@@jesse75 In what way? The Elwha flows into the Pacific Ocean and is a spawning ground for Salmon and steelhead which now after the dam removal are recovering remarkably well. The same will happen on the Klamath.
I am absolutely stoked to see this taking place it is wonderful project that will bring back what should have been again people will be surprised at how fast Mother Earth will heal herself if left to do it
It's fantastic that these dams were successfully removed without having any effect(now and in the future) on energy, fresh water, and potential of flooding for the residents.
Absolutely wonderful news ! It was a long battle, but the end is near and the rewards well deserved. Congratulations to every single person who saw this future Klamath River and never tired pursuit of their vision !
So happy to see this finally done. I started hearing about and exploring the negotiations about 10-12 years ago when I lived in the Applegate Valley. Thanks for the positive video of the progress. Yay!
Thanks for the update! I've been following the dam removal projects for years, and I'm always so eager to hear when there are updates. Can't wait to see new videos and pictures over next few months during summer when a lot of the vegetation can start growing. Such an important project!
I have some issues with these Indians too.They claim this ancient spiritual bond with salmon going back thousands of years which is a complete lie.Salmon were of almost no value to them and they were never able to catch or spear them when they were fresh and in the main river.Not until they were all spent and on shallow spawning beds were they able to catch them and it was all in the very upper portions of the river.They are Paiutes and their main source of protein were insects and suckers that they caught in shallow waters in the spring.They just built them a $5 million hatchery to produce short-nosed suckers.The original canneries on the Klamath were for suckers NOT salmon.Not until white people developed the salmon fishing did the Indians attempt to go after them lower in the river.A whole nother discussion is Lucy Thompson and her Traditions of the Ancient White People and the Wa-gas people on the Klamath but the Paiutes ate BUGS and SUCKERS!
When you actually study things you start to see how much of history is just a bunch of conflated fucking bullshit and you develop a different perspective on things.
These Pandora moth larvae were their preferred food too.Right were they were stationed.These insect populations a cyclical and going to extremes because the Indians are no longer using them as a food source.Pandora moth larvae,akalai flies,Mormon crickets and others.We are having biblical plagues of them now.For some reason spring Chinook and fillet of bison were their traditional foods now because there is a white people market for them. "Larvae were dried and cooked with vegetables in a stew, called "peage." The Modoc and Klamath Indians collected and stored them"
They play these endangered species things like a fiddle.On the Klamath they are crying about the suckers.$5 million to produce 60,000 juvenile suckers but just up the road on the Columbia they have millions of them and they won't touch them.
We should remove these old dams and figure out a way to build hydro power productions better, which allows for continuance rather than eradication. The anadromous fish are a cash crop. They are to the coastal tribes, as the buffalo were to plains tribes. Hydro can be done in ways that still allow for fish passage and power generation.
This a truly uplifting story. We no longer need many of these old hydroelectric dams many of which cost more to maintain than they are worth. The power companies don't really want them but they don't want to pay for their removal either. This is a win for all concerned!
I look forward to the day when the remaining dams can be removed too. California and Oregon must make every possible effort to protect the tributaries and streams that feed the river, and new wetlands must be created as well to provide the river with water during the hot, dry summer months. Beavers will do that for free if they are given adequate protection.
@@nonewherelistens1906 yes I do yet they can drastically change the water way. Rivers change, forest burn, nothing is constant, even humans will no longer be here eventually.
Boo Effin' Hoo? The Klamath and the Salmon belong to all the residents of Oregon and California. It was a gigantic mistake to put damns (that quickly fill with sediment) on such an important river for Salmon spawning for the incredibly tiny amount electricity produced for such a relatively sparsely in habited portion of the county.
@@johntuttle9544 it’s a legitimate question. I’m all for the salmon. More Salmon and less people all the way! Right? Maybe we can limit the population growth in the region and not let it grow!
This is such a good-news story, and hopefully sets the stage for more obsolete dam removals in the future. It would be nice if the process become easier and more streamlined, without the years of delays that plagued this project. Positive public perceptions and years of data from the Elwha River should help grease the wheels of subsequent projects on rivers large & small.
