Legendary environmentalist Tim McKay passed away about a month ago. Since his untimely death, the gentle giant has been honored and eulogized by respected political and civic leaders, journalists and the people of Northern California.

It is safe to say that Tim's passion and vision touched many people. And the impact his work had on protecting plants, animals and ecosystems from destruction cannot be exaggerated.

So it is with humility that I suggest that the real way to honor the memory and legacy of Tim McKay would be to decommission and remove the dams along the Klamath River.

These dams are at the center of a growing controversy, and Tim had made their removal a centerpiece of his work in recent times.

The dams prevent salmon access to almost 200 miles of their spawning habitat, are responsible for heating the water temperature to levels that kill salmon (and many other native plants and animals), and are creating conditions that lead to massive blooms of toxic algae.

The federal Clean Water Act guarantees that all people in the United States have the right to swim and fish in our nation's rivers without fearing for their heath. But the fact is that the reservoirs created by the dams along the might river are responsible for record blooms of Microcystis aeruginos -- a potent toxin. In fact, this summer these blooms were reported at levels 4,000 times higher than what the World Heath Organization considers “safe” for recreational use. And of course these toxins traveled downriver, effecting and impacting the entire watershed.

The Klamath River was once one of the richest and most abundant sources of salmon along the entire West Coast. But since being dammed, spring chinook runs are a pale remnant of what they once were. Fall chinook are also struggling, and the coho salmon is listed as a threatened species. These dams are creating an ecological crisis, with deep and far-reaching economic impact for our region.

The river's struggling salmon runs triggered a near shutdown of commercial salmon fishing on the West Coast this summer that cost area commercial fishermen over $16 million. We are still struggling from the disaster of 2002, when over 68,000 salmon were lost in a “fish kill” that can be directly tied to those dams.

Last month the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff rejected the advice of federal fisheries scientists to remove the dams, and re-issued their licenses. But this does not mean the battle is over. The reality is that struggles for environmental protection unfold over decades. Tim realized this, and urged us to remember to think and plan over the long haul.

Tim once said, “Endangered species are not the problem -- their plight is only the symptom.”

Removing the dams along the Klamath River will not solve all our problems or prevent the looming ecological disaster being created by our society's unsustainable lifestyle. But removing dams from the Klamath River could signal the beginning of a new way of thinking about our rivers, the salmon, and our interconnected relationship with them.

David Cobb was the Green Party candidate for president in 2004. He is a Eureka resident and currently works for Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County. He can be reached at david@duhc.org.