Klamath River Dam Removal
Many years ago, efforts began to tear down four dams that were established along the Klamath River, the main issue being that the water diversions and dams had greatly disrupted Klamath’s salmon population, they needed to be destroyed in order to reestablish their upstream habit, and dismantling them would open up hundreds of miles of the Klamath River for coho salmon. This was a combined effort made through cooperation, negotiation, and compromise between very different people.
After a long time of negotiations between farmers, commercial fisherman, and the four native American tribes of the Klamath basin a compromise was made due to a drought bringing forth common issues in 2001. This compromise …show more content…
However, Walden later softened on his stance and was open to and began negotiating on legislation to get the agreement moving forward. He unveiled a legislative draft that called for turning over 100,000 acres of federal land to Klamath County and to California’s Siskiyou County but left out the dam removal. This, of course, did not make much progress and a new agreement was made later.
Finally, on April 6, 2016, a new agreement was made to decommission the four dams after the previous one hadn’t worked out. On the grounds of the Yurok Indian Reservation, the agreement was assigned by the Yurok Tribal Chair Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., Karuk Tribal Chair Russell Attebery, Klamath Tribal Chair Don Gentry, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, the governors of Oregon and California, and the owner of the dams PacifiCorp. Steps were finally being enacted and it looks as if the dams will be dismantled and replaced by other natural power sources in the year