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SOFF May Meeting
Mark Hereford
Project Leader
Klamath Anadromous Restoration Program
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
The Return of Salmon to the Upper Klamath Basin
The four Klamath River hydroelectric dams were removed in early fall of 2024 allowing migration of adult anadromous fishes into habitat in California and Oregon that had been blocked for over one-hundred years. Immediately following the removal of the dams California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and The Klamath Tribes (TKT) began monitoring the mainstem Klamath River and its tributaries above the former dam sites to document the potential volitional return of Chinook Salmon. Monitoring consisted of boots-on-the ground surveys in tributaries and float-based surveys on the river, and video weirs on tributaries. Within weeks after the final section of the lower-most dam was removed the first Klamath River Fall Chinook were observed in tributaries immediately above the former dams in California and Oregon, making their way up the mouths of tributaries that in only a few months prior had been under reservoirs and blocked by four dams. In the following weeks hundreds of fall Chinook would be observed in both tributary and mainstem habitat, greatly exceeding initial expectations immediately following dam removal. This presentation will summarize the initial findings of the Chinook Salmon monitoring effort that took place following the largest dam removal project to ever occur.