Klamath River

Restoration contractor Resource Environmental Solutions and area tribes will plant up to 19 billion native seeds as the Klamath Dams come out and reservoirs are drained.

Though tributaries like Horse Creek are far out of the spotlight, they are an integral part of the whole Klamath River ecosystem. Without these, it’s unlikely that dam removal alone will help coho and Chinook fully recover.

On Thursday afternoon, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited Iron Gate Dam, along the Klamath River, to celebrate its decommissioning in what will be part of the largest dam removal and river restoration project in U.S. history.

A standoff over shutting down ranchers’ pumps signals a flareup of water wars as California is gripped by seemingly endless drought. “To hell with it. We’re starting the pumps,” one Siskiyou County rancher said.

The McKinney Fire, burning in Siskiyou County near the Oregon-California border, is causing new problems. On Friday, biologists with the Karuk Tribe identified thousands of dead fish of all species in areas where muddy debris flows had entered the river.

For the first time in its 55 year history, the Iron Gate fish hatchery, which raises salmon and steelhead, will not release its salmon smolts into the Klamath River this summer.

Salmon populations in the Klamath River have been struggling for years. Late last week, the Klamath Spring Chinook Salmon was added to California’s Endangered Species List.

Federal energy regulators have approved a key step in the long road toward removing four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River to help threatened salmon.

After years of drought, salmon in Northern California are facing extinction. Conservation groups in the region have drafted a water management plan that, if adopted, would send less water to Central Valley farmers and keep more cold water for fish.

When Rep. Cliff Bentz visited Klamath Falls Thursday, he brought promises of government aid for farmers who won't be getting irrigation water from the federal Klamath Project this season. And he urged irrigators to resist the temptation to take matters into their own hands.

Two members of Congress from Southern Oregon and Northern California are teaming up on a proposed aid package to help to assist farmers, wildlife refuges, tribes and fisherman affected by the increasing drought in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California border.

There’s not enough water to go around, as irrigators, tribes and fishermen all come up short.