Thank you for making a front-page feature regarding the breakthrough on negotiations regarding possible removal of the dams on the Klamath River. During my 77 years of life I have seen the great commercial salmon industry brought to its knees by the deterioration of salmon spawning habitat. The tourist industry along the California portion of the Klamath River has suffered the same fate for the same reason.

With a BS degree in fisheries management, I am aware there are other factors as well as the dams that have degraded the river habitat. A major concern is road construction, logging operations and all activity that disturbs mountainsides and loosens the soil cover. When that happens, our winter rains transport this loosened silt and mud down tributaries and into the rivers. Once there, the silt and mud become the most destructive force imaginable against reproduction of salmonids. Salmonids spawning in gravel must have clean streams so that water will move through the gravel carrying oxygen to the eggs. The eggs will die if silt forms a cover over these gravels or sifts down into the gravel and prevents sufficient life-giving oxygen from reaching the eggs. The silt and mud also suffocate the many microscopic forms of life that are essential food for the tiny newly hatched salmonids.

The dams contribute to this downward spiral of river habitat by preventing the salmon from going above the dams and utilizing the miles of spawning habitat further upstream. Other factors, such as warmer water created by the dams, also have a major negative impact on both the spawners and the young fish.

To see the dam owner's president, Bill Fehrman, quoted saying, “We are not opposed to dam removal or other settlement” is truly “Positive Momentum.” Tim McKay, who died July 30, would have been elated to see this much progress with Pacificorp. McKay worked hard and persistently toward improving the Klamath River's resources to better serve all of us.

We must all pull together in this effort to restore the Klamath River. The future of the salmon populations, the future of the commercial fishery, the future of the Klamath River tourist and resort trade, and the future well being of the Indian tribes living along the river depends on us collectively. The removal of these four dams will be a big and positive step in this direction.

Richard Laursen lives in Eureka.

Opinions expressed in My Word pieces do not necessarily reflect the editorial viewpoint of the Times-Standard.