News Articles

Algae in Iron Gate Reservoir © EcoFlight

By K.C. Mehaffey
Sep 8, 2025

Water temperatures in the Klamath River are responding to last year’s removal of four hydroelectric dams in ways that scientists say are beneficial to salmon, steelhead and other aquatic life.

Researchers and salmon managers are also seeing a lower prevalence of Ceratonova shasta (C. shasta), a parasite that has plagued juvenile salmon downstream of the stretch of river where the dams were removed (Clearing Up No. 2006).

Outbreaks of harmful algal blooms that prompted public health advisories are smaller and less frequent.

“If the dams remained in place, in the face of climate change all of those water quality impairments would have gotten worse,” said Crystal Robinson, Klamath Watershed program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We’re just opening up that river to be free-flowing, and basically just allowing it to do its normal hydrological things: scour the river, help with fish disease, help with the temperature aspect and get rid of blue-green algae,” she told Clearing Up.

The four dams—Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2 and J.C. Boyle—were in a 38-mile stretch of the Klamath River, and their reservoirs covered about 2,200 acres of land.

In November 2023, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation took over the license of the dams [P-14803] from PacifiCorp after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the license surrenders and plans for the dams’ removals.

Last year, KRRC began drawing down the reservoirs in January. They were drained in time for spring runoff.

The removal work was completed in September 2024, and a contractor—Resource Environmental Solutions (RES)—oversees the multiyear restoration.

In its first year as a free-flowing river, scientists are already seeing dramatic changes in average daily water temperatures in the stretch of river. In general, the river warms up sooner in the spring, cools off sooner in the fall, and has much greater fluctuations between daytime and nighttime temperatures throughout the year.

Average daily Klamath River temperatures at the Iron Gate gauge. Resource Environmental Solutions

Caitlin Boise, the Klamath project’s water quality technical lead for RES, and Dan Chase, director of fisheries, aquatics and design for RES’ Western Region, teamed up to answer Clearing Up’s questions about the importance of the temperature changes in the Klamath River, and what they mean to salmonids and other aquatic life.

“Temperature influences nearly all chemical, physical, and biological processes in rivers,” the RES team told Clearing Up in an email. “These can include everything from the amount of oxygen the water can hold, to the rate of chemical reactions like decomposition of organic material, to the habitat that is actually available to fish and other aquatic species, to the speed at which fish and other aquatic organisms grow.”

In 2024 and 2025, temperatures at the former Iron Gate Dam reached 50 degrees Fahrenheit about one month earlier compared to 2023—the year prior to the drawdowns and dam removals.

Warmer spring water temperature can boost growth for emerging salmonids rearing in the river, according to a KRRC newsletter.

Robinson noted that means these young fish are ready to migrate downstream sooner, diminishing their chances of interacting with the C. shasta parasite.

She said the prevalence of C. shasta in juvenile salmon was lower this year compared to previous years.

Robinson said in the summer, the slow-moving reservoirs created an environment that allowed blue-green algae to thrive. For several years, parts of the Klamath River have been posted with public health warnings for people and pets to stay away from the toxic algal blooms.

“We’ve eliminated that public health threat,” she said, adding that fish exposed to the algal blooms can also have high levels of toxins.

Conditions are also better for fish in the fall.

In 2024, the water at the Iron Gate gauge cooled about a month earlier compared to 2023, reducing the potential for disease and thermal stress. Cooler water can also be a cue for migration and spawning, the newsletter noted.

“Basically, the reservoirs were creating conditions for fish where the temperatures were inhospitable during migration,” Robinson said.

She said this year, during the first week of September, a heat wave prompted salmon and steelhead migrating up the Klamath River to hold in place at the mouth of the Salmon River, where colder water was coming out of that tributary.

But as air temperatures cool back down, the river upstream will respond quickly, convincing the fish to continue their migration, she noted.

“That’s one of the things that we can see from the data that’s changed,” Robinson said.

Another benefit to fish is the daily fluctuations in temperature throughout the year.

In 2024, the average daily fluctuations at Iron Gate increased to about 5 F, compared to 1.75 F in 2023, and similar results are expected once the full dataset is available this year.

These fluctuations are important to native fish and salmonids because it gives them options, the RES team said.

“Cooler temperatures at night in a healthy river allow fish to more freely and easily move around the system. This increases the area they have access to forage as they are no longer restricted to small pockets of temperature refugia that remain isolated through the night. This also allows fish to redistribute and can help with density-related pressures like food availability and disease burden,” the team said.

