CHILOQUIN, Ore. – The removal of four Klamath River dams, the largest dam removal in U.S. history, is on track to be completed by November and reportedly ahead of schedule. The breaching of the John C. Boyle dam on Tuesday, July 30, marked a historic achievement as the four dams on the Klamath River, including Copco 1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate, near completion. The $450 million project strives to restore the river and its ecosystem to its pre-dam condition with a focus on returning salmon, Chinook and coho.
If the reintroduction of salmon is successful, then it will provide once again an ancestral food source to the tribal communities that relied on the annual fish returns in the river as one of their first foods. The Klamath Tribes voiced the need for the dam removals for decades, and now that the project is nearing completion, Klamath tribal leadership and employees in the Natural Resources and Ambodat Departments are working with various state and federal agencies and the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, which is overseeing the project, to assist in the many restoration projects such as revegetation, wetland restoration and the reintroduction of salmon.
“Today, for The Klamath Tribes, marks another culturally significant accomplishment with the breaching of the JC Boyle Dam, which helps further the eventual return of the c’iyaal’s (salmon), taken away from the Tribes in 1907, “ said Klamath Tribes Chairman William Ray, Jr. “The Tribal Nation gives Sepk’eec’a (Thanks) to our Creator, the Lower River Tribes, the Dam Removal Advocates, Collaborators, and all the Personnel who have performed such an instrumental job in making the Klamath River, a natural, free-flowing River again!”
Chairman Ray, Jr. further stated, “We have much more essential restoration work to complete on the Upper Klamath Basin headwaters, watershed, wetlands, and Riparian areas to produce cold, clean, clear water in order to support all fisheries, aquatic species, subsistence, and medicinal plants and roots all critically important to continue supporting the Tribes Culture and Traditional lifeways.”
Revegetation work along the river was halted this summer but will resume in the fall. The work to revegetate the banks of the river will involve more than 17 billion seeds of native plants that were collected and propagated in preparation for the multi-year seeding project. Restoration work is also underway for the Upper Klamath Lake, Sprague and Williamson Rivers, and Upper Klamath Lake tributaries, which will benefit the endangered c’waam and koptu suckers. The Klamath Tribes are directly involved with many of the restoration projects on both the Sprague and Williamson Rivers.
“Ecologically, salmon are a keystone species that have a disproportionally large effect on its natural environment, affecting many other organisms in the ecosystem in a positive way,” stated Ambodat Director Mark Buettner.
The Klamath Tribes, along with the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, are working together in the reintroduction of salmon and assisting directly with the restoration work of the 250-mile Klamath River. The goal is to restore the river and land around it in the Klamath Basin so that it benefits not only the regional tribal communities but also non-tribal communities that rely on the river and Basin for their livelihoods and recreation.
Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Thursday, Aug. 1 @ 10:28 a.m. / Environment
Crews Bust Through J.C. Boyle's Cofferdam, Restore Fish Passage On The Klamath River
Crews broke through the cofferdam at the J.C. Boyle Dam site on Tuesday. The dam is one of four on the Klamath River slated for removal. | Photo courtesy of Swiftwater Films
Crews broke through the cofferdam at the J.C. Boyle dam site on Tuesday, restoring fish passage on that stretch of the Klamath River.
From the Klamath River Renewal Corporation:
Yesterday, crews broke through the cofferdam at the JC Boyle Dam site, returning the river to its historic path and restoring fish passage in that reach of the Klamath River. JC Boyle Dam is one of the four dams slated for removal as a part of the Klamath River Dam removal project. It is the only dam to be removed in Oregon as part of the project. KRRC was joined by representatives and elders from the Klamath Tribes and Modoc Nation to view the moment the river broke through the cofferdam and joined the waters downstream.
“While there is still work to be done, today is a historic day for this reach of the Klamath River,” noted Mark Bransom, CEO of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC). “It was an honor to be able to witness this reach of river coming back to life alongside area Tribes. Each milestone brings the river into a healthier state.”
JC Boyle Dam was an earth-fill dam with a concrete spillway. The earthen portion of the dam extended over the original path of the river, while the concrete portion was constructed outside the river’s path. The reservoir waters were drained back in January. Since that time, construction crews used the cofferdam, a smaller dam built behind the larger dam during the dam’s construction in the 1950’s, to route the river through the base of the spillway while the earthen portion of the dam was deconstructed. Crews finished the removal of the earthen portion this week, allowing them to break the cofferdam on Tuesday, restoring the river in that reach to a free-flowing state that will allow volitional fish passage.
“Watching a river return to its channel, that had been buried for over 70 years, was truly inspiring,” said Dave Coffman, Klamath Restoration Director for Resource Environmental Solutions, the company overseeing the restoration of the former reservoir lands. “It has made me, and all of our folks working on this restoration project that much more excited about revitalizing this landscape.”
Crews will continue deconstructing the concrete spillway in the coming weeks. Once that is completed, they will restore the natural slope on the river’s left side and conclude construction activities related to JC Boyle Dam removal.
The removal of Copco No. 1, Iron Gate, and JC Boyle Dams are expected to be complete sometime this fall, in time for the Fall run of Chinook salmon. Copco No. 2 Dam was removed last summer. The restoration of the former reservoir footprints is currently underway and will continue for several years until vegetation is successfully established and water clarity has returned to baseline conditions.
Representatives of the Klamath Tribes called the breach a historic achievement and said the largest dam removal project in U.S. history is on track to be finished by November.
From the Klamath Tribes:
CLICK TO MANAGE