News Articles

October 14, 2025
By Isabella Breda

Environmental groups and the state of Oregon asked a judge Tuesday to OK a suite of changes to dam operations in the Columbia Basin to reduce harm to endangered salmon and steelhead.

The requests are the first major development in a decadeslong legal battle in the basin since the Trump administration blew up a 2023 agreement that had provided a path to dam removal on the lower Snake River.

The environmental groups alongside the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama tribal nations, and states of Oregon and Washington, returned the fight to federal court in September.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon denied a request by the federal government to pause litigation until the partial government shutdown ends.

The preliminary injunction request filed by the environmental groups asks for bigger changes to dam operations than what was provided in the Biden-era deal, called the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.

“We agreed to less because it was part of a comprehensive package to set us on a path toward dam breach and toward really major habitat investments in the basin,” said Amanda Goodin, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. “We made some concessions to try and get there together, and now we’re not walking that path anymore. We have to get as many operational protections in place as we can, because otherwise we’re going to lose these fish while we keep looking for the long-term solution.”

Oregon filed a similar request Tuesday, Goodin said, and the two filings are asking for the same relief. The Nez Perce Tribe and Washington plan to file in support of the requested relief, according to Earthjustice.

The board of trustees of Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation voted to maintain “unaligned amicus” status in the litigation. The tribes are not currently aligning with plaintiffs or defendants.

The changes requested by the environmental groups Tuesday would require some reservoirs be drawn down to minimum operating elevations, and the maximum amount of water spilled over the dams allowed by state water quality standards in the spring, when the highest number of juvenile salmon and steelhead are migrating toward saltwater.

The groups are requesting some summer, fall and winter spill as well, with exceptions.

These changes would help juvenile fish pass over the dams instead of through lethal turbines, the groups say, and decrease the time adult salmon spend migrating through slack water at deadly temperatures.

The request, if approved, would affect hydropower operations at lower Snake and lower Columbia River dams including Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary.

The request also includes emergency conservation measures such as increasing capacity for managing predators — including invasive walleye and some birds — and kelt reconditioning, or rehabbing adult steelhead after they spawn to increase their chance of repeat spawning.

The groups have also asked to remove physical barriers slowing the migration of Tucannon River spring Chinook, a population that is rapidly approaching extinction.

Earthjustice in the litigation represents 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.

Dam operations on the Columbia and Snake have been fought over in one of the longest-running unresolved legal fights in the region.

Four 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, are extinct. Seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Some populations of Snake River spring/summer Chinook and steelhead have already been lost. 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.

“ … Snake River salmon are running out of time. Oregon, Washington, and four Tribes came up with a good plan to save them, but the federal government threw it out,” Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy for the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement. “So returning to court is the best tool we have left to prevent the collapse of these imperiled fish populations.”

The agreement had committed $1 billion over a decade to improve fish habitat, plan for the eventual removal of dams on the lower Snake River, and build new sources of clean energy.

Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement provided some flexibility in what could’ve been done for both fish and hydropower.

The 2025 operation was about spilling more in the spring for fish and ceasing spill sooner in August to allow more hydropower production at a time that’s critical for electricity consumption, Simms said.

“We are in a worsening position in this region for our resource adequacy — meaning our ability to meet the demands of consumers, especially during peak periods of cold or hot weather,” Simms said in a phone call before the filing. “What we’re worried about is an operation that’s similar to (a proposal in) 2021 which would involve severely hobbling the federal hydro system and its output.”

The council is an intervenor defendant in the case.

Seattle Times: Oregon, environmental groups ask courts to help Columbia Basin fish

L84 with a salmon Sept. 29 2011. Photo by Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research
Oct. 14, 2025
By Isabella Breda

Just 74 southern resident orcas remain, as of the latest count by the Center for Whale Research. The count has hovered around this low point for several years.

The 2024 census tallied 73 orcas in the southern resident J, K and L pods. In the next census period, which ran from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, four births were documented. Two of the calves and one adult died.

It’s a mixed story, said Michael Weiss, research director with the Center for Whale Research. J pod increased by two, L pod was stable and K pod declined. K pod is at its lowest point since the survey began, with just 14 orcas.

“What we had was a bunch of calves being born and half of those calves dying, and you can’t sustain a population if you can’t get calves to be born and survive their first couple years of life,” Weiss said. “That’s all tied to the state of the moms, and the moms need fish.”

Southern resident orca census
The recent census found 74 members in the J, K and L pods, nearly as few as when the counts started in 1976 with 71. PDF of graphic below.

The endangered southern residents, a fish-eating population that can be seen along the West Coast of the U.S. and B.C., were listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act 20 years ago. They face multiple threats, from a lack of their primary food, Chinook salmon, to underwater noise from vessels that makes it harder to hunt, as well as pollution and inbreeding.

