By Kate Fried
Last fall, Indigenous communities in northern California noticed a surprising new development in the Klamath River: a sudden abundance of salmon. Less than a month earlier, the final remains of four large dams on the Klamath were removed, marking a triumphant victory for communities that, for decades, had fought to take them down. The world’s largest dam removal project restored 420 miles of river habitat, allowing 6,000 salmon to swim upstream.
Decommissioning dams on the Klamath River was a key victory for Indigenous communities in their efforts to gain control of their freshwater resources. The process also shows the unintended consequences of flawed and poorly conceived hydropower projects and how removing dams is a key step toward restoring fish migration patterns and bolstering food security.
Blocking the Fish
For centuries, communities living in the path of the Klamath fished from waters teeming with native salmon. Between 1911 and 1962, four dams were built along its banks. Before the dams, the Klamath was the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. Salmon comprised a major portion of the diets for local Indigenous communities.
Almost immediately after the first dam was constructed, fall chinook salmon numbers fell by more than 90%, and spring chinook by 98%. Steelhead trout, coho salmon, and Pacific lamprey populations also experienced drastic declines. In 2002, a fish kill caused by low river levels connected to one of the dams decimated what salmon was left, and since 2005, toxic algae had bloomed behind at least two of the dams.
Losing their salmon had profound effects on the diets of local tribal communities–instances of heart disease and diabetes increased as they replaced salmon with less nutritious foods. Less tangibly, but just as significantly, it severed a critical thread between local Indigenous communities and their ancestors.
A Global Threat to Fish Migration
Communities along the Klamath are not the first to report declining fish stocks. Worldwide, large-scale dams have blocