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Copco No. 1 at Wards Canyon, Klamath River, California, January 25, 2024

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the Lower Klamath Project since 2022

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Featured are short visual tours of sights and sounds from the Klamath River watershed with a current focus on the changing landscape associated with dam removal and the Lower Klamath Project.

Chinook salmon are the largest of the Pacific salmon and are also called King salmon. They’re anadromous, meaning they have the unusual ability to live in fresh water rivers and streams as well as in the ocean. For salmon, their lifecycle depends on both. Salmon are born in a river or in its tributaries, often hundreds of miles from the river’s mouth. They spend their adult life in the ocean eating smaller fish. If they survive, they return home to produce the next generation. For the Upper Klamath and Trinity River Chinook Salmon, that’s a 3-4 year life cycle for most individuals. Once migration is complete and a suitable gravel bed found, the female builds her redd, a nest for holding eggs that, once deposited, are soon fertilized by nearby males who’ve been waiting and sparring for their chance to pass the along their genes. Over a few days she’ll continue to spawn and defend her redd while passing males contribute to the process until she weakens and dies. At this point in her life she’s eaten nothing since entering the river, maybe 200 miles ago. Since then, her body has devoted everything to her eggs and to the swim to deliver them. The cycle, once complete, is not just about the eggs laid or their hatch in eighteen weeks. It’s also a remarkable exchange of ocean-rich nutrients that help sustain a landscape that’s co-evolved with others that have come to depend on it. For more about this, check out page 313 of the book, “The Klamath River Mountains, A Natural History” by Michael Kauffmann and Justin Garwood. Anyone interested in the diversity of the Klamath will find this book enjoyable. Salmon and the Klamath have a long history together. For most of the river’s millions of years, it was without people. Then, roughly ten to fourteen thousand years ago, people began to explore and settle within the Klamath region. Different tribes’ creation stories speak of time-immemorial, and in their thousands of years of life on the Klamath, they have been working out the balance. Despite eating lots of fish, the historic record often speaks of a time when salmon were so thick one could walk across their backs to cross a river. Now, as modern day threatened and endangered species, the Chinook and Coho salmon are celebrated as they return to reclaim former homeland. With dam removal complete and barriers removed, the salmon are heading farther inland than years past. Some are choosing Jenny Creek, then next is Fall Creek, and off through Wards Canyon for the first time since 1912 where they’re choosing Shovel Creek and Spencer Creek and even the fish ladder at Keno Dam in Oregon. For these fish in Fall Creek there’s some history here. Many could be imprinted by having been raised at the hatchery, where they were first caught at Iron Gate but raised in waters of Fall Creek located within a mile of the Klamath River just below Wards Canyon. These fish are part of the renewal plan, which includes a state-of-the-art fish hatchery with an eight-year mission to help repopulate the Upper Klamath’s Chinook and Coho populations. One can often tell a hatchery fish from a wild one by its adipose fin (topside near tail). A portion of hatchery fish have their adipose fin clipped to help calculate differences in hatchery and wild returns. If the adipose is clipped, it’s a hatchery fish. If it is not clipped, it could be a wild fish or a hatchery fish. Interestingly, most fish in this video sequence have unclipped fins. It’s a fun detail look for. Another detail of interest as seen in this video is the presence of smaller fish, first a rainbow trout parr and later others. Trout know where to find a good meal, and aquatic invertebrates disturbed by redd building, as well as freshly laid salmon eggs, are on the menu. For more information, take a look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pages on Chinook Salmon (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/chinook-salmon-protected) and Coho Salmon (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/coho-salmon-protected), as well as the book “The Klamath Mountains, A Natural History” (https://backcountrypress.com/book/the-klamath-mountains-a-natural-history/ ). And a note about sources of information: thank you to National Marine Fisheries Service fish biologist Daniel Free for providing the identification and information regarding the rainbow trout and for fielding questions about salmonids and lamprey. Additional information and assistance with Klamath River fish knowledge and the Lower Klamath Project has come from Shari Whitmore, fish biologist for the Klamath branch of NOAA, and is much appreciated.
