Fish Passage at Mill-Shackelford Bridge
As the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) inches closer and closer to the removal of the Klamath Dams in 2021, California Trout is working relentlessly to capitalize on a new world of opportunity for salmon and steelhead restoration in the Mid-Klamath Basin.
When the dams come out, however, significant work remains to prepare historical habitat for a potential influx of returning adult salmon. Current conditions in key tributaries limit the potential upside of a free flowing Klamath River. Specifically, returning adults need access to spawning habitat. Additionally, juvenile salmon need adequate flows, reasonable water temperatures, and suitable habitat for rearing during hot, summer months. Robust scientific monitoring networks are also needed so fisheries managers can establish baseline conditions, measure changes in population health over time, and adapt restoration strategies in real-time, based on what works and doesn’t work. Fortunately, CalTrout is building the partnerships, engineering solutions, and doing the on-the-ground restoration work needed to be ready for dam removal.
Dam removal will result in a more natural flow regime in the mid-basin allowing winter and spring pulses to flush more than five million cubic tons of sediment to the Pacific Ocean. Cold groundwater springs above Iron Gate Dam will flow freely downstream for the first time since operations commenced in 1962. These improved hydrologic and geomorphic processes are expected to reduce fish disease in the mid-basin, which is spread by sediment loving myxozoa parasites such as Ceratonova shasta (C. Shasta). A free-flowing Klamath River will also eliminate large, seasonal blooms of toxic microcystin algae originating in Copco 1 and Iron Gate Reservoirs.
Modeling results completed by the Department of Interior (DOI) project, with 95 percent certainty, that the combined benefits described above will result in an 81 percent increase in annual median Chinook adult production. Long-term, beyond 2033, annual median production could jump over 150 percent.
Photo by Mike Weir