Klamath River Tribes, Fishermen Rally To Remove Dams

Klamath River Tribes, Fishermen Rally To Remove Dams

by Dan Bacher

In an unprecedented show of unity, hundreds of members of the Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Karuk and Klamath tribes rallied in support of the removal of dams on the Klamath in front of the State Capitol on March 14.

After marching from Riverfront Park in Sacramento, the group, including many attired in traditional tribal dress, converged on the capitol and urged Governor Schwarzenegger to serve as “Conan the Riparian” by increasing state efforts to restore the Klamath River’s beleaguered salmon populations. The salmon runs are now blocked by six dams owned by PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Scottish Power based in Glasgow, Scotland.

“We will continue to fight until we bring the salmon back,” said Jeff Mitchell of the Klamath River inter-tribal Fish and Water Commission and a member of the Klamath and Modoc tribes. “We traveled to Scotland last summer to tell Scottish Power and the Scottish people that we need the salmon restored. We are bringing the same message today to the California leadership. We need ‘The Terminator’ to terminate the dams on the Klamath.”

Later this spring, Mitchell said the Klamath and other tribes plan to go to the Oregon State Capitol in Salem to urge Governor Kulongoski to pressure Pacific Corp to remove the dams. “We know that dam removal won’t solve all of our problems, but re-opening the 350 miles of habitat upstream is a prerequisite to any other restoration programs,” he stated.

The six dams owned by the company on the Klamath include Iron Gate, Copco #1, Copco #2, J.C. Boyle, Keno and Link River. The dams generate 70,000 to 80,000 megawatts of electricity most years, enough electricity to light up only 30,000 to 40,000 homes, although the power capacity on paper is 150,000 megawatts, according to Troy Fletcher, executive consultant for the Yurok Tribe.

Historically, the Klamath produced up to 1.1 million adult fish annually, including chinook, coho, pink and chum salmon, as well as abundant steelhead. The river was once the third most productive salmon river system on the west coast of the continental United States, according to Craig Tucker, Klamath Campaign Coordinator of the Karuk Tribe.

However, when Copco 1 Dam was constructed on the Klamath in 1918, it blocked access to more than 350 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in the upper Klamath. Iron Gate Dam, constructed in 1964, blocked salmon and steelhead from accessing seven more miles of upstream habitat.

According to Tucker, the Klamath River fall run chinook salmon productivity is now less than 8 percent of its historical abundance. Coho salmon, once the “workhorse” of the West Coast fishing industry, are less than one percent, while chum and pink salmon are extinct.

Although Southern and Central California received lots of rain this year so far, the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon is facing a drought. The fish returning to spawn this fall are the progeny of fish that spawned during the fall of 2002, when over 68,000 adult chinook salmon perished because of a change in water policy by the Bush administration that favor subsidized agribusiness over fish.

Confronted with a projected record low run, recreational and commercial ocean fishermen, in river fishermen and the tribes are faced with severe salmon fishing restrictions on the North Coast this year. Last year the Karuk Tribe, with over 3300 members, harvested less than 100 fish in its traditional dip net fishery at Ishi Pishi Falls – and the prospects are even dimmer this year.

“We only have two cold water tributaries, the Indian Creek and the Salmon River, left in the middle Klamath,” said Sandi Tripp, director of the Natural Resources Department of the Karuk Tribe. “When the PacifiCorp dams are removed, we’ll have all of the tributaries above the dams opened up for the fish to spawn.”

The tribes were joined by 50 members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, now fighting Bureau of Reclamation plans to raise Shasta Dam, as well as commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, environmental activists and farmers. In front of the State Capitol, the Winnemem Wintu, arrayed in colorful tribal dress, performed for several minutes the war dance that they did at Shasta Dam last September

“We are here to support our Klamath brothers and sisters,” said Gary Mulachy of the Winnemem Wintu. “We were horrified when we saw the reports on the big salmon kill on the Klamath in September 2002. It used to be that the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) was the bad ‘b’ word to us. Now the ‘b’ word is the Bureau of Reclamation.”

“There are more of you here today that the numbers of salmon we expect to return to the Klamath this year,” quipped Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “The fish kill is not impacting just the Klamath watershed – it’s hurting the fishery throughout California, since commercial fishing for Sacramento Fish will be cut dramatically this year to protect the Klamath stocks. We need to tell the governor we want the dams out now.”

A restored Klamath Basin would be valued at $4.5 billion, providing a needed boost to struggling rural and coastal communities along the California and Oregon coasts, according to a study by the Institute of Fisheries Resources.

Last Summer, Scottish Power executives promised tribal members that dam removal is “on the table’ as a possible result of the FERC relicensing process. The current license by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expires in 2006.

The State Water Resources Control Board has the authority to demand adequate measures for fish restoration in the licensing process. The Governor has the power to require a viable strategy, including a combination of fish ladders and dam removal, to return salmon to the upper Klamath Basin.

So far, the Governor has said some positive things regarding Klamath restoration and his staff has been warm to the ideal of dam removal, according to the tribes. Hopefully, the unprecedented march and rally will send a strong message to Governor Schwarzenegger and Oregon Governor Kulongoski to do the right thing and mandate PacifiCorp to remove the dams.

Becky Hyde and her husband, who farm land on the Sycan River in the Klamath Basin, support the tribes and fishermen in their efforts to restore the Klamath.

“It’s not an issue of fish versus farmers,” she emphasized at the rally. “We can have both. I support dam removal for fish passage – and I also want affordable power for farmers to continue. Faced with drought conditions, it is imperative that we pull together to make it through this year.”

“If one river system can be fixed and restored, it is the Klamath,” concluded Jeff Mitchell. “I haven’t met one person yet that doesn’t want clean water, to see the salmon survive and to have healthy rural communities. This fight won’t be over until we have fish returning into the Sprague, Chiloquin and other Upper Klamath Basin tributaries once again.”

(For photos accompanying this article, you can go to http://www.fishsniffer.com)