The RES team said that Iron Gate is the point of comparison because it was the compliance dam for the Lower Klamath Project and has a long-term record. It was also “the end of the road for fish and now it’s the open gate.”

However, the team is seeing similar changes in temperatures downstream of the Copco 1 location, with temperatures warming up to a month in the spring, and cooling up to a month earlier in the fall, and daily fluctuations of about 4.8 F.

“The reach downstream of J.C. Boyle is unique in that there are a series of naturally occurring cold-water springs that make this one of the coldest stretches of river,” they noted, adding, “This is a crucial benefit of the project: fish again have access to this cool, high-quality habitat for the first time in over one hundred years.”

It’s not too soon to compare temperatures from before and after the dam removal, they said. And—with the massive restoration work to replant native grasses, trees and other plants, they’re expecting to see these temperature changes improve as the vegetation matures.

And while temperatures have improved in the stretch of river where the dams were removed, warm water is still coming downstream from Keno Dam. However, cold-water contributions below Keno dam—like J.C. Boyle Springs and Fall Creek—are no longer being lost and warmed in the reservoirs, the team said.

Along with passage—which did not exist while the dams were in place—the improved temperature regime and other environmental changes are expected to help salmon, steelhead and other native fish recolonize the upper Klamath River now, and in the years to come.

“We’re only 11 months past the completion of dam removal, and only several months since the first cohort of fish spawned in the newly reconnected habitat,” the RES team noted.

These salmonids now have hundreds of miles of habitat for adults to spawn, and for juveniles to feed and grow. And with the removal of reservoirs that provided habitat for nonnative fish, removing the dams also prevents some of their competitors and predators from continuing to thrive, they said.

News Data: Klamath River Water Temperatures Responding to Dam Removal

Columbia River tribes, Oregon, Washington and conservationists ask judge to lift litigation stay following Trump admin decision to kill agreement

Credit: Ecoflight

By Eric Barker | Outdoor and Environmental Editor
September 12, 2025

Columbia River tribes along with the states of Oregon and Washington asked a federal judge Thursday to lift a stay blocking further litigation over harm caused to salmon and steelhead by federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

The expected move was spurred by President Donald Trump’s executive order in June that torpedoed an agreement the plaintiffs had made with the Biden Administration to study dam removal on the Snake River while funding salmon recovery and tribal renewable energy projects.

According to documents filed Thursday in Oregon District Court, attorneys for plaintiffs and the federal government have agreed to a schedule that would resume legal filings in the case as soon as Oct. 8.

Shannon Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said salmon remain in danger of extinction and the status quo is neither alleviating that risk nor moving them toward recovery.

“If this wasn’t the answer to solving the problem, then what is,” he said. “We have to try to do whatever we can for the species.”

The 2023 agreement that was signed by the Nez Perce and other tribes in the basin was seen by salmon advocates as a breakthrough in their decades-long effort to recover wild salmon and steelhead that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. While it did not authorize dam breaching, it did call for studies focused on how to replace barging, power generation and irrigation made possible the dams. It also pledged $1 billion in spending on salmon recovery and renewable energy development. In exchange, the plaintiffs agreed to pause litigation in a three-decades-old case for at least five years.

The agreement was decried by agricultural groups, power interests and others who said they would be harmed by dam breaching and were not included in the talks that led to it.

In June, Trump directed members of his cabinet to withdraw from the agreement, calling it part of a “radical green agenda.”

In their motion Thursday, attorneys for the plaintiffs noted that when federal Judge Michael Simon at Portland approved the stay, he wrote it would serve the “orderly course of justice” as both sides seek remedies outside of the courtroom. With the Trump administration killing the agreement, they argued the stay no longer meets that standard.

“The Trump administration’s recent actions leave us with no choice but to return to court,” Earthjustice Attorney Amanda Goodin said in a news release. “Since this administration has reneged on this carefully negotiated agreement — with no alternative plan to restore our imperiled salmon and steelhead — we find ourselves once again on a course towards extinction of these critically important species. Earthjustice and our plaintiffs, alongside state and tribal partners, have spent decades protecting Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead — and we won’t back down now.”

The legal fight over how much blame for dwindling wild salmon and steelhead runs should be placed on dams has been going on for more than 30 years. Salmon advocates have successfully challenged multiple iterations of the federal government’s plan to operate the dams while also trying to reduce the harm they cause to fish. Simon and his predecessor Judge James Redden have ruled the government’s plans that have dismissed dam breaching in favor actions like restoration of spawning habitat and spill water at the dams have not met the standards of the Endangered Species Act.