The release of the latest census comes as the Trump administration has proposed rolling back protections for endangered species and blown up a Northwest agreement over dam operations in the Columbia Basin to help restore salmon.

L128 was born to first-time mom L90 in September 2024. L128 was seen looking thin in October 2024, and was not seen again.

In late December, J41 gave birth to female J62, and Tahlequah, also known as J35, had female J61.

J61 was identified on Christmas Eve, and confirmed dead on New Year’s Eve. Tahlequah carried her body for at least 11 days in what is understood by some scientists to be an indication of grief.

Tahlequah in 2018 carried a calf that lived only half an hour for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles.

In April, researchers spotted J40 with her first calf, female J63.

After the census concluded, researchers saw J36 pushing her deceased female calf. Researchers aren’t sure if the baby took a breath or was a stillbirth.

Just a few days later, J36’s younger sister, first-time mother J42, gave birth to J64, also after the census date for this year. Mama and calf appeared to be nursing when scientists saw them in the Strait of Georgia, Weiss said.

It may be too early to clearly assess J64’s health, but researchers were excited to know the mother was able to reproduce because she is the result of inbreeding (her brother is also her father).

The loss of the calves this year has been hard, said Deborah Giles, a killer whale scientist with the SeaDoc Society, but it’s not abnormal for this population.

A 2017 paper co-authored by Giles found that more than two-thirds of the southern residents’ pregnancies end in loss because of a lack of food. It may be getting worse, Giles said.

There are other populations of fish-eating killer whales elsewhere that are just as inbred but their populations continue to increase, Giles said; the difference is the southern residents are nutritionally deprived.

Southern resident killer whales reproduce about half as many calves as northern residents, which can be found around northern Vancouver Island and southeast Alaska, and the mammal-eating Bigg’s killer whales. It’s hard to say exactly how much of this difference is due to lower birth rates and how much to higher infant mortality. But the result is the same: Southern residents stand alone in the northeastern Pacific in orca decline.

The composition of the northern resident killer whale population has been used as a baseline for one of the criteria for removing the southern residents from the Endangered Species Act listing.

The big difference is the number of orcas under 10 years old – making up about 47% of the northern resident population but only 15% of the southern residents in 2025. Scientists largely attribute this to low birth rates and calf survival in the southern resident population.

Adult male K26, the oldest surviving male in K pod at the time of his death, went missing in the late summer of 2024. K pod did not see any documented births last year.

K20’s calf K45, born in 2022, was the first baby the K pod had seen in 11 years. K pod has the highest likelihood of going extinct in the next half century, Weiss said.

“If we lose K pod we’ve both kind of scratched off one of the criteria for ever delisting the southern residents,” Weiss said, “and we’ve lost a cultural group, a cultural lineage, forever that’s not coming back. There are calls that K pod makes that the other groups rarely ever make. So there are these sounds that are kind of inherent to the Salish Sea that would never be made again.”

K pod especially spends a lot of time on the outer coast of Washington and goes all the way down to Monterey Bay to fish. One lever to pull to boost southern resident recovery, Weiss said, would be breaching the lower four Snake River dams.

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.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found breaching the dams necessary alongside other actions to rebuild the highest-risk salmon runs in the Columbia Basin.

Tension persists over the competing demands on the Snake: irrigation, hydropower, transportation, fish. And climate change has added another layer of strain.

A bill from U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., seeks to bar federal funding from being used for research that could open a pathway to breaching the four lower Snake River dams, such as alternatives for energy generation or transportation. The bill had a hearing in September.

Efforts to recover salmon in the southern residents’ range continue.

Just one year after the largest dam removal in history, a Chinook salmon was documented in the lower Williamson River, heading for spawning habitat that has been inaccessible for more than a century.

Meanwhile, water temperatures and water quality have improved since the flows were restored.

Salmon were swimming upstream of the former dam sites the same week the Klamath dam removal project reached completion in October 2024. More than 7,700 Chinook swam upriver of the former site of Iron Gate, the lowermost dam in the system, in 2024.

“The Klamath River is still in that process of healing from those dams, and the scars are still fresh,” said Barry McCovey Jr., director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, at a news conference this month, “but the progress that we’ve made in just one year is pretty incredible; and it provides us with a lot of hope for the future.”

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has held its third coho fishery in more than a century on the Elwha, free of dams. Meanwhile, litigation over dam operations on the Columbia River continues.

Seattle Times: Southern resident K pod falls to lowest number since counts began

Tuesday, October 7, 2025
By Matthew Weaver

Dam advocates placed a full-page advertisement in the Seattle Times last week asking Oregon and Washington’s governors to seek conversation, not lawsuits.

Oregon and Washington’s governors answered by saying it was the Trump administration’s decision to leave the December 2023 agreement negotiated between the Biden administration, several Pacific Northwest Tribes and their states.

