Chandler at the Trout Underground fly fishing blog wrote an excellent must-read post that provides details of the history and important groups:
For more than a decade, Northern California/Oregon’s Klamath River has been ground zero in the salmon wars: a vicious legal and public relations battleground that’s pitted commercial fishermen, irrigators, big ag, tribal interests, environmental groups and an electrical utility against each another.
Fought amidst a volley of lawsuits, threats, PR campaigns and high-end political intervention, the results haven’t been pretty; salmon populations continue to dwindle, and in 2006 and 2007, plummeting salmon populations in the Klamath and Sacramento Rivers forced a large-scale closure of the commercial salmon fishery along the West Coast.
Against this backdrop, some of the west’s most gripping water wars have played out – largely to nobody’s advantage.
What are your thoughts on dam removal on the Klamath River?
Here’s a photo of the meeting of the Klamath River and the Pacific Ocean, courtesy of Redwood National and State Parks. I lived about four miles from here from 2003-2005 and hiked many, many times on that beach with my two golden retrievers, Molly and Hana. (Hana is no longer with us).
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