The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Salmon

  • Indigenous activism brings down Klamath dams

    Indigenous activism brings down Klamath dams

    Harrison Smith

    The Klamath salmon have been granted a reprieve. After decades of activism by Indigenous people, four of the six dams on the Klamath are finally coming down. Pacificorp, corporate owner of the dams slated for removal, was denied a renewal of their operating license by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November of last year.

    The Klamath Basin is one of the largest watersheds in the continental United States. Melting snow in Oregon’s Cascade Range mixes with runoff from Crater Lake, frigid waters flowing south and west to fill Klamath Lake. In past years, Klamath Lake’s cold, high-nutrient water tumbled to the coast, providing habitat for dozens of salmonid species.  

    Until the dams were built. 

    “They haven’t had any salmon in over 100 years,” said Regina Chichizola, director of Save California Salmon. “The Karuk Tribe no longer has spring salmon even for their spring salmon ceremonies.” 

    Salmonid populations in the Klamath Basin have seen a staggering 95% decline since Copco 1 was built in 1918 and those numbers only continued to fall as the basin was strangled by the next three dams. 400 miles of river habitat have been either partially or completely blocked to fish passage, and Klamath salmonids were on the path to extinction. 

    “Having that acknowledgement is a really big deal, because it’s not just acknowledging that this is a bad deal the river’s been given, but also us as well,” said Brook Thompson, restoration engineer for the Yurok tribe. “And that our voice does matter. Sometimes when you protest, in activism work, it feels like nothing’s gonna change and no one is hearing you, and that’s the case; it feels like we were finally heard.”

     Thompson is a descendent of both Yurok and Karuk tribes, and a Ph.D. student. 

    There are currently four dams on the Klamath river. Copco 2 (1925) is slated for removal this year, followed by Copco 1 (1918), J.C. Boyle (1958), and Iron Gate (1964).  

    Photo courtesy of Regina Chichizola | Molli and son Chas smoke salmon over a firepit.

    Negative impacts

    The negative effects of the Klamath dams are numerous and interconnected. By slowing down the river, the dams allow the water to heat up in the sun. 

    “With that warm water, you get less dissolved oxygen, which the fish need to breathe,” said Thompson. “You get increased blue green algae blooms, which when they die, they take up dissolved oxygen, which, again, means less dissolved oxygen for the fish.” 

    The dams also cause the river to cut into the riverbed, by locking its flow into a narrow channel and preventing it from connecting to the wider floodplain.

    On September 19th, 2002, dead Chinook salmon began washing up on the banks of the Klamath. During the next week, over 60,000 adult Chinook would wash up on the banks of the river like a rotting carpet.

    “It was the day after one of the ceremonies,” said Thompson, who was present at the catastrophe as a child. “I was the same size as the salmon I saw the bodies of on the shore.” 

    This can be directly linked to the dams’ effects on the Klamath. The closely-packed conditions of the migrating Chinook and high water temperatures were a perfect environment for parasite Ichthyopthirius multifilis and bacteria Flavobacter columnare, which together ravaged the salmon population. Low flow from Iron Gate dam, due to irrigation runoff, was found to be a primary cause in the Fish Kill. 

    Indigenous sovereignty 

    The Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, and Klamath tribes have been fighting for their rights to river governance and access for over a century. 

    “We’re fighting for our cultural sovereignty, making sure that we’re upholding our responsibility as human beings to make sure that we’re making this world a livable space for not just humans,” said Charley Reed, education director for Save California Salmon and descendent of the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa tribes. 

    Before colonization, Indigenous people depended on the Klamath as a primary source of food, with an average salmon intake of 450 pounds of fish per person per year. Today, that number has dropped to under a pound. 

    Activism

    In 1973, Yurok community leader ‘Aawokw Raymond Mattz took the issue of Yurok fishing rights to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. However, state and federal agencies continued to crack down on Indigenous fishing well into the 1970s. This sparked a period of protest now called the Fish Wars. Anti-dam protests continued sporadically for decades, but gained renewed purpose after the 2002 Fish Kill, according to Reed.

    “To get the U.S. to do things you have to sue them,” Thompson said. “That’s actually how we got the fishing rights back from my neighbor when I was a kid.”

    In the 2000s, dam protesters spent one week of every month traveling to protest. Reed’s father was deeply involved with the movement for decades. Protest efforts in the wake of the Fish Kill led to the founding of Save California Salmon, a nonprofit organization founded, operated, and led by Indigenous people. SCS along with other groups focused the energies of the Klamath Tribal communities onto the dams. In 2004, dam owner Pacificorp filed to relicense the four dams on the Klamath. This provided an initial objective for the activists—stop the relicensing. 

    The activists took a multi-pronged approach to the campaign for the dams’ removal. They applied public pressure on lawmakers and dam owners, as well as working with state and federal officials. 

    Activists traveled to Scotland in 2004 to demonstrate against the parent company of Pacificorp, Scottish Power, during a shareholders meeting. In 2005, Scottish Power sold Pacificorp to Berkshire Hathaway and activists continued the pressure.