“The Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement — without even contacting Washington, Oregon or the tribal signatories — ensured we ended up back in court,” Dan Jackson, deputy communications manager with Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office, told Capital Press. “The agreement kept us out of the courtroom by creating a constructive partnership to address these issues without litigation. The administration made this choice.”

“The state of Oregon remains committed to a negotiated solution for Columbia Basin salmon recovery; it is precisely why the state of Oregon entered the 2023 agreement in good faith,” said Anca Matica, spokesperson for Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s office. “The Trump Administration chose to walk away from that partnership, not us.”

The state will use every tool available, including litigation, to prevent extinction, Matica said.

“That said, our door remains open to anyone serious about achieving healthy and abundant salmon populations through real solutions and genuine partnership,” she said.

The ad was signed by the Northwest Public Power Association, Northwest River Partners, The Public Power Council, the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association’s Inland Ports and Navigation Group and Washington Association of Wheat Growers.

Several of the groups were intervenor defendants in the negotiation process, but felt shut out or ignored.

“We may not get a direct response, but we do want to impress upon Governors Kotek and Ferguson the sincerity of our organizations to collaborate on solutions that protect salmon while preserving reliable, carbon-free hydropower and maintaining efficient, sustainable river navigation,” said Leslie Druffel, co-chair for the navigation group. “We are eager to build new partnerships and strengthen existing relationships that allow all of us to achieve our respective goals.”

‘The science is clear’

Ferguson’s office has “regular” conversations with the groups, voicing the same concerns that appear in the ad, Jackson said.

“Endangered salmon and steelhead stocks on the upper Columbia and Snake River remain far below historical levels,” Jackson said. “Adding healthier salmon populations to inflate the numbers doesn’t change the fact that none of the listed populations have made meaningful progress toward healthier numbers in decades.”

“The science is clear: While total salmon numbers include both hatchery and wild fish, we must look at individual stocks as the Endangered Species Act requires,” Matica said. “The state of Oregon Governor’s Office is committed to continuing to work with regional sovereigns, stakeholders, and communities to ensure healthy and abundant fish.”

Irrigators’ perspective

Darryll Olsen, board representative for the Columbia Snake River Irrigators Association, called the advertisement, and the groups’ arguments about secret negotiations, “complete propaganda, as far removed from the truth as they can possibly be.”

The irrigators association was another intervenor defendant in the mediation process. They support the December 2023 agreement. Its members irrigate about 300,000 acres of Eastern Washington crop, vineyard and orchard lands.

Olsen argues that the dam advocacy groups “were offered every opportunity to convey their positions, or state alternatives, during multiple mediation sessions.”

The groups’ dissatisfaction with the litigation settlement agreement “made no sense whatsoever,” as it put a hold for five to 10 years on any decision regarding dam breaching, Olsen said.

“The intervenor defendants are the ones that goaded the Trump administration into canceling the regional process that was in play,” he said. “That was the opportunity to discuss things, and they basically executed it. That’s just complete hypocrisy.”

In a press release, the irrigators association affirmed its support for the 2023 agreement and the litigation pause, and called for continued “good-faith regional collaboration.”

“CSRIA supported the mediated settlement because it provided a structured, regional review process and avoided immediate, economically disruptive outcomes,” the press release states. “CSRIA will keep listening to plaintiffs and partners and work toward a durable regional solution."

Capital Press: Governors respond to ad placed by dam advocates

As local religious leaders give a blessing, people touch a totem pole created to generate awareness of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and the effects its possible rescission could have on forests. © Nathan Wilson

By Nathan Wilson Columbia Gorge News
Sep 23, 2025

HOOD RIVER — With President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins moving to rescind the roadless rule, more than 100 people gathered at the Rockford Grange last Monday to submit comments in opposition and celebrate a totem pole specially carved for the cause.

Enacted in 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule still protects about 45 million acres of largely untouched, federally-owned forests from roadbuilding and logging nationwide, including about 2 million acres each in Oregon and Washington, along with parts of the National Scenic Area. Rollins made the announcement, which paralleled Trump’s executive order to ramp up domestic timber production, on June 23, and the three-week period to issue public comment ended Sept. 19.

To stave off the potential rollback, House of Tears Carvers from the Lummi Nation, comprised of several tribes rooted in Washington’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia, organized a nine-stop totem pole journey across the Northwest with Se’Si’Le, an Indigenous-led nonprofit.

Called Xaalh and The Way of the Masks, one of several campaigns since 2001, the 12-foot cedar totem depicts a bear transforming into a human, or vice versa, which is an important symbol from the legend “Bear and the Steelhead.”

As the tale goes, Bear is not allowed to hunt or fish while his wife is pregnant because of an agreement made with Salmon Woman, who let her children live in the village waters under certain conditions. Feeling the urge to provide for his wife, though, Bear went fishing one day. As he touched each of the children in their beds, Chinook, Sockeye and so on, all of their siblings downstream died, but it was no matter to Bear. He didn’t touch Steelhead, however, and that’s why, to this day, only Steelhead lives after swimming upriver to spawn.

“We live in a world where we are the pigs of the world. We consume more, waste more than any other people on Earth. Now, what type of example are we to the rest of the world? They need this forest,” said Jewell James, who carved the totem. “You should only take what you need and leave some for the seven generations away. You should leave more for them than you had when you came into this life.”

James explained that the totem pole represents transformation, a reminder that we must learn to love and work together. As he spoke, those listening filled out postcards destined for Washington, D.C., each with a short note on why they believed the roadless rule should remain in place.

“This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests. It is abundantly clear that properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land,” Rollins said in a statement.

According to a 2020 study by the United States Forest Service (USFS), which Rollins oversees, a lack of roads has not hindered fire prevention efforts — historical fire maps indicate that forests with and without road have burned at similar rates since 2001 — and roads are strongly correlated with the spread of invasive species in national forests. Roadbuilding also increases erosion, affecting water quality and salmon, among other impacts.

While largely a result of the Northwest Forest Plan, total timber harvest in Oregon and Washington has dropped significantly since the late 1980s, particularly in national forests, according to data compiled by USFS. That’s had a severe impact on logging-depending communities like Skamania County, but James and the Lummi Nation see the roadless rule repeal as an irreversible step backward.

“When the government fails, whether that’s Democrats, Republicans, the House or the Senate, the presidency or the Supreme Court, the last power is the people,” James said. “You have to believe in your constitutional power. That’s your constitution. It’s a living document, so long as you exercise your right to vote.”

Apart from James, several organizations also spoke about their support for the roadless rule, including the nonprofits Save Our Wild Salmon, Friends of the Columbia Gorge and Columbia Riverkeeper.

“These forests offer critical habitat to countless species,” said Abby Dalke, the outreach coordinator for Save Our Wild Salmon. “Forests provide carbon sequestration and canopy cover in the face of a changing climate. Our forests are worth more standing, and we need to make sure they remain intact.”

James asked that everyone persuade at least 10 others to send letters as he wrapped up speaking, then the group went outside to bless the totem pole, led by Bethel’s Pastor Andy Wade, Pastor Miranda Bermes from Spirit of Grace and Thich Minh Tinh with the Mount Adams Buddhist Temple. James also presented Mayor Paul Blackburn with a ceremonial mask.

In order to successfully rescind the roadless rule, USFS must produce two environmental impact statements, the first of which includes another public comment period. The final rule is then subject to congressional review and potential litigation; all told, the process may last well into 2026 or longer.

As for the totem pole journey, James and Se’Si’Le headed to Idaho next before the totem arrived at its final resting place: with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe near Port Angeles, Washington.

“Words are easy. It’s hard to commit,” said James. “It’s hard to put words that you speak into real action.”

Columbia Gorge News: Lummi Nation totem pole visits Hood River, drums up opposition to potential roadless rule recission

Hydroelectric dams harming salmon

September 15, 2025
By Mathias Lehman-Winters

On Thursday, Oregon, Washington, and four Lower Columbia River tribes announced they would resume litigation against the federal government over its hydroelectric dam operations in the region that have harmed salmon runs.

The move comes after the Trump administration pulled out of an agreement with Northwest states, environmental groups and the 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.

The renewed litigation aims to require the federal government to operate hydropower systems in a way that assists salmon migration downstream.

In a statement, Governor Tina Kotek said the state must move to protect salmon.

“Extinction of iconic Columbia River salmon runs is not an option; we can have both healthy and abundant fish runs and power to meet our growing energy needs,” Kotek said. “Working with the sovereign tribes and state of Washington, I have directed staff and agencies to protect existing salmon runs and advocate for sustainable salmon population restoration.”

In 2023, Oregon, Washington, and the four Lower Columbia Treaty Tribes created the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, putting decades of litigation on hold and aiming to restore salmon runs and design a hydropower plan that honors treaty obligations.

Later that year, the federal government committed to short-term protections for salmon. The agreement put a pause on litigation — a pause which is now over. Tanya Riordan, policy and advocacy director with Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, said she was appreciative of the leadership being shown by Oregon, Washington, tribal partners and non-governmental organization plaintiffs. “The resilient Columbia Basin agreement, it was an important and historic first step towards implementing the necessary measures to protect and restore endangered salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers,” Riordan said. “In the absence of that federal agreement, because the Trump administration rescinded it, it’s important to ensure urgent actions are taken to protect salmon that are on the brink of extinction.”

Riordan said the plaintiffs are left with no option but to return to court and request injunctive relief to “stop and slow the … extinction.”

Daily Astorian: Oregon, tribes return to court to save Columbia River salmon from extinction

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