||| FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE |||
Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed upstream into the long-blocked waters along the California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows considered crucial to the fish’s future.
The return of salmon to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal and a measure of the project’s success.
However, a problem emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam, the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a fish ladder that’s supposed to help with fish passage, but it didn’t prove to work.
While many proponents of dam removal say they’re thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn’t reach before the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable. This stands to keep the fish from spreading and reproducing in the high numbers anticipated with the project. Other migratory fish, including steelhead trout and Pacific lamprey, may face similar straits.
The shortcoming has opened a new chapter in the decadeslong effort to liberate the Klamath River, this one focused on Keno Dam. It has also left some people frustrated that the dam wasn’t addressed sooner, when the other dams were dealt with.
“It’s too bad that there wasn’t enough forethought,” said William Ray Jr., chairman for the Klamath Tribes, who represents the native communities in the upper section of the Klamath Basin that salmon haven’t been able to get to. “The fish could have gone a lot farther, and that was the whole point. … The job just wasn’t done, far from it.”
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