at Fall Creek with Chinook Salmon, Late October, 2024
At the confluence of Spencer Creek and the Klamath River, near Keno, Oregon in the former foot print of the Topsy Reservoir, formerly held by the John C. Boyle Dam, salmon are returning from the Pacific Ocean for the first time since the 1912 damming of the river at Wards Canyon (Copco No 1) just south of the state line. This is a remarkable story and a fulfillment of an uncertain dream: restore a free flowing Klamath River to allow migrating salmon the freedom to move as they had for millions of years. To let the salmon regain 400 miles of former habitat was the result of extensive research by the Yurok Tribe, the Karuk Tribe, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, federal agencies, and numerous NGOs who came to agree that damming the Klamath River had adverse effects on fish populations by limiting migration and by creating conditions that encouraged disease and mortality. Despite a hatchery at Iron Gate Dam, too few salmon survived river conditions in order to return home and spawn. As is often the case regarding troubles with fish, water quality was to blame and for the Klamath, reservoirs held summer heat, causing river temperatures to be excessively high in summer and fall. Warm water is uncomfortable for salmonids and prone to disease causing organisms such as cyanobacteria and C. shasta, a microscopic parasite that kills fish. To restore the river system to more fish friendly conditions the Klamath River Renewal Corporation completed their mission of dam removal on October 2, 2024 at Iron Gate. On October 3 the first “aquatic species” was caught by sonar moving up river from what once was the end of the line at the former Iron Gate Hatchery. By size and motion, a scientific guess called it the first fall Chinook of 2024 to reach Iron Gate. Who knows where that fish went with its new found freedom of travel? It may have been one of the hundreds of fish later seen in Jenny Creek or Fall Creek, both of the former Iron Gate Reservoir or perhaps it was the fish spotted by ODFW on October 16 in Spencer Creek just above the former J. C. Boyle Dam near Keno, Oregon. About this same time the sonar system as reported by CalTrout estimated two hundred ninety fish in a single day going up river. The salmon are on the move. The salmon cohort of 2024 have arrived and they have discovered a very different river than the one they were born in. Dam removal has been hard on the river with high turbidity with less dissolved oxygen but it’s recovering and without obstruction for the first time since 1912. There’s still a lot of work to do and much of that is now in nature’s hand as 60-112 years of backlogged sediments make their way downstream, rebuilding river side soils and providing willows a chance to root. While challenging for fish and wildlife, the Klamath and its salmon are no strangers to silt and the current numbers of migrating fish, as Morgan Knechtle of CDFW put it, “are extremely encouraging with widespread distribution.” The Yurok Tribe, the Karuk Tribe, CDFW, ODFW, NGOs, and many others do a lot of fish monitoring. The data that’s currently being collected is cause for optimism and will help guide the restoration process as feedback comes in. It’s too early for comparison to years past since migration is ongoing but ODFW has reported exciting news. As of October 30, the maximum daily count of individual Chinook salmon in Spencer Creek is one hundred fifteen individuals with forty-two redds. In the Klamath River above the former J. C. Boyle Dam eighty eight Chinook salmon have been observed with sixty-two redds and below the former dam, forty Chinook with twelve redds. Additionally, ODFW reports that two salmon were observed in the fish ladder by the Bureau of Reclamation on October 25th. Tommy Williams of the Southwest Fishery Science Center noted, “none of us were betting that this many fish would move upstream into Oregon as fast as they did.” “The fish are already exceeding expectations” states Amy Bowers Cordalis, Yurok member and founding Executive Director for Ridges to Riffles. “Our goal is to restore the balance between humans and nature, not just within the Klamath Basin, but also within the ocean environments that are dependent on Klamath salmon. And we do that through… nature based solutions, right? Klamath Dam removal is all about nature based solutions.” “It’s a remarkable time. We all get to be the generation that sees the river's restoration, the salmon’s restoration, and then the river's ability to... support the humans.” The goal is sustainable, dependable, and bountiful numbers of fish for all to enjoy and for the food chain to devour. To learn more about why salmon are important check out the Pacific Fishery Management Council at: (https://www.pcouncil.org) or NOAA Fisheries at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/sustainable-fisheries/ecosystem-interactions-and-pacific-salmon and https://www.ridgestoriffles.org.
at Spencer Creek with Chinook Salmon and Large Woody Debris, Klamath River Near Keno, 10-26-2024.