I think it’ll look a lot better at the end of the second summer than at the end of the first. It’s a narrow corridor, and has a massive revegetation operation in place. It’s led by the experienced guy who had same position at the reveg operation on the Elwha. Between those two differences it will be much faster than the post-eruption transformations at St Helens. And there the ash was truly harsh, especially the first few years. If you remember the impacted zone there looked way worse a couple weeks after than re-exposed land at the Klamath. Some pessimists then talked about couple hundred years before vegetation would take hold. When you’ve been there recently you’ve had a harder time seeing the elk. Plants too tall, blocking the views. Of course they were wrong, unless you count 60” diameter, 175’ tall Doug fir as yard stick for ‘recovered.’ Trees only grow so fast.
It's about time we acknowledge that the state, feds and utility companies have done the people wrong in their attempts to harness nature. We the people shall persevere over the needs of the few in their quest for power and wealth...
Wrong, be grateful, as you cash your welfare check, our ancestors built the richest country in history on these dams and energy. They can come down now because technology has advanced….but Only on the back of ancestral efforts to harness nature.
Fishermen be careful. Here on the Elwha, the dams came out in 2011, and we were told the river would be closed for five years. Now it’s 2024, 13 years later, fish runs are supposedly going well but the river is still closed, with no firm date to re-open. No one in a position of authority has a stake in the river re-opening, but at least one group has a stake in it remaining closed, except of course to their tribal fishery. This should be a warning wherever dam removal is being considered. Even if the environment improves, the public as a whole may not share in the result.
The river has always belonged to The First Peoples Nation! The Dams destroyed the habitat and a Great Salmon Fishery for over a 100 years! It's going to take probably more than 10 years to recover!
When released so quickly, the sediment that has built up over a century behind these 4 dams will initially kill all creatures downstream. let's hope that the new ecosystems that develops over the next century will be worth it.
Other dam removal projects have shown that these effects are pretty short term (and no, the sediment does NOT kill everything) with wildlife quickly bouncing back and the ecosystem benefitting significantly within a couple of years. This is just fearmongering bs.
There's so many contaminants flowing into that river. That the county commissioners have signed emergency proclamations to clean the contaminants. From all the damn removals, you're killing fish
So we are trying to move to 100% electric and are destroying everything that generates electricity for us!? No wonder my power bill jumped up 30% 3 months ago lol. “We can’t make a better fish ladder so let’s destroy it all”
Not saying dam’s are the answer but ef me if you think some wind turbines will replace these and not have negative effects of their own!? Like a solid carbon fiber wing never breaking down in a land fill and taking more electricity to build than it ever generates in its 5 year life span. Wake up people fml
So we are making false equivalencies and whining about clean water and a healthier ecosystem?! No wonder it's so easy for hydropower and fossil fuel industries to dupe the gullible. lol. "We say dumb things to generate FUD".
It wasn't just a matter of building fish ladders to restore traditional salmon runs that drove the decisions to bring down the dams. All of the dams on the Klamath River coming down this year had structural issues that were known at least 10 years ago. Even then (over 10 years ago), the dams were producing less than 5% of their electrical capacity, making the upgrades to the dams required by the State of California financially unfeasible, so the private utility company that owns and manages the dams decided to tear them down (again, over 10 years ago). And while it was primarily a decision based on profit/loss for the utility company, they were also under tremendous legal pressure from the local Native American tribes as well as other environmental groups. Once the decision was made, it took the ensuing decade for many specialists to figure out the best way to go about removing the structures and restoring the heavily damaged ecosystems underlying the former man-made lakes behind the dams. As for rising energy prices, that is pretty much a worldwide issue, and not really much governed by local energy companies or their manner of producing energy.
I become distrustful of media that "saves the turtles" and intentionally does not mention how many deer died stuck in the mud. What else would they hide? Deschutes, Crooked, you're next I bet.
that was a handful of deer and although unfortunate, those deer are not worth severing the nutrient cycle or maintaining the dilapidated infrastructure.
What is your point? There will be some casualties to this. Imagine how many deer have been displaced by civilization? This is a positive thing. I can't see why anyone would be opposed to this? Can't save every animal. We are trying to undo what we fucked up to begin with.
Within weeks after the Elwha dams were removed steelhead had made it to spawning grounds well above where the largest dam stood.❤😊
The Elwha paved the way.
@@avid2112sort of. Completely different ecosystem.
@@jesse75 In what way? The Elwha flows into the Pacific Ocean and is a spawning ground for Salmon and steelhead which now after the dam removal are recovering remarkably well. The same will happen on the Klamath.