The latest version of that plan was written during Trump’s first term and prior to the agreement struck by the Biden administration, was being challenged by the tribes, conservation and fishing groups and the state of Oregon.

Moscow-Pullman: Tribes, states push to revive Snake and Columbia River salmon lawsuit after Trump order

Environmental groups backed by Northwest states and four Lower Columbia River tribes are moving to lift a pause on litigation after the Trump administration withdrew from a “historic” deal.

Credit: Ecoflight

By: Alex Baumhardt and Emily Fitzgerald
September 11, 2025

Northwest states, tribes and environmental groups will resume suing the federal government over its hydroelectric dam operations in the Columbia River Basin that have harmed endangered native fish species.

The move comes after the Trump administration in June withdrew from a “historic” deal made two years ago, when President Joe Biden was in office. This agreement called for putting long-running legal battles aside and investing in the restoration of endangered Columbia River fish runs.

Behind the litigation are 10 environmental groups backed by Oregon, Washington and four Lower Columbia River tribes: The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe.

Court fights over the dams had gone on for more than three decades before the pause. Now, they are back on, according to Amanda Goodin, an attorney with the environmental law group Earthjustice, which filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oregon to end the multi-year pause on a 2021 lawsuit.

“The Trump administration’s recent actions leave us with no choice but to return to court,” she said.

On Oct. 8, Earthjustice will officially resume its lawsuit, spokesperson Elizabeth Manning said.

Earthjustice’s plaintiffs include the National Wildlife Federation, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Idaho Rivers United, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, NW Energy Coalition, Columbia Riverkeeper, Idaho Conservation League and Fly Fishers International, Inc.

Oregon’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, said in a statement that Oregon, too, was ready to resume legal action.

“The federal government has put salmon and steelhead on the brink of extinction and once again broken promises to tribal partners. Extinction is not an option. Oregon will return to court to hold the federal government accountable and ensure these iconic fish runs have a future,” he said.

White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

The 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement involved pausing active Snake River litigation for a minimum of five years while the federal government worked with tribes and states on a plan to advance recovery of native fish populations in the Columbia Basin.

At the heart of the issue are four Snake River dams that provide irrigation and emissions-free hydropower for nearby communities, but have also contributed to the near extinction of 13 salmon and steelhead populations that return to the Columbia Basin from the Pacific Ocean to spawn.

The fish are important to tribal health and sovereignty and to basin ecosystems, and the declines are hitting southern resident orcas off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon that rely on salmon for food and that are federally listed as endangered.

“These wild native fish are essential to tribal cultures and important to sport, commercial, and tribal fishing communities and economies throughout the Pacific Northwest.  We can and must do better,” said Bill Arthur, the director of the Sierra Club’s campaign to protect salmon in the Snake and Columbia rivers.

The Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative included a roadmap for salmon and steelhead recovery, as well as steps to replace the energy, transportation, irrigation, and recreation services provided by the four lower Snake River dams so they could potentially be breached.

The agreement was a way to increase salmon populations and fishing opportunities while improving public services, cutting taxpayer subsidies and meeting promises made to the tribes, according to Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation.

In June, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum withdrawing the federal government’s support from the agreement, calling it “radical environmentalism” and saying completion of the restoration initiative would “be devastating for the region.”

“It’s been disappointing to see the federal government overrule all the progress made in the region in favor of returning to court,” Leahy said.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican who represents central Washington, is a staunch supporter of the hydropower dams. He is pushing a bill in Congress that would block federal funds from being used to tear down the Snake River dams or to study removing or altering them.

“Extreme environmentalist groups are once again trying to breach the Lower Snake River dams through litigation,” Newhouse said in an emailed statement on Friday. “The Lower Snake River dams are vital to our way of life in the Pacific Northwest, and I oppose any and all efforts to breach these critical pieces of infrastructure.”

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement that renewing the lawsuit is necessary to protect natural resources, preserve fish runs, and hold the federal government responsible.

“President Trump walking away from these commitments presents a very real threat at a time when the fish are on the brink of extinction. It also continues our nation’s shameful legacy of broken promises to sovereign tribal nations that this partnership sought to repair,” she said.

While environmental groups agree that going back to court is an essential next step, they have committed to finding other ways to continue restoring the Columbia Basin while the lawsuits are ongoing.

“We will nevertheless keep working with sovereigns and stakeholders across the Northwest to find real solutions to restore healthy, abundant salmon and bring our communities forward together,” said Columbia Riverkeeper Legal Director Miles Johnson.