October 6, 2024 was a quiet morning at Iron Gate. Dam removal had been completed just a few days before, but Caterpillars on river left still crawled. Beep, beep, beeping until the first quiet day on Sunday the 6th, when the birds awoke to silence and the sounds of a free flowing river. - As early as the 1920s, the dam at Iron Gate was conceived as part of the Federal Power Commission’s requirement for the California Oregon Power Company (Copco) to develop and utilize all power resources of the Klamath. Water was to be used, and if not for electric generation, certainly for irrigation. If there was "extra" water it meant the possibility of diversion to the Sacramento Valley. Complications from shifting water rights and priorities for irrigation under Oregon's 1931 Hydroelectric Act led Copco to shift resources to California where it had powerhouses in Wards Canyon and Fall Creek. Iron Gate was in a good position, but disagreements over irrigation water rights persisted and Copco postponed the building of Iron Gate indefinitely. Water politics are always complicated, and crossing state lines especially so. Physically building dams and removing them might take a year or two, but only after decades of paperwork. Iron Gate was eventually built in 1960-1962. In addition to hydroelectric power generation, Iron Gate, with no fish ladder, put a hard stop to anadromous fish migration upstream of the dam. Iron Gate blocked hundreds of miles of spawning grounds necessary for the salmonid lifecycle. Salmon are dependent on cool water, and the side streams of both upper and lower Klamath are necessary for spawning the next generation. The dams blocked access and their reservoirs stored summer heat, which not only made conditions uninhabitable above the dams, it influenced river health, creating dangerous conditions for salmon below. As conditions for salmon worsened, not just on the Klamath but around the world, the commercial fishing industry as well as Tribal communities were seeing consequences first hand. As early as the 1980s commercial fishing interests suspected the Klamath River dams were to blame for declining fish stocks. Indigenous cultures downriver from the dams, the Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa with thousands of years of shared history, all agreed. However, dam removal would not become a topic of popular conversation until 2002 when drought forced tough decisions for water allocation. The Klamath River basin rarely has enough water for everyone who wants it let alone for those with legal rights to use it. In 2001 while in drought it came down to enough water for one or the other. An effort to supply farming with their needs to complete harvest led to an exceptionally low flow for the Klamath River. Water quality plummeted and disease spread, killing over 34,000 salmon, mostly chinook, during their 2002 fall migration. This event turned the tide where most came to agree that whether for farms or for fish, something had to change. The first big opportunity for change came as the dams came due for relicensing. Unlike the initial license to operate, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 coupled with the Federal Power Act triggered requirements to provide fish passage. As a result, PacifiCorp, the owner and operator, chose to decommission the aging infrastructure and agreed in 2016 to surrender their license to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, whose mission was to remove the dams and restore a free flowing river. On October 2nd, 2024, the KRRC completed their mission “on time and on budget” (Mark Bransom, CEO, 10-5-2024, Yreka, California). Restoration of the exposed reservoir beds, headed by Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) has been in process for years, with another five years or more to manage regrowth: encouraging native plants while discouraging invasive ones. According to John C. Boyle and others, the threat of water being diverted to the Sacramento Valley was only prevented by unanimous agreement among Klamath Basin water users that Klamath River water was for the Klamath Basin. Diversion to the Sacramento River would have been disastrous for the Basin. The perceived value added by Boyle's dams prevented diversion, thus saving Klamath River water for the Klamath Basin rather than for California's Central Valley hundreds of miles away. The fact that Klamath water remains in the Basin is a fact that everyone in the Basin is thankful for. There’s still a tremendous amount of work to do, whether it’s fish and farms or not, it’s about food and how to sustainably feed growing populations of people while preserving the natural world that makes it possible. Sources: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/1... https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterr... John C. Boyle, 50 Years on the Klamath, 1976.