@@stevehunter291 rivers that flows into strat of Juan de fuca Washington side
I am absolutely stoked to see this taking place it is wonderful project that will bring back what should have been again people will be surprised at how fast Mother Earth will heal herself if left to do it
It's fantastic that these dams were successfully removed without having any effect(now and in the future) on energy, fresh water, and potential of flooding for the residents.
This is such a cool project. I will love to see what it looks like in ten year.
“Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” - Chief Seattle☮❤🤗
Take out Howard Hanson.
Absolutely wonderful news ! It was a long battle, but the end is near and the rewards well deserved. Congratulations to every single person who saw this future Klamath River and never tired pursuit of their vision !
So happy to see this finally done. I started hearing about and exploring the negotiations about 10-12 years ago when I lived in the Applegate Valley. Thanks for the positive video of the progress. Yay!
Thanks for the update! I've been following the dam removal projects for years, and I'm always so eager to hear when there are updates. Can't wait to see new videos and pictures over next few months during summer when a lot of the vegetation can start growing. Such an important project!
win, win for fish and native Americans
I have some issues with these Indians too.They claim this ancient spiritual bond with salmon going back thousands of years which is a complete lie.Salmon were of almost no value to them and they were never able to catch or spear them when they were fresh and in the main river.Not until they were all spent and on shallow spawning beds were they able to catch them and it was all in the very upper portions of the river.They are Paiutes and their main source of protein were insects and suckers that they caught in shallow waters in the spring.They just built them a $5 million hatchery to produce short-nosed suckers.The original canneries on the Klamath were for suckers NOT salmon.Not until white people developed the salmon fishing did the Indians attempt to go after them lower in the river.A whole nother discussion is Lucy Thompson and her Traditions of the Ancient White People and the Wa-gas people on the Klamath but the Paiutes ate BUGS and SUCKERS!
Now I see these Indians stringing their monofilament gillnets clear across the mouth of the river and using powerboats instead of sharpened sticks.
When you actually study things you start to see how much of history is just a bunch of conflated fucking bullshit and you develop a different perspective on things.
These Pandora moth larvae were their preferred food too.Right were they were stationed.These insect populations a cyclical and going to extremes because the Indians are no longer using them as a food source.Pandora moth larvae,akalai flies,Mormon crickets and others.We are having biblical plagues of them now.For some reason spring Chinook and fillet of bison were their traditional foods now because there is a white people market for them. "Larvae were dried and cooked with vegetables in a stew, called "peage." The Modoc and Klamath Indians collected and stored them"
They play these endangered species things like a fiddle.On the Klamath they are crying about the suckers.$5 million to produce 60,000 juvenile suckers but just up the road on the Columbia they have millions of them and they won't touch them.
Several midwestern dams are being removed (including the Gorge Dam on the famous flaming Cuyahoga river). Certainly fishing will improve.
Truly amazing! Can’t wait for our anadromous friends to make it back. 😊
We should remove these old dams and figure out a way to build hydro power productions better, which allows for continuance rather than eradication. The anadromous fish are a cash crop. They are to the coastal tribes, as the buffalo were to plains tribes. Hydro can be done in ways that still allow for fish passage and power generation.
This a truly uplifting story. We no longer need many of these old hydroelectric dams many of which cost more to maintain than they are worth. The power companies don't really want them but they don't want to pay for their removal either. This is a win for all concerned!
Looking good and will only improve over time! 🙂
The absolute most positive news I've heard in a long time. The Klamath is my favorite!
Looking forward to visiting the restored river!
Restoring the circulatory system. Bless you all for this.
Outstanding!
This is so very good news to me 😃
Good job
I look forward to the day when the remaining dams can be removed too. California and Oregon must make every possible effort to protect the tributaries and streams that feed the river, and new wetlands must be created as well to provide the river with water during the hot, dry summer months. Beavers will do that for free if they are given adequate protection.
You do understand that nature dams rivers as well right?
@@doamaker6674 Yes! We understand that. North and South America are basically dams. Blocking the passage of the Pacific. Using your logic.
Without dams, you can kiss your comfortable lifestyle goodbye
@@doamaker6674 You do understand that those 'natural' dams are ephemeral, right?
@@nonewherelistens1906 yes I do yet they can drastically change the water way. Rivers change, forest burn, nothing is constant, even humans will no longer be here eventually.
Yay!!! There is still hope for salmon, and possibly, humanity.
Maybe salmon...
Thanks for the news 🙏🏿
Will the removal of the dams increase the price of electricity for South Oregon residents?
Boo Effin' Hoo? The Klamath and the Salmon belong to all the residents of Oregon and California. It was a gigantic mistake to put damns (that quickly fill with sediment) on such an important river for Salmon spawning for the incredibly tiny amount electricity produced for such a relatively sparsely in habited portion of the county.
@@johntuttle9544 it’s a legitimate question. I’m all for the salmon. More Salmon and less people all the way! Right? Maybe we can limit the population growth in the region and not let it grow!
@@retiredafce3373 Apologies. I believe the increase is minimal as these were tiny hydroelectric projects.
Not going to lower prices
@@user-cm7he2ep5x Nothing lowers your power bill. Except spinning the meter slower.
I'm really excited to see what happens with this.
This is such a good-news story, and hopefully sets the stage for more obsolete dam removals in the future. It would be nice if the process become easier and more streamlined, without the years of delays that plagued this project. Positive public perceptions and years of data from the Elwha River should help grease the wheels of subsequent projects on rivers large & small.
Snake river dams next......
Save the turtles 😃
Good point. Below Iron Gate, that part of the river had lots of turtles.
Who will save me from the wee turtles?
Was not enjoyable for the elk that got stuck in iron gate lake where they used to drink from!
Before you know it there will be all kinds of grass, flowers, trees and other plants growing in that rich soil.
I think it’ll look a lot better at the end of the second summer than at the end of the first. It’s a narrow corridor, and has a massive revegetation operation in place. It’s led by the experienced guy who had same position at the reveg operation on the Elwha. Between those two differences it will be much faster than the post-eruption transformations at St Helens. And there the ash was truly harsh, especially the first few years. If you remember the impacted zone there looked way worse a couple weeks after than re-exposed land at the Klamath. Some pessimists then talked about couple hundred years before vegetation would take hold. When you’ve been there recently you’ve had a harder time seeing the elk. Plants too tall, blocking the views. Of course they were wrong, unless you count 60” diameter, 175’ tall Doug fir as yard stick for ‘recovered.’ Trees only grow so fast.
@@billsmith5109 Well it's a great start and if worked correctly the transformation will be great. Hopefully I get back there soon and get to enjoy it.
It's about time we acknowledge that the state, feds and utility companies have done the people wrong in their attempts to harness nature. We the people shall persevere over the needs of the few in their quest for power and wealth...
Wrong, be grateful, as you cash your welfare check, our ancestors built the richest country in history on these dams and energy. They can come down now because technology has advanced….but Only on the back of ancestral efforts to harness nature.
@@sgassocsg You left a few things out. What was destroyed in the process of harnessing nature? Cash your own welfare check. I never have.
I'm looking forward to the time when the Indians can commercial gill net the Klamath again like back in the good old days of the 70's,80's and 90's.
@stevet8121 Nice try! Just stop.
@@johnkilty5091 Did telling the truth hurt your feelings?
Nature will quickly repair itself once we stop doing the damage.
18 to 24 months. Ok, we'll wait.
It's on record.
Fishermen be careful. Here on the Elwha, the dams came out in 2011, and we were told the river would be closed for five years. Now it’s 2024, 13 years later, fish runs are supposedly going well but the river is still closed, with no firm date to re-open. No one in a position of authority has a stake in the river re-opening, but at least one group has a stake in it remaining closed, except of course to their tribal fishery. This should be a warning wherever dam removal is being considered. Even if the environment improves, the public as a whole may not share in the result.
Good point. Salmon recovery has not been the best or someone is hiding the facts from us.
My memory is that they said several fish generations. I don’t remember five years.
Find another river? Allow some time for recovery after a hundred years of being choked to death?
The river has always belonged to The First Peoples Nation! The Dams destroyed the habitat and a Great Salmon Fishery for over a 100 years! It's going to take probably more than 10 years to recover!
@@jesse75 All the info you need to see is out there. Do some reading. All facts are hidden until you read about them.
When released so quickly, the sediment that has built up over a century behind these 4 dams will initially kill all creatures downstream. let's hope that the new ecosystems that develops over the next century will be worth it.
Agreed. It's a long way to the ocean. Sad that silt covered all the eggs in redds.
