From Concrete Dams To Surging Life: The Klamath’s Radical Rebirth

The Klamath River‘s century-long concrete nightmare is over. Four dams—gone. Blown up, drained, demolished. The salmon? They showed up the very next day, like they’d been waiting outside the whole time. These fish hadn’t seen their ancestral spawning grounds since your great-grandparents were kids. Indigenous tribes finally got their river back. Toxic algae blooms, dead. The largest dam removal in world history just proved nature doesn’t need much time to bounce back—it needs opportunity.

After nearly a century of blocking salmon from their ancestral spawning grounds, the Klamath River dams are finally coming down. Four concrete barriers—J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, and Iron Gate—strangled this river for almost 100 years. Built between 1908 and 1962, these structures totaled 400 vertical feet of salmon-blocking concrete.

The damage? Catastrophic. Salmon populations crashed to less than 5% of their historical numbers. Some runs disappeared entirely. Gone. The dams didn’t just hurt fish—they poisoned water quality and trampled on indigenous culture. Toxic algae blooms in the reservoirs exceeded World Health Organization guidelines, creating hazardous conditions for wildlife and humans alike. For nearly a century, these concrete walls severed Native peoples from their traditions. The 1986 Klamath River Basin Fishery Resources Restoration Act recognized the crisis but couldn’t fix what the dams continued to destroy.

But something shifted in 2020. A fierce coalition of tribes, environmental groups, and dam removal supporters refused to back down. That November, a landmark agreement emerged. California, Oregon, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, PacifiCorp, and the Karuk and Yurok tribes all signed on. By December, FERC issued the surrender notice. Game on.

The demolition began with Copco No. 2, the runt of the litter. After 98 years, workers finished removing it on October 2, 2023. The river’s response? Immediate. Sonar equipment detected returning fish at 10:06 pm the very next day. Talk about enthusiastic homecoming.

The technical process proved fascinating. J.C. Boyle drained in just 16 hours. Workers blasted a 10-foot hole through Copco No. 1. Millions of cubic yards of sediment flushed downstream. Bathymetric surveys revealed something remarkable—beneath decades of muck, the river’s original channel remained. The Klamath simply settled back into its ancient path, as if those dams were just a bad dream.

This isn’t some minor environmental project. It’s one of the largest dam removals in world history. Between 300 and 400 miles of salmon habitat just opened up. The oldest dam, Copco No. 1, started coming down in March 2024, over a century after a railroad delivered materials for its construction in 1918. Replacing these outdated dams with renewable energy sources could maintain power generation while dramatically reducing environmental impacts.

The Klamath is healing. After decades of concrete imprisonment, salmon are swimming home. Sometimes nature just needs humans to get out of the way.