Sunrise at Iron Gate, Klamath River, October 6, 2024
Dear Salmon, We’ve been busy this year and have made a mess of your river. We’re all sorry about that but good things are coming. Klamath dam removal has often been described as a “short term pain for a long term gain.” It’s truly a messy process. I’m sure you’ve noticed the low levels of dissolved oxygen and high levels of turbidity but fear not, these troubles are passing, you’ve got this. If the going gets tough please know your next generation will have an easier time of it. But for yourself, persist, as you have for millions of years, for above Iron Gate the water’s looking great - this year, your run is heroic. You’re among the first in over a century to reclaim hundreds of miles of ancestral waterway. The Klamath runs free again, for you. Will you choose to pass the narrows of Iron Gate? How about Ward’s Canyon and Kikaceki, or the community of Copco Lake? Or maybe head for Oregon and the Upper Klamath? If that’s a bit far this year then what about the Frain Ranch? It too is among the beautiful places you once knew. To go all the way to Chiloquin, a few obstacles remain but worry not, stay to the right when reaching Keno, look for the ladder. It’s a bit small but show us you can make it and you’ll get a new one. If you choose to climb further and make it to the Link River, veer to the left. There’s a ladder there too. Don’t worry much about the people, they’re out enjoying a beautiful walk between Upper Klamath Lake and Lake Ewauna. For now these folks of Klamath Falls won’t eat you. Once you clear Pelican Cove, you’re free to go. Make it to Chiloquin and you’re famous forever. Fame can be lonely so be sure to bring friends. – Dam removal associated with the Lower Klamath Project was declared complete as of October 2, 2024. Much work remains in the restoration process but the river now flows free for anadromous fish (salmon, steelhead, and lamprey) from the rivers that feed Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon to Requa, California for the first time since 1912. Salmon, with a history of millions of years and for Indigenous cultures with over 7,000 years, the balance has been reset. Despite the controversies that surround big change, big change is happening. It is work in progress and the work is incomplete. Bridges need building and ladders need replacing for fish and for communities all along the river and former reservoir. A sea change is in motion. It’s now up to the fish to test the waters and for communities to listen - the salmon will tell us what’s next.
At the Iron Gate Narrows, October 4, 2024.
"at the Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon and California – Early Summer 2024" is a visual journey from Agency and Upper Klamath Lakes through the headwaters of the Klamath River at the Link River and Keno dams on through dam removal of the Lower Klamath Project at John C. Boyle, Copco No.1 and No. 2, and Iron Gate. For a lot more information on the Upper Klamath Basin and Lower Klamath Project please visit: https://meridianphoto.com/klamath-river-project-early-summer-update-2024/ BEHIND THE SCENES – BEYOND THE SEEN The opening sequence for "at the Upper Klamath Basin" begins at the Williamson River. It required twelve miles of paddling by kayak. I asked two people about easier access to the river, a store owner and real estate agent. Both were unhelpful. Accepting this as par for the course I entered the river at the bridge crossing the Williamson River from Modoc Point Road. Under that bridge was scribbled in black paint, "were all going to hell.” The paddle to the confluence was excellent. Waterbirds were hunting, the Canada geese were grazing with their goslings, and the blackbirds, especially the yellow-headed ones were an audio treat amongst the cattails and willows. All with the occasional leap of a trout clearing the water’s surface - providing that momentary glimpse of its silvery size. Once at the confluence I couldn't find a place to land the kayak without getting spiked by giant stinging nettles. The mosquitoes too were quite aggressive. I was really dumb not to be prepared for them. From this locale, positioned in the willow bank hindered much of the line-of-sight required for flight. Except for over the lake itself the views were disappointing and time was running out for another try. With the solstice sun nearing the horizon I had one more chance so I positioned the kayak in the middle of the river and took to the air. I had my eye on the old cottonwood tree. It reminds me of a tree at Kitty Ward’s Ranch near Wards Canyon. Always wanting more, I flew the last flight to a near empty battery. Although a common practice in good conditions, I failed to take into account the extra challenge of catch-landing while paddling a kayak. It's not easy to land in low light, over open water with wind while running out of fuel. It was terrifying. The post flight paddle home provided