    “2006 or 2007 was the first year we went to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meetings,” Chichizola said. “And even before that, we went to Pacificorp headquarters in Portland…. A big part of it was the community pressure for sure. Every step of the way, the community was there.”

    In response to the continued activism, the Berkshire Hathaway board changed the rules of their Q&A sessions in 2008 to forbid questions about the Klamath dams. 

    Activists succeeded in lobbying the California and Oregon governments to require extensive renovations of the dams before they could be relicensed — a major victory. The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) between the states would have demolished the dams years ago and reallocated water for irrigation. It was killed in the house by republican congressmen Doug Lamalfa and Greg Walden. 

    In 2016, parts of the KBRA were salvaged to create the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. The KHSA was passed without congressional approval, but its passage was followed by another period of bureaucratic snarls that were only resolved last year. After relentless pressure from all sides, it proved far more expensive for Pacificorp to relicense the dams than to remove them. 

    In November of 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied Pacificorp’s license to operate its Klamath River dams, and the dams came under the jurisdiction of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC). FERC credited Tribal activism for the government’s decision to decline Pacificorp’s license renewal. 

    Photo courtesy of Regina Chichizola | A pair of stalwart activists demonstrate in Scotland, 2005.

    Demolition and restoration

    Copco 2 is scheduled to be demolished this year, but much restoration work remains to be done before the basin is whole again.

    Extensive preparation must be completed on more than 400 miles of river that have been cut off from the greater watershed for the better part of a century, mostly on the lower river. The KRRC was created to carry out the restoration work. 

    “We’ve been collecting seeds for the last few years and then we’re growing plants,” Thompson said. “These native plant species will have a chance to take hold before invasives come in.” 

    Work must also be done to reconnect the river to the system of ponds and tributaries which fed it historically. All this will eventually restore habitat and favorable conditions for salmonids, according to Thompson.

    “All that habitat needs to be restored and that’s going to be creating more woodfill, creating different types of flow, so [salmon] can chill out in slower ponds or move up faster streams and try to get different types of food,” said Thompson.

    The Elwha Dam removal in Washington could give some insight into the Klamath’s future. 

    “As soon as a year after the Elwha dam removal, which happened just over 10 years ago, you saw salmon that were returning above the dam to breed, which is kind of crazy, because they haven’t been going there for generations,” Thompson said.

    For Reed, the victory felt bittersweet. It comes after many long decades of teeth-pulling effort, marked by the passage of loved ones and community members — stymied by corporate and governmental roadblocks.

     “There’s so many people who weren’t there that day that had passed on, but were very much a part of that effort in those early years,” Reed said. “If it wasn’t for them, it’d be really hard to imagine how we would have kept that momentum going, how we would have kept up the fight. It’s very much intergenerational.” 

    Reed plans to teach his daughter to fish when she’s old enough. By then, restoration efforts will be well underway.

  • Yurok Tribe’s Connection to Klamath River Weakens as Ecosystem Declines

    Yurok Tribe’s Connection to Klamath River Weakens as Ecosystem Declines

    Indigenous Peoples’ Week provided an opportunity for the community to not only recognize native culture but learn about it

    Last Thursday Yurok Tribe member Keith Parker, a Humboldt State alumnus and fisheries and molecular biologist, gave a presentation on campus about the Klamath River, his work on Lamprey eels and the local ecosystem.

    As a tribal scientist, Parker gets to use his traditional knowledge from his Yurok heritage combined with his master’s degree from HSU to conduct field and lab work. The Klamath River is significant to the Yurok Tribe, as Yurok translates to “downriver people.”

    “I have a spiritual and innate connection to the land,” Parker said. “It’s not just a study subject for me, it’s not just empirical data. I have skin in the game, literally.”

    “I have a cultural connection. I live off that river, my kids eat off that river, we eat the salmon, the sturgeon, the lamprey, the elk, the deer and we harvest the roots.”

    Keith Parker

    Parker feels that his upbringing along with his academics makes him a better and more effective scientist. It is more than just conducting research for him, as he continues to learn and then teach others about a topic he feels passion for.

    “I have a cultural connection,” Parker said. “I live off that river, my kids eat off that river, we eat the salmon, the sturgeon, the lamprey, the elk, the deer and we harvest the roots.”

    The river has a rich history in native lore, being home to other tribes including the Karok and Modoc long before the earliest settlers came west. But in more recent years, the river has taken a decline in health.

    Some of the causes can be attributed to the damming of the river, preventing the water from flowing properly and allowing harmful algae to grow. Specifically cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae.

    The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services send out broadcast warnings, cautioning people to avoid swimming in areas that contain the algae.

    In July 2018, the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services issued a news release stating, “The presence of cyanobacteria has been previously confirmed in some water bodies within Humboldt, Mendocino and Lake counties including the South Fork Eel River, Van Duzen River, Trinity River, Clear Lake and Lake Pillsbury. It is difficult to test and monitor the many lakes and miles of our local rivers. Most blooms in California contain harmless green algae, but it is important to stay safe and avoid contact.” “It isn’t just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, it’s a loss of cultural heritage as well.”

    Another effect of the damming is that the salmon find it much harder to swim to and from the ocean, which slowly harms the surrounding wildlife.

    “It isn’t just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, it’s a loss of cultural heritage as well.”

    Keith Parker

    “Those fish leave as juveniles and they go out to the ocean and they come back later on in life much larger in size,” Parker said. “They then spawn and die, all those marine-derived nutrients that are in their flesh are absorbed into those forests.”

    Yurok culture is linked to the river in many ways, including using it for transportation and trade. The Yurok tribe would trade items downstream, from the ocean, as they looked to collect larger deer and elk from deeper in the mountains.

    “A lot of our people, even now, they’re breaking out in rashes from putting their hands in the water and taking the fish out,” Parker said. “The females of the tribe often weave baskets from roots they harvest from the water’s edge as well, and part of the method is sucking on the roots to soften them up so they can weave baskets and more. They are being affected as well.”

    The Lamprey eels used to thrive, and were something that the natives could smoke and preserve as their food throughout the winter. They used handmade eel hooks, which the men make by hand and include carvings that are personal to each individual.

    “When the women harvest those roots from this nasty river edge, when they’re making them they keep them in their mouth and they soften them up with their saliva while they’re making their basket, and they’re getting poisoned,” Parker said. “It isn’t just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, it’s a loss of cultural heritage as well.”

  • Salmon and us, tied to the health of the Klamath River

    Salmon and us, tied to the health of the Klamath River

    The We Are the River: Connecting River Health to Community Health panel met to discuss the state of the Klamath River, and the communities whose lives are tied to the health of the river.

    The discussion was held in the Goudi’ni Gallery at Humboldt State during the 32nd Annual California Indian Conference on April 6.

    Dale Ann Sherman, a Yurok Tribe member and retired HSU professor of Native American Studies, was one of the four panelists.

    “I come from the Klamath and Smith Rivers. I belong to those rivers,” Dale Ann Sherman said. “In our blood runs the rivers and with that blood runs the salmon. We were born to go through time together. The salmon and us.”

    There were four panelists for the We Are the River: Connecting River Health to Community Health discussion: Dale Ann Sherman, Louise McCovey, Marlon Sherman and Konrad Fisher.

    Marlon Sherman is a Lakota tribal member, as well as the HSU department chair of Native American Studies.

    “The people on the Klamath River depend upon the salmon, and other fish,” Marlon Sherman said. “That’s their sustenance and their livelihood. That’s their spirituality. It is what their ceremonies are based on. Everything flows around the salmon, and if those salmon don’t have sufficient water, they will not come back any more. It is fairly obvious.”

    The salmon are at their lowest all time in returns due to problems with the river itself.

    “Dams, diversions and pollution sums up what is wrong with the river,” Fisher said.

    Fisher is a water protector who described the factors plaguing the Klamath River.

    “Dams are the biggest source of blue-green toxic algae build up, nasty stuff that will make humans very sick,” Fisher said. “Naturally occurring toxic blue-green algae production is dramatically elevated by dam water restriction. Some of the highest levels [of blue-green algae toxicity] ever recorded on Earth were collected behind the dams on the Klamath River.”

    A few years ago, a decades-long lawsuit by the Klamath tribes of the upper Klamath River went to the United States Supreme Court.

    “They finally were able to get the U.S. Supreme Court to realize that they had water rights to the Klamath River based on as far back as what they called time immemorial,” Marlon Sherman said.

    “Something exciting is happening very soon,” Fisher said. “We are on track for dam removal. Maybe not quite 2020, but 2021. Let’s continue to be hopeful.”

    “The [Klamath River Renewal Corporation] is the entity that will essentially take ownership of the dams, and take them out. Go to one of their meetings if you can. It is on their website,” Fisher said.

    “The salmon right now are at their bottom ebb. What they need now is plenty of clean, cold water,” Marlon Sherman said. “Water allocation is what the salmon need right now. This needs to be approached right now before the salmon are all gone. When the salmon go, who knows what’s next?”

    Water allocation rights and diversions are Fisher’s specialty, and water in the Trinity River that would run into the Klamath River is currently being diverted.

    “Water laws say there is a certain amount of water that should be left in the streams to meet certain needs,” Fisher said. “By and large they [the government] don’t [do their job] unless they are being forced, especially when it comes to telling people to use less water,” Fisher said.

    The needs of the communities most affected by the destruction of the Klamath have gone unheard.

    “The local laws of the people who have always lived there, and know the river, are never acknowledged,” Marlon Sherman said.

    “Ceremony is law. Culture is law. Very few people recognize that fact,” Marlon Sherman said. “The tribal attorneys need to be paying more attention to the tribal imperatives of spirituality, culture and tribal knowledges of their indigenous localities.”

    “Our people are fix-the-world people, that is what we do in our ceremonies,” McCovey said.

    McCovey is the Yurok Tribe environmental director and HSU environmental science alumnus who was on the panel.

    “There has been a rash of suicides in our community,” McCovey said. “For me in my job, I try to eliminate the environmental threats so that people can maintain their identity as river people, and feel safe in it.”