Researchers are expressing optimism over the initial signs of salmon migration in the Lower Klamath River following the nation’s largest-ever dam removal, saying fish are moving upstream into previously blocked regions as the waterway shows signs of improving health.
A series of four dams were removed from the river in Northern California and southern Oregon, with demolition completed in early October, restoring more than 400 miles of free-flowing waterway that had been blocked for a century.
Federal, tribal and state fisheries managers predict it could take at least a decade for the region’s fisheries to recover to healthy population levels, but on Thursday they touted the first post-removal migration.
“The fish have exceeded all our expectations, both in terms of their distribution upstream above the former dam sites and their health,” said Toz Soto, the Karuk Tribe’s fisheries program manager. “It’s something that is pretty amazing.”