Other dam removal projects have shown that these effects are pretty short term (and no, the sediment does NOT kill everything) with wildlife quickly bouncing back and the ecosystem benefitting significantly within a couple of years. This is just fearmongering bs.
@@jesse75 Wrong!
The drawdowns were planned to prevent what you are worried about. The river is flushing itself and little downstream will be affected. Read!
@@johnkilty5091 Mr know it all. Try going to the river and look around.
Hope's and Dreams don't always come true.
What do you mean hopes and dreams this is all science
So you’re telling me that in the drought we experience every year or so, there’s going to be river flowing… not drying up? Still flowing huh 🤔
@Opalsdad The Mouth of the Klamath has never run dry nor will it. Too many sources of water feed into it.
Let us know when, in the last 10,000 years, the Klamath has ever "dried up".🤔
You can't be serious.
Another copco lake residents mad we took the algae lake away
@@RamoneRitchie I don’t even live near or use it …
Get the nets out of your rivers, let salmon spawn
There's so many contaminants flowing into that river. That the county commissioners have signed emergency proclamations to clean the contaminants. From all the damn removals, you're killing fish
Let me guess another copco lake residents lol
So we are trying to move to 100% electric and are destroying everything that generates electricity for us!? No wonder my power bill jumped up 30% 3 months ago lol.
“We can’t make a better fish ladder so let’s destroy it all”
Not saying dam’s are the answer but ef me if you think some wind turbines will replace these and not have negative effects of their own!?
Like a solid carbon fiber wing never breaking down in a land fill and taking more electricity to build than it ever generates in its 5 year life span. Wake up people fml
I can give you a hug and some kleanex josh
So we are making false equivalencies and whining about clean water and a healthier ecosystem?! No wonder it's so easy for hydropower and fossil fuel industries to dupe the gullible. lol.
"We say dumb things to generate FUD".
They didn't produce that much electricity. And of all 5 projects PP&L had like that, that was the worst for the fish.
It wasn't just a matter of building fish ladders to restore traditional salmon runs that drove the decisions to bring down the dams. All of the dams on the Klamath River coming down this year had structural issues that were known at least 10 years ago. Even then (over 10 years ago), the dams were producing less than 5% of their electrical capacity, making the upgrades to the dams required by the State of California financially unfeasible, so the private utility company that owns and manages the dams decided to tear them down (again, over 10 years ago). And while it was primarily a decision based on profit/loss for the utility company, they were also under tremendous legal pressure from the local Native American tribes as well as other environmental groups. Once the decision was made, it took the ensuing decade for many specialists to figure out the best way to go about removing the structures and restoring the heavily damaged ecosystems underlying the former man-made lakes behind the dams.
As for rising energy prices, that is pretty much a worldwide issue, and not really much governed by local energy companies or their manner of producing energy.
I become distrustful of media that "saves the turtles" and intentionally does not mention how many deer died stuck in the mud. What else would they hide? Deschutes, Crooked, you're next I bet.
that was a handful of deer and although unfortunate, those deer are not worth severing the nutrient cycle or maintaining the dilapidated infrastructure.
@@jaytuberr But that's beside the point I made.
What is your point? There will be some casualties to this. Imagine how many deer have been displaced by civilization? This is a positive thing. I can't see why anyone would be opposed to this? Can't save every animal. We are trying to undo what we fucked up to begin with.
@@bob_frazier it’s almost like a handful of deer aren’t very relevant in a historic dam removal and restoration project
@@jaytuberr But saving the turtles was. LOL.
No salmon are going to "scoot upsream." Love these paid puff pieces.
Um! That is exactly what Salmon do. Scoot, scramble, jump, swim. Whatever they need to do.
The Elwha and White Salmon Rivers are doing great!
Tell us more of your FUD. Love these hydropower/rancher propaganda comments.
@@tombeno8746 They are on the victim crusade.Everybody has known this was happening for years but now is the time to cry.
@@tombeno8746 They just had a drawdown of Green Peter reservoir and omfg dude!
Its a fricking nightmare..... That lie lie lie about what happened!
No it is not! I was just there. Far from a nightmare. I am am for this project.
It's a comedy... The shrieking nonsense of entitled locals.
So just to be clear. I am a republican. Without a doubt. I do not understand the opposition to dam removal in general. The party needs to change.