Awaiting Klamath Dam removal

 

Photo courtesy Shadi Rahimi  Hoop fisherman Virgil Bussell cleaned one of the three salmon he caught on a line after hours fishing on the Trinity River.

HOOPA, Calif. – One thing is clear after driving north through small towns and along winding mountain roads to reach the base of the Klamath River Basin. Its isolation has helped save it.

A century after European contact, the river region remains forested and is dominated by four tribes – the three largest in California: Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk, and the largest in Oregon, the Klamath. Most other California tribal regions have been overtaken and ravaged in comparison.

But although the lush basin appears pristine, it hasn’t been immune to interference. Today seven dams line the 263-mile Klamath River, some producing toxic algae in the still waters of reservoirs and all blocking salmon from reaching 350 miles of spawning grounds.

A glimmer of hope appeared in November when the Bush administration proposed a nonbinding agreement that would result in removal of the four lowest dams beginning in 2020 – which would be the largest dam removal in U.S. history.

The possibility comes after 100 years without salmon for Klamath tribes upriver.

“The salmon are really the base of our culture,” said Annalia Norris, 33, of the Klamath tribe at the mouth of the river, for whom the spawn was the time of their world renewal ceremony.

“We honored the fish; they’re the ones that give us life and feed us,” Norris said. “That’s our whole culture. It’s centered around the salmon – we’re salmon people.”

The agreement reached in Sacramento was sent next to the U.S. Department of Interior, dam owner PacifiCorp and the governors of Oregon and California.

Tribes, fishing groups, farmers and conservationists have long pushed for dam removal, a call that was taken up by the state governors in 2006 after commercial salmon fisheries collapsed. Many dam removal proponents have been citing in talks with PacifiCorp the hefty $300 million price tag in updates required in order for the utility to renew its federal operating licenses.

As talks dragged on for months, activists held benefits including the Oct. 17 “Un-Dam the Klamath” concert at Humboldt State University. They also placed public pressure on PacifiCorp at its Portland headquarters and shareholder meetings of its owner, billionaire Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway.

In September, Norris and a few hundred protestors marched to PacifiCorp’s headquarters after hanging a banner that read, “Warren Buffett Kills Salmon, Jobs and Communities” over Interstate-84. Protestors blocked the entrance of the building, disrupting business for the day.

“There will be no business as usual for PacifiCorp as long as there is no business as usual for Klamath River communities,” said Chook Chook Hillman, 24, of the Karuk tribe.

Buffet has been mentioned often by President-elect Barack Obama as a potential member of his cabinet. But despite Buffet’s lofty status, he is persona non grata in the Klamath Basin.

Here, reverence reigns for the river that had sustained the tribes for centuries before the dams. The Klamath River converges with one of its tributaries, the Trinity River, just beneath a small bridge where Hoopa territory ends and Yurok territory begins.

Atop this bridge, tribal members watched the White Deer Skin Dance this summer. Dancers and singers stood on canoes floating down the Klamath, aided by water flow controlled by operators at the lowest dam, Iron Gate.

PacifiCorp had argued its four hydroelectric dams, built between 1908 and 1962 by different owners, are a reliable source of renewable energy. But now that the agreement promotes favorable conditions for the utility, PacifiCorp officials are saying they are committed to removal.

Photo courtesy Shadi Rahimi  - A row of salmon caught by Hoopa fisherman Clyde Moon and his friend on the Trinity River.