Chinook Return to Klamath River

Photo: Mark Hereford, ODFW

After the removal of the four dams on the Klamath River, anglers, scientists, and conservationists alike have been eager for an Elwha River-style story, where the fish just come rushing back with a vengeance.

That big rush has yet to happen, but according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), at least one chinook salmon has been spotted in a Klamath River tributary this year. That’s the first salmon to be seen in Oregon’s side of the Klamath River Basin since 1912, and that fish was about 230 river miles from the Pacific Ocean.

“This is an exciting and historic development in the Klamath Basin that demonstrates the resiliency of salmon and steelhead,” said ODFW Director Debbie Colbert. “It also inspires us to continue restoration work in the upper basin. I want to thank everyone that has contributed to this effort over the last two decades.”

Fish biologists have been surveying the Klamath River and tributaries since dam removal as part of the agency’s responsibility to monitor the repopulation of anadromous fish species to the basin in collaboration with The Klamath Tribes.

Mark Hereford, ODFW’s Klamath Fisheries Reintroduction Project Leader, was part of the survey team that identified the fall-run Chinook. His team was ecstatic when they saw the first salmon.

“We saw a large fish the day before rise to surface in the Klamath River, but we only saw a dorsal fin,” said Hereford. “I thought, was that a salmon or maybe it was a very large rainbow trout?” Once the team returned on Oct. 16 and 17, they were able to confirm that salmon were in the tributary.

The removal of the four Klamath dams is the largest dam removal project in history. The previous removal of dams on the Elwha River, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, was the largest before the Klamath Project started. The Elwha has seen a resurgence in salmon, steelhead, and resident rainbow trout since the dam removal, providing a blueprint of what we could expect from the Klamath. While there’s likely more work to be done on the Klamath to fully restore the sites of the removed dams, seeing a fish already is proof that dam removal works, and is the best tool available to save salmon and steelhead.