the perfect take-a-deep-breath moment to unwind. It was a moment made perfect by beaver escort. I must of passed a dozen of them - all splashing their tails to let me know who owns the place. Near midnight by the time I reached the car and quite exhausted I then tried spending the night at the Agency Lake Boat Ramp at Hazel Park. It was late, I was tired, and it seemed an easy way to be ready for the next day. It turns out the “no camping” rule is actually enforced and sleeping in a car is not okay. For my crime I was chased off by spotlights from three cop cars. Three? Surely not all for me? Undeterred, I returned by sunrise to photograph the first day of summer at Agency Lake. With one day down and three to go I then proceeded to the other points of interest. Although uneventful and without incident, the side-eyes from most everyone are palpable and unwelcoming. What’s that camera guy doing and who’s he working for? Perhaps this video provides an answer. - updated July 18, 2024
at the Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon and California – Early Summer 2024
As early as the 1920s, the dam at Iron Gate was conceived as part of the Federal Power Commission’s requirement for the California Oregon Power Company (Copco) to develop and utilize ALL of the power resources of the Klamath. Water was to be used, and if not for electric generation, certainly for irrigation. If there was "extra" it was fair game to be taken and used elsewhere. For the Klamath, this meant the possibility of diversion to the Sacramento Valley. Complications from shifting water rights and priories for irrigation under Oregon's Hydroelectric Act of January 22, 1931, lead Copco to shift resources to California where it had powerhouses in Ward’s Canyon and Fall Creek. Iron Gate was in a good position, but disagreements over irrigation water rights persisted and Copco postponed the building of Iron Gate indefinitely. Water politics are always complicated, and crossing state lines especially so. Physically building dams and removing them could take a year or two, but only after decades of paperwork. Iron Gate was eventually built in 1960 - 1962. In addition to hydroelectric power generation, Iron Gate, with no fish ladder, put a hard stop to anadromous fish migration upstream of the dam; salmonid lifecycles depend on cool side streams of both the upper and lower Klamath. According to John C. Boyle, the threat of water being diverted to the Sacramento Valley was only prevented by the unanimous agreement that Klamath water was for the Klamath Basin, and diversion to the Sacramento River would be disastrous for everyone. The value added by the dams built by Boyle prevented diversion, thus saving Klamath River water for the Klamath region, rather than for California's Central Valley hundreds of miles away. References Boyle, John C. 50 Years on the Klamath. Self-published 1976-1982. Pages 50-51, 57.
at Iron Gate and the Klamath River, California, May 20, 2024
The John C. Boyle Dam was completed in 1958. Originally named the Big Bend Plant, the Pacific Power & Light Company renamed it as the John C. Boyle Hydroelectric Project on June 21, 1961 to honor Boyle’s 52 years of distinguished contribution to the electric utility industry. [Boyle 58] John C. Boyle was the engineer who harnessed the Klamath River for electric power generation. Not just with the building of dams at Big Bend (1956-1958) and Iron Gate (1960-1962), but beginning with Copco 1 (1911-1918) and Copco 2 (1911-1925) of Wards Canyon and upriver to Oregon at the Link River Dam (1920-21). [Boyle] The Link River Dam sits between Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River and regulates water for both industrial and ecological needs. It’s a tricky job, as water resources are frequently over-allocated, often putting farmers and fish at odds with each other’s survival needs. Once the planned dam removal is complete, the Klamath River will still be regulated by dams at Link River and Keno but from there the river is free to flow to the Pacific Ocean. Regardless of one’s position on the right to farm, fish, to build dams or to remove them, managing the Klamath for hydroelectric power and regional irrigation likely prevented proposed plans by the Army Corps of Engineers to divert Klamath water into the Sacramento Valley. [Boyle 48] It’s difficult to imagine the consequences for the Klamath watershed had that kind of diversion happened. The value in the power generated by the Klamath dams and an eye on future capacity quite possibly saved the Klamath Basin from an impoverished fate similar to that of the Owens Valley at the hands of the Los Angeles City Water Company. Part of that eye on the future may also have helped save the Klamath from diversion into the Central Valley of California. With the exception of the John C. Boyle and Iron Gate Dams, that “future capacity” remained undeveloped but included plans for a dam at the confluence of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers – Ishi Pishi. For those familiar with Ishi Pishi, the idea of a dam is nearly unfathomable yet remarkably similar to the Copco dams in Wards Canyon. How does one justify such a thing? For an engineer, to design a damming system is a fun and challenging project where it might become a bit easy to disregard the impact on others by thinking the greater good needs their service. Engineers may excel at applied mechanics and Newtonian physics but are not so in tune with those who endure the negative consequences. Their’s is an essential service that often aims for the greater good. But it often requires teamwork, political leadership, and government policy that helps guide opposing needs toward collaborative solutions. Despite hydroelectric’s reputation as low carbon and eco-groovy, the lower Klamath dams and their reservoirs asserted their dominion only to illustrate how “harnessing” a river requires more than an engineer’s clever reworking of water flow. Rather than build more dams as planned, a century of experience has lead the way toward removing them in order to renew a natural system that all life depends upon. Author's Note: The source for references of fact come from John C. Boyle's memoir, 50 Years On The Klamath, self published in 1976 and 1982. Additionally, the sources of opinion and sentiment are influenced by Marc Reisner's, Cadillac Desert, The American West and its Disappearing Water as well as the book Dreamt Land by Mark Ajax. Updated June 7, 2024 to correct a misstatement regarding Keno Dam.
at Topsy and the John C. Boyle Dam, Klamath River, Oregon, May 19, 2024
Harrison Ward is on record for being the original homesteader of 160 acres at the upper mouth of modern day Wards Canyon. Seven years later in 1889 his brother William homesteaded another 160 acres. This could be how Kikacéki, ancestral homeland to the Shasta Indian Nation and Modoc, came be to be known as Wards Canyon rather than Ward's Canyon. Making sense of the historic record is a challenge. Not only are misspellings common but fathers and mothers often had a son, daughter, or grandchild with same first names. The native population too had European names that came from popular culture as well as local association. Kitty Ward, one of the last owners of record prior to purchase by the Siskiyou Electric Power and Light Company, offers such an example. Kitty was a twice widowed Shasta Indian and the sole owner of 240 acres referred to as Ward's Ranch. Until recently, within the upper stretch of Wards Canyon sat the Copco No. 2 diversion dam, its conveyance system and small reservoir, as well as the 110 year old Copco No. 1 dam. There's little that remains of Copco No. 1, but it too is being carried away. Dam removal and habitat restoration are part of the Lower Klamath Project being managed by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. KRRC is the temporary landowner in care of the transition between an environment managed for hydroelectric generation to one more compatible for the survival of keystone fish species in danger of extinction.
at Wards Canyon and Kikacéki, Copco No. 1 and Copco No. 2, May 17, 2024
California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), common fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii), and chick lupine (Lupinus microcarpus var densiflorus) are in their first bloom at the former Iron Gate and Copco Reservoirs. These hardy species are native to California and thrive in disturbed soils. Their special powers have been recruited to help prevent not just soil erosion but to reduce the advance of undesirable plant species such as sheet grass and star thistle. First spread by hand, successive generations will make their way to the river's edge helping secure soil while making way for shrubs and trees. A fun fact here is these poppies are only in the seed mix dispersed by hand along the reservoir's former shoreline. Helicopter reseeding of the lower reaches didn't include the poppies. Ongoing reseeding efforts are part of the Klamath River Renewal Project also known as the Lower Klamath Project (FERC No. 14083) being managed by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. In addition to the removal of four hydroelectric dams the project involves massive restoration of the former reservoirs. Restoration is managed by RES (Resource Environmental Solutions), headquartered out of Houston Texas and self-described as "the nation's largest ecological restoration company focused on restoring a resilient earth for a modern world."
First Poppies at the Iron Gate Narrows, Klamath River, California, May 21, 2024.
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Meridian Photo is focused on the intersection of
engineered landscapes and wilderness.
From the arid Southwest to the southern
cusp of the Pacific Northwest
it’s usually about water.
Klamath River with Shadows, October 4, 2024