News Articles

Dec. 31, 2024
By Lynda V. Mapes

In a day of sadness and surprise, researchers on Puget Sound on Tuesday found J61, the new calf born to mother orca Tahlequah, had not survived — and that a new calf also had been born to J pod.

Brad Hanson, biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, was on the water with other researchers for a health survey of the endangered southern resident orcas and confirmed the news.

Tahlequah’s new calf was especially important as it was a female. The birth also was of symbolic importance to the region. Tahlequah is the mother orca who carried her calf that lived only a half-hour in 2018 in a journey of more than 1,000 miles and 17 days, stirring grief around the world.

The mother and gender of the new calf is not yet confirmed.

Baby orcas always face long odds of survival. Tahlequah’s calf appeared to be having trouble from the start, with the mother often pushing her and carrying her and the baby not looking as lively as he might have expected, Hanson said, after getting a look at her last week.

The southern residents are the orcas that frequent Puget Sound. The families live in the J, K and L pods and are endangered, with only 73 orcas in the population.

They face numerous threats, including lack of salmon, especially Chinook; too much vessel noise and disturbance, which makes it harder for them to hunt; and pollution in their food.

It was a hard day for scientists who have followed the southern residents through their many difficulties and are working for their recovery.

“Three of the four of us had been on the boat last week and were all very concerned about its viability then,” Hanson wrote in an email about J61. “So while today’s observations didn’t come as a complete surprise, the general feeling was one of profound sadness, not only for J35 (Tahlequah) knowing her history, but also knowing what the loss of a female means to the potential for SRKW (southern resident killer whale) recovery.”

The Seattle Times: Orca Tahlequah’s new baby dies 

Differing interests battle over power vs. salmon as the question of the Snake River dams removal rises again

By Henry Brannan, Columbian Murrow News Fellow
Published: December 19, 2024, 1:30pm
Updated: December 19, 2024, 3:01pm

Federal agencies announced Thursday they will update the environmental guidelines that shape how they operate 14 dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The move follows a decades long legal battle that Native nations, environmental advocates and fishing groups are fighting to get the government to take aggressive action on salmon recovery. A lot of that battle has focused on removing dams on Washington’s lower Snake River.

The fight came to a head in 2020 when federal agencies released the current guidelines for the federal system’s operations — known as the Columbia River Operating System Environmental Impact Statement — which came out against removing the four lower Snake River dams.

Environmental groups and others sued in response. Then, in late 2023, the lawsuits were paused in an agreement between federal agencies, the states of Washington and Oregon, environmental advocates, fishing groups, Native nations and the Biden administration.

That agreement required federal agencies to weigh if new guidelines were necessary. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation have now decided they are.

The guidelines at the center of this shape many crucial aspects of the Columbia River dams’ management — including how much water is used to generate hydroelectricity versus how much passes over spillways to help young salmon safely make it to the ocean.

Reactions

The move to pursue new guidelines sparked celebration among environmental and fishing advocates and condemnation from business interests that depend on a dammed lower Snake.

“At least four Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead stocks have already gone extinct and 13 others — including all four remaining Snake River stocks — are listed under the Endangered Species Act,” Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Policy Director Liz Hamilton said in a statement.

“Revising (the guidelines) is the logical next step toward meaningful change that complies with the law and the needs of the fish,” she added.

Earthjustice attorney Amanda Goodin emphasized that avoiding regional salmon extinction is possible if the agencies commit to needed actions “including breaching the four lower Snake River dams and replacing their services.”

In a joint statement, powerful agriculture, shipping and hydropower interests highlighted the lower Snake dams’ significant role in the region’s economy and called the move to update the guidelines unlawful.

“The coalition contends that a new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be both premature and unlawful, warning that it would be incomplete and could mislead the public about these dams’ vital role in supporting the region’s economy and environment,” their statement read.

Public Feedback

The next step in the process of updating the guidelines — known cumulatively as completing a supplemental environmental impact statement — is public feedback.

That will take the form of a 90-day public comment period, said Tom Conning, spokesman for the Corps, which operates 12 of the dams.

“The goal is really to get the public to be aware,” he said. “We’re trying to get the public to send comments to us for consideration.”

