Oct. 24, 2024
By Jim McCarthy
While it seemed unfathomable to some a few short years ago, the largest dam removal in U.S. history wrapped up this summer as structural demolition ended on the lower four Klamath River dams.
Beginning with the removal of Copco No. 2 last year, this historic success marks a victory for Native American Tribes and others who fought for decades to undam the Klamath River to benefit struggling salmon runs. WaterWatch was part of this decades-long effort, as detailed in our spring 2023 issue of Instream.
Of course, artificial barriers that impede migration of native fish still remain in the Klamath River Basin, and restoration efforts now turn to these. Keno Dam, located on the mainstem Klamath River just downstream of the community of Keno, is now the highest priority for fish passage correction in the Klamath, and one of the top 10 priorities overall on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2019 Statewide Fish Passage Barrier Priority List.
Ownership of Keno Dam, which does not generate hydropower but does regulate water levels upstream for the benefit of irrigation diversions, transferred from PacifiCorp to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this summer. The structure has an outdated fish ladder and is considered a barrier to some native migratory fish species attempting to access the 348 miles of upstream habitat. Impacted species include Redband trout, Fall and Spring Chinook, Coho, Pacific lamprey, Summer Steelhead, smallscale sucker, Klamath river lamprey, Klamath largescale sucker, and Miller Lake lamprey.
Stay tuned as work to improve passage at Keno ramps up!
Photo of Yurok fisher Tasheena Natt courtesy of the Yurok Tribe. This article originally appeared as a Water Brief in the fall 2024 issue of WaterWatch of Oregon’s Instream newsletter.