WA State Standard: Lawsuits against federal government over Columbia Basin dams to resume

The Biden-era Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement's pledge to restore native fish populations and invest in tribal clean energy projects had paused courtroom battles.

By Monique Merrill
September 11, 2025

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — The Trump administration’s abrupt June withdrawal from an agreement intended to protect endangered Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead has spurred a coalition of conservation groups, tribes and two states to ask a federal judge on Thursday to lift a stay on decades-old litigation against the government.

“Healthy runs are key for successful fish migration — and our salmon and steelhead runs are in crisis,” Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said in a statement. “President Trump walking away from these commitments presents a very real threat at a time when the fish are on the brink of extinction.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon, a Barack Obama appointee, granted the coalition’s joint motion to lift the stay late Thursday, allowing the case to move forward again.

The Biden administration introduced the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement in late 2023. It was the result of a deal struck with Oregon, Washington, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the National Wildlife Federation, after they had proposed the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative.

Under the agreement, the government committed to immediate measures to protect salmon, along with a decade-long plan to manage hydropower operations while meeting rising energy needs.

The agreement followed decades of litigation and prompted the plaintiffs to ask the court to pause proceedings. However, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to withdraw from the agreement in an executive order titled “Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin.”

Trump accused the agreement of placing too much value on the treatment of fish and concerns about climate change over the “nation’s interests in reliable energy resources and the needs of American citizens.”

“The reasoning underpinning the court’s decision to impose the stay has been nullified by recent events. The court should lift the stay in this case and allow interested parties to proceed with the litigation,” the plaintiffs wrote in their joint motion to lift the stay.

Amanda Goodin, an attorney for Earthjustice representing the conservation groups, said the plaintiffs had no choice but to return to court.

“Since this administration has reneged on this carefully negotiated agreement — with no alternative plan to restore our imperiled salmon and steelhead — we find ourselves once again on a course towards extinction of these critically important species,” Goodin said in a statement.

Under the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, the government committed to supporting the development of tribally-sponsored clean energy projects as well as investing $300 million over 10 years to restore native fish populations.

“The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement was a historic opportunity to restore salmon populations, uphold commitments to sovereign tribal nations, and meet our region’s clean energy demands,” Oregon Attorney General Rayfield said in a statement. “By walking away, the federal government has put salmon and steelhead on the brink of extinction and once again broken promises to tribal partners. Extinction is not an option."

The plaintiffs intend to move for a preliminary injunction with an opportunity for oral argument early next year, aiming for a ruling ahead of the planned fish passages in March.

The former administration also committed to studying the replacement of the irrigation, recreation and transportation services provided by four dams on the lower Snake River.

Those dams continue to harm salmon and steelhead, according to Bill Arthur, director of the Sierra Club’s Snake/Columbia River Campaign.

“We have a responsibility to return to court to improve and modernize our hydropower system so we can have affordable and reliable clean energy well into the future, alongside healthy and salmon and steelhead runs,” Arthur said in a statement.

Courthouse News Service: States, tribes revive long-running lawsuit after Trump nixes fish deal

Credit: EcoFlight

Sep. 11, 2025
By Isabella Breda

A decades-long court battle over the ongoing operations of the federal hydropower system in the Columbia River Basin has reignited after the Trump administration withdrew from a key agreement.

The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama tribal nations, states of Oregon and Washington and environmental nonprofit organizations on Thursday requested the court lift a stay that would end a pause on the groups’ litigation. The request was approved by a judge.

The five-year pause was buoyed by the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, which provided a path to remove the four dams on the Lower Snake River and help restore salmon runs.

The federal government, under the Biden administration, committed $1 billion to the work that would have included boosting clean-energy production led by tribal nations and replacing other services of the dams, like transportation and irrigation infrastructure.

President Donald Trump in June clawed back the agreement, which he stated “placed concerns about climate change above the Nation’s interests in reliable energy sources.”

“It’s always been our goal to work in partnership to develop this more comprehensive vision where we recover salmon, and we also look to replace the services of the Snake River dams and invest in our regional economy,” said Amanda Goodin, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, representing the environmental groups. “All of that is much easier to do outside of court than it is with a court order.”

Dam operations on the Columbia and Snake have been fought over for more than 30 years, in one of the longest-running unresolved legal fights in the region. Of the 16 Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead stocks that historically returned to spawn above the present-day location of Bonneville Dam, about 40 miles east of Portland, four are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Nearly a quarter of Snake River spring/summer Chinook populations and 14% of wild Snake River steelhead populations had fewer than 50 spawners last year, according to data provided by the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama tribal nations and the states of Washington and Oregon.

Lifting the stay in litigation is an opportunity to do what’s needed to ensure the salmon survive until there is a more permanent solution in place, Nez Perce Chairman Shannon Wheeler said.

“We need to take necessary action that will help the salmon, considering their dire status,” Wheeler said. “We also know that status quo hasn’t changed the negative trajectory of the species.”

The Seattle-Times: Legal battle reignites over Lower Snake River Dams, salmon

Joel Kawahara, fishing for coho salmon while trolling on his boat the F/V Karolee, out of Sitka, Alaska, in September 1994. Kawahara testified before elected leaders about the impacts of hydroelectric dams on salmon, volunteered at streamside tree plantings and often fed his community with fresh-caught fish and oysters from his beach on Hood Canal or treats from his garden. He died at sea this month at the age of 70. (Courtesy of Karen Ducey)

August 21, 2025
By Isabella Breda
Seattle Times staff reporter

A lifelong fisherman, tireless advocate for salmon recovery and a friend to many, Joel Kawahara died at sea this month. He was 70.

Kawahara left Neah Bay on Aug. 8 in his fishing boat, the Karolee, on a trip for salmon, but after his family and friends didn’t hear from him over the weekend, they reported him missing.

The Coast Guard boarded the Karolee near Northern California last week. Nobody was aboard. The search was suspended after covering nearly 2,100 square miles off the West Coast in cutters, aircraft and with small boat crews.

When he wasn’t on the saltwater, Kawahara was often fighting for the future of salmon and fishing families, his friends and colleagues shared.

They remember him as a bit of a Renaissance man, in touch with the water and deeply invested in his relationships and his duty to advocate for his industry, the salmon and habitat they rely upon.

Kawahara testified before elected leaders about the impacts of hydroelectric dams on salmon, volunteered at streamside tree plantings and often fed his community with fresh-caught fish and oysters from his beach on Hood Canal or treats from his garden.

“He was both a fisherman who took and he saw the responsibility that was associated with taking of giving,” said Joseph Bogaard, the executive director of Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for policy and actions to restore Columbia-Snake River basin salmon runs. “It’s that principle of reciprocity, which was just part of his DNA.”

‘Where else can you go and be part of nature?’
Joel and his brothers, Ken and Karl, grew up in Lower Queen Anne. Their dad owned a fishing tackle store on 2nd Avenue.

They spent most weekends at their grandparents’ home on Dabob Bay on Hood Canal — fishing for salmon in front of the house, collecting oysters and cooking them over a bonfire.

The three brothers all went different directions after leaving home, but it was clear Joel would always be a fisherman, Ken Kawahara said.

Their dad retired and would spend his summers fishing in Alaska, and Joel would always be with him. “My dad decided, well, if I just keep doing this, Joel’s never going to do anything else. So he sold the boat,” Ken Kawahara said.

He spent a few years at Boeing, but the work on military contracting conflicted with his values.

“I was and am pacifist in my philosophical core,” he described in an email interview with The Seattle Times in 2023. “ … I kept my mouth shut, saved money and bought Karolee in 1987 so took vacation time to fish in Alaska.”

It was clear he belonged on the water.

“What else can you do that keeps you in the open spaces for half a year and still make enough to live?” Kawahara wrote. “Where else can you go and be part of nature, at the whim of nature for your livelihood and when weather gets bad for your life?”

Tele Aadsen, of the fishing vessel Nerka, met Kawahara when she and her partner were both kids growing up in the fleet.

Kawahara never hesitated to take on a mentorship role, Aadsen said, recalling when Kawahara took her partner, Joel Brady-Power, to the bar to break down “in a human way” what to know to serve on boards needed to keep the fishery going.

He always wanted to help.

His friends and colleagues shared stories of him lugging big batteries onto a young fisher’s boat, trading notes, talking about the lure or plug that was working well for him and sharing his deep understanding of how ocean conditions and the weather influenced the movement of salmon.

Kawahara stayed invested in everyone he met, said Dan Ayres, a former shellfish manager at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He remembered personal details and checked in with people he seldom saw, baked a pie for a friend in the Karolee’s tiny galley and offered salmon to his former deckhand to ensure the health of her unborn baby.

Kawahara never seemed too concerned about his own fishing, Aadsen said. He caught fish, Aadsen said, but he seemed more focused on ensuring everyone else had the access and opportunity to harvest, that salmon were abundant and protected.

The Seattle Times: Joel Kawahara, 70, lifelong fisher, dies at sea after leaving Neah Bay