Conning said the comment process isn’t like voting, where the goal is to select the most popular ideas. Instead, it’s about people raising issues the agencies might not have considered to make sure the guidelines include as many factors and potential side effects as possible.

Next, the agencies will release a draft supplemental environmental impact statement, followed by another public comment period. The process will end when the agencies release the final supplemental environmental impact statement.

While it’s unclear how long the whole process will take, the more intensive 2020 review lasted just over four years.

Conflicting considerations

​​To produce the guidelines, the agencies will have to weigh two dozen interconnected factors — each with significant environmental, economic and social consequences across the roughly 260,000-square-mile Columbia River Basin. Any decision is bound to anger parties across the basin that will take the issue to the courts.

On one hand, hydropower is increasingly valuable because of massive increases in demand for electricity from the tech industry, especially data centers. That’s compounded by rising population in the Pacific Northwest and fast-approaching fossil fuel-free grid deadlines in Washington and Oregon.

The four lower Snake River dams produce about 5 percent of the region’s electricity — worth between $415 million and $860 million a year. They also allow grain barges to navigate to Lewiston, Idaho, moving 60 percent of Washington’s roughly $750 million in yearly wheat exports.

The overall cost of replacing the dams could be in the tens of billions of dollars each year, according to the Congressional Research Service — especially if the removal is accompanied by massive investment in hard-hit regions to offset the economic toll, which environmental groups and even a Republican congressman have argued for.

But the harmful impacts of the lower Snake dams on salmon are documented by a growing number of government reports, which show the dams are driving salmon extinction by blocking the fish from historic spawning grounds, favoring predators and other means.

Environmental research groups echo that, noting, “Since construction finished on these four dams in the 1970s, wild Snake River salmon populations have plummeted by more than 90 percent.”

Recent estimates show salmon returns to the Columbia have averaged about 2.3 million fish a year for the past decade — a fraction of the 10 million to 16 million that came before dams.

And that 2.3 million estimate doesn’t differentiate between wild and hatchery fish. A 2022 NOAA assessment found the number of wild salmon spawning in Columbia River tributaries declined substantially for nearly every salmon run in nearly every river they measured between 1990 and 2019.

Uncertain future

In addition to practical concerns, federal agencies must also navigate a minefield of political uncertainty caused by January’s transition in the presidential administration, as well as shifts in Congress.
Conning said that while every administration brings change, the agencies will not be changing course.

“We’re following federal laws to guide what we’re doing,” he said. “And we can’t really speculate on the incoming administration and next Congress, and what they might do.”

Republicans, who will control the presidency and both the chambers of Congress starting in January, have opposed Snake River dam removal.

During his first term, former and future President Donald Trump showed a clear preference for cutting environmental protections for fish and ecosystems, instead increasing the amount of river water available across the West for farming. He doubled down on that stance while campaigning last summer, The Columbian reported in October.

Whatever the agencies decide on Snake River dam removal, the issue will ultimately have to be decided by Congress.

It’s unclear how negotiations on the Columbia River Treaty between the U.S. and Canada — and a stopgap agreement between the two countries on hydropower generation and flood control — might shape the agencies’ choices.

Public comments on the update can be left at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/columbiariver. The Corps and Reclamation will hold at least three virtual public meetings the week of Feb. 10.

The Columbian: ‘Unlawful’ or ‘a critical next step’? Feds to update Columbia River dams’ environmental guidelines

@ EcoFlight

Dec 1, 2024
By Henry Brannan/The Columbian

A trio of federal agencies are considering pursuing additional environmental guidelines for the Columbia River.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation are conducting the review to comply with an agreement reached late last year after litigation by regional Native nations and environmental groups.

Environmental groups and tribes are hoping the agencies will recommend the removal of Snake River dams, which seemed likely only a few years ago. But, with Republicans set to control Congress and the White House in less than two months, it’s unclear what will happen.

The guidelines at the center of the debate are collectively called the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement.

Despite the dense, bureaucratic name, the document is important because it shapes crucial aspects of the Columbia River’s management — including how much water dams use to generate hydroelectricity versus how much passes over spillways to help young salmon safely make it to the ocean. The federal agencies began work on the current environmental impact statement in 2016 and finalized it in 2020.

Groups had anticipated the 2020 environmental impact statement would settle the conflict over four dams on the Lower Snake River. They produce about 5% of the region’s electricity but contribute to salmon’s struggles by preventing endangered fish from reaching historic spawning grounds.

However, the 2020 document did not recommend their removal. Native nations and environmental groups sued.

The recent litigation came after more than three decades of legal battles over the government’s efforts to save endangered salmon runs, which environmental groups argue are inadequate.

Following the 2020 litigation, the Biden administration in 2021 stepped in, halting this most recent round to give parties time to negotiate an agreement.

The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, reached in 2023, paused litigation for five to 10 years. It also mandated the government review the recent environmental impact statement, conduct new research and potentially produce a supplement to the document that would change the government’s stance on issues like Snake River dam removal.

“To get a stay in that litigation, we agreed to some things,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Tom Conning said. “And one of those things is environmental compliance.”

That compliance could lead to a supplemental environmental impact statement or the slightly less significant step of a supplemental environmental assessment. Or it could lead to nothing at all.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a supplemental environmental impact statement is required when an agency “makes substantial changes to the proposed action that are relevant to its environmental concerns” or when “there are substantial new circumstances or information about the significance of adverse effects that bear on the analysis.”

In a follow-up email, Conning said the agency is looking at things that have changed since 2020, specifically citing:

• Changes to the Columbia River system’s 14 federal dam and reservoir projects
• Species that have since been listed by the Endangered Species Act
• Changes in Columbia River flows from the pending Columbia River Treaty with Canada
• Newly published research

When asked if the agencies are considering Snake River dam removal, Conning said the dams are a part of the Columbia River system, but the agencies are “looking at the system as a whole and not necessarily individual projects.”

Earthjustice lawyer Amanda Goodin said her organization expects to find out what approach the agencies are taking through a notice of intent from the trio by the end of this fall.

It’s unclear how the January transition from the Biden administration to another Trump presidency will affect the agencies’ decision-making. Goodin said it will likely have some effect, but the specifics remain to be seen.

She noted removing the Snake River dams — when combined with significant investment in areas like Lewiston, Idaho, that would lose local revenue — would be a win for environmentalists, Native nations and the region’s economy.

But Goodin added that “decision documents that came out of the last Trump administration showed no interest in that kind of win-win solution. And, in fact, (they) were pretty fine condemning salmon to extinction.”

The Corps’ Conning said the change in administrations will not change anything the agency is doing.

“Right now, we don’t (expect) basically any impact,” he said. “It’s not like we can really speculate at this point what the incoming administration or the next Congress might do.”

Republicans, who will control the presidency and both the chambers of Congress after January 2025, have opposed Snake River dam removal.

During his first term, President-elect Donald Trump showed a clear preference for cutting environmental protections for fish and ecosystems, instead increasing the amount of river water available across the West for farming.

That’s a stance he doubled down on while campaigning this summer, The Columbian reported in October.

To Goodin, the stakes of the federal agencies’ potential action could not be higher — or more time-sensitive.

“The science has made clear that we are in an extinction crisis and that we really have to act with urgency here if we don’t want to lose some of these (salmon) runs,” she said. “We don’t really have time for half-measures. We don’t really have time for inaction.”

“And if the federal government decides to not live up to its obligation and not to keep moving forward with the agreement,” she continued, “then anything’s on the table — anything that we can do to buy the fish more time, anything that we can do to keep this moving forward.”

Whatever the agencies decide on Snake River dam removal, Goodin acknowledged that the issue will ultimately have to be decided by Congress.

Seattle Times: What will a switch from Biden to Trump mean for the Columbia River? 

"We're ensuring that this thing is moving," Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce tribe, said at an online forum Wednesday.

By Jennifer Yachnin | 11/21/2024

Tribal officials advocating for the removal of four Pacific Northwest dams to boost beleagured salmon and steelhead populations say the effort could remain on track, even with Republicans opposing the effort prepare to take control of the White House and Congress.

Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce tribe in north-central Idaho, said optimistic that efforts to remove the four Lower Snake River dams will continue, however slowly.

“It always has been difficult. It isn't going to change,” Wheeler said Wednesday at an online forum sponsored by the tribe’s Salmon Orca Project.

Tribal advocates scored a victory in late 2023, when the Biden administration announced a $1 billion settlement agreement in a long-running federal lawsuit over hydropower operations on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

The agreement between the federal government and the Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla tribal nations, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington, includes funding for multiple studies on the impacts of removing the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite hydropower dams.

The studies will examine how to ensure water supplies for crop irrigation, transportation, and recreation, as well as other sources of energy production.

Only Congress has authority to actually order the dams’ removal, and Republicans, including Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz, have vigorously opposed the idea.

Wheeler — who along with other speakers didn't mention President-elect Donald Trump by name, or any other officials, aside from praising Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) —noted that progress on restoring fish populations has long been a complex process decades in the making.

“We're ensuring that this thing is moving,” Wheeler said. “Sometimes it may seem like it slows, but even if it moves an inch, that's enough.”

Wheeler said that tribal leaders would focus on education efforts about the salmon populations, as well as work with federal, state and local officials and environmental groups to address how to best move forward with dam removal and restoration efforts.

“Over the next five to 10 years, let's ensure that the studies that are being done in Washington are completed and our voices are being heard through that process,” Wheeler said.

“I can still see the end, the goal line here, and it gets tough in the red zone,” he added, utilizing terminology used in football when a team is near the goal line.

Kayeloni Scott, who serves as executive director of the Columbia & Snake River Campaign, a coalition of 40 organizations, said Washington and Oregon would also need to serve as leaders on the project.

“Just because our trajectory might be shifting a little bit, doesn't mean the timeline of the salmon has changed,” Scott said. “We're still looking at two life cycles before we're in serious, serious trouble, which means eight to 10 years.”

E&E News: Proponents of breaching dams see opportunities in Trump era

L pod visits Whidbey Island’s Penn Cove, an infamous capture site, for the first time in more than 50 years. Photo: Kat MartinBy Christopher Dunagan
November 7, 2024

Southern Resident killer whales have been hanging out in Puget Sound much longer than normal this fall, probably because of an unusually large run of chum salmon coming into Central and South Puget Sound, experts say.

As of today, J pod has remained in Puget Sound for 19 straight days with the exception of a two-day excursion into Canadian waters this past weekend, according to Howard Garrett of Orca Network. K and L pods also have been around, with L pod making a surprising visit to the infamous orca-capture grounds in Penn Cove for what may be the first time in more than 50 years.

On a much sadder note, K26, a 31-year-old orca named Lobo has been reported missing and likely deceased by the Center for Whale Research. Also, there have been no further signs of an emaciated calf, designated L128 (Our Water Ways, Oct. 11). These two deaths would bring the Southern Resident population down to 72, matching the record low for this orca population, which has been the focus of unsuccessful recovery efforts.

In a typical year, the fish-eating Southern Residents come and go, feeding on fall chum that arrive in Puget Sound after chinook salmon — their favored food — become less available. This occurs as spring and summer Chinook runs decline in northern Puget Sound and British Columbia.

This year, J pod seems to have settled in, generally hanging out in feeding grounds within the so-called Possession Triangle south of Whidbey Island and north of a line between Kingston and Edmonds. In this area, they are able to catch and consume fish bound for streams farther south.

“By all indications, there has been a lot of foraging,” Howie told me. “We’ve had reports from the water of chum jumping.”

Fisheries biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently doubled their estimates of the number of chum that will return to streams in Central and South Puget Sound. The preseason forecast, used to set fishing seasons, anticipated a return of 486,562 chum to Central/South streams. That’s more than half of the total Puget Sound chum run, estimated early this year at 818,793. The 10-year average is 1.2 million.

The latest estimate just for Central/South is 900,000 chum, based largely on “test fisheries” conducted near Kingston. Meanwhile, Hood Canal, originally estimated at 254,900 chum, has been updated to 1.04 million. That Hood Canal estimate alone exceeds the entire preseason estimate for all of Puget Sound, and that waterway alone falls just short of the 10-year average for the entire Sound.

The reasons for the increased numbers of chum are not well understood, but are likely the result of cooler ocean waters, increased food supply and other favorable conditions after the fish leave their natal streams. A La Niña phase in the oceanic cycle, called the El Ñino Southern Oscillation, has been reported as favorable to salmon growing to size in the ocean from August 2020 to January 2023, according to experts who thought they had already accounted for those conditions.

“While we are getting a better understanding of what variables to look at when doing forecasts, we still have a lot to learn,” noted Kyle Adicks, intergovernmental salmon manager for WDFW, “and there are still a lot of short and long-term oscillations in salmon survival, abundance, productivity, etc., that we don’t have a handle on.”

Increased numbers of chum have been seen moving upstream throughout the region, thanks to recent rains. As more fish home in on their natal streams, we could see the whales moving farther south. More salmon in the streams suggests that this is a good time for humans to go out and watch salmon swimming and spawning at public-viewing locations throughout the region. WDFW has produced a webpage that offers viewing tips and a map of Puget Sound with locations where salmon can be seen.

Jon Oleyar, a biologist with the Suquamish Tribe who counts fish in the streams, confirmed that this year’s chum run is surprisingly large. Chico Creek, perhaps the largest chum stream in Puget Sound, has good numbers of fish in the mainstem and far up into most of its tributaries, he said. This may turn out to be the largest run on record.

It appears from various accounts that the number of coho salmon also are up this year. Coho often enter the streams about the same time as chum, but they may go upstream earlier or later depending on streamflows, to which they seem to respond more readily than chum.

While resident killer whales prefer Chinook salmon, studies have shown that they will eat chum and coho when these fish are plentiful. So far, the whales seem to be finding enough salmon in the Possession Triangle, although J pod made at least one trip as far south as Seattle in October. In past years, the whales have been known to go south in search of food, occasionally passing under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge into South Puget Sound.

To watch the whales from shore, check out reports on Orca Network Community Group, which gathers sighting information from all sorts of observers. Locations to view whales when present are shown on the sighting map.

Orca observers were pleased and somewhat amazed this past Sunday when L pod went up Saratoga Passage and entered Penn Cove near the Whidbey Island town of Coupeville. This is where seven orcas were captured for the aquarium trade in 1970, with an additional three captured there in 1971. Among them was a young whale named Lolita or Tokitae, who was taken to an aquarium in Miami, where she died last year. She was the last of the many Puget Sound whales in captivity.

Until Sunday, the whales had never returned to Penn Cove, as far as anyone knows, although they have been seen in nearly every other bay and inlet throughout Puget Sound, according to Howie, who noticed that L pod’s behavior in Penn Cove was noticeably different from the foraging activity of J pod in the Possession Triangle.

“L pod seemed to be exploring Penn Cove in large groups with multiple spy hops and breaches, and high speed porpoising from place to place.” Howie wrote on Orca Network’s Facebook page. “Typical foraging behavior wasn’t reported or photographed.”

Among the L pod whales was L25, a female named Ocean Sun estimated to be 96 years old. She is said to be the only orca still alive who could have been among the whales that were rounded up in Penn Cove years ago.

“So, I wonder,” Howie continued, “what were they doing there? Did L25 share her memories of those traumatic chases with bombs into Penn Cove and the many nets and removal of their young, never to be seen again? Were the others, all of whom were born after 1971, aware that those terrible events happened there? We can only wonder.”

Kat Martin, who photographed the whales from shore, said she was happy to witness history in the making. Watch a video she made of the experience on YouTube.

“For the first time in over 50 years, the southern resident orcas made their way into Penn Cove,” she wrote on Facebook. “L Pod gave us a lovely look as they came in. We were all in complete shock with each minute that passed with them inside the cove… We will never forget this! Nearly one year ago to the day, I was watching J Pod travel through Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island, another place the whales are not known to travel to. How incredible that I got to witness history once again!”

After Sunday’s visit to Penn Cove, the L pod whales returned on Tuesday, according to observers. As of this morning, a number of J pod whales left the Possession Triangle, swam south past Kingston and were off Bainbridge Island, where they were seen from the shore and from at least two state ferries.

Puget Sound Institute: Some orcas extend their stay in Puget Sound; others visit capture site for first time in years

October 8, 2024

All four lower Klamath River hydropower dams have been removed. Kiewit, the dam removal contractor hired by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation to complete the construction elements of the project, finished all work this month in the river.

Following the cofferdam breaches last month, a portion of the Iron Gate cofferdam and a temporary river crossing at Copco No. 1 were left in place to provide access to the far side of the river in order to remove diversion infrastructure. With all the diversion infrastructure, temporary bridges, and dam materials now fully removed from the river, the dam removal portion of the Klamath River Renewal Project is now complete.

Restoration and recovery of the river will continue for the coming years.

Together, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, J.C. Boyle, and Iron Gate Dams had blocked fish passage and impaired water quality for more than a century. All four were hydroelectric dams that did not provide irrigation or drinking water and were not operated for flood control.

Following decades of advocacy, led by area tribes and supported by conservation advocates, commercial fishing organizations, and the States of California and Oregon, federal regulators approved the removal of the dams in November 2022. Ownership of the project was then transferred to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the organization that was created to oversee the removal of the dams and related restoration of the previously submerged lands.

Copco No. 2, the smallest dam, was removed in the summer of 2023. In January of 2024 the Copco No. 1, JC Boyle, and Iron Gate reservoirs were drained, and deconstruction began in the spring. Massive amounts of concrete, earth, rocks and clay was removed from the river channel as part of the dam removal process.

With these obstructions now cleared from the mainstem river, fish once again have access to more than 400 stream miles, including in tributary creeks and streams, of habitat in the upper Klamath Basin.

While the dam removal portion of the project is now complete, work will continue for several years restoring the 2,200 acres of formerly submerged lands. As the reservoirs drained in January, native seed mix was applied to the reservoir footprints. This initial round of seeding was intended to stabilize sediments and improve soil composition.

This fall, restoration crews will turn their attention to amending soil conditions and will then perform another round of seeding and planting. Restoration crews will be onsite until vegetation success meets predetermined performance metrics. Restoration work is likely to continue for at least the next several years.

To learn more about the project, see klamathrenewal.org.

“These final dam removal steps set the stage for salmon to return to reclaimed habitat and expand their population recovery,” said Jim Simondet, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region Klamath Branch Supervisor.

NOAA Fisheries analyzed the impacts of dam removal on Endangered Species Act-listed species in a biological opinion. That analysis found that the short-term impacts, such as the potential effects of sediment in the water on salmon, would be outweighed by the much greater long-term benefits as river ecosystem processes return at a landscape scale.

Before the final removal steps, NOAA Fisheries convened a forum called the Fisheries Coordination Team to discuss how to best protect fish and water quality. It included experts from tribes, states, and other federal agencies. The team provided technical recommendations to manage water quality impacts, such as those observed earlier in the year when the reservoirs were initially drained. Crews used a strategy of releasing sediment and organic material that muddied the river but avoided a decline in dissolved oxygen that could have otherwise harmed fish.

“The network of water quality monitoring sites managed by the tribes are providing real-time data to the Fisheries Coordination Team, allowing them to manage sediment inputs and adaptively manage fisheries needs during the final removal process,” said Toz Soto, Fisheries Program Manager for the Karuk Tribe.

The KRRC followed the recommendation to remove sediment and organic material from behind the cofferdam before the dam was fully removed. That resulted in a slower release of the material. The Fisheries Coordination Team will hold weekly check-ins to track extensive water quality monitoring up and down the river.

“Our goal was to provide a forum that allowed for transparent sharing of information, collection of observations, and recommendations from experts who live and work on the river,” said Shari Witmore, a fisheries biologist in NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region’s Klamath Branch. “Leaning on the advice of our partners, we were able to minimize impacts to fish in the Klamath River during the final step of dam removal.”

“Given all the complexities and details necessary to remove the four dams, the work has gone pretty smoothly and commensurate with our expectations,” Simondet said. “That is a testament to the hard work and expertise of the KRRC and its contractors and the planning we all contributed to ahead of time to get this right.”

Also see:

–CBB, Sept. 13, 2024, With Klamath Dams Breached, California Issues ‘Klamath River Anadromous Fishery Reintroduction and Restoration Monitoring Plan’ 

–CBB, August 9, 2024, Klamath River Dam Removal: Salmon Scientists Design Monitoring Program To Track Fish Returns, When And Where They Go

Columbia Basin Bulletin: All Four Lower Klamath River Dams Removed, Several Years Work Ahead To Restore Formerly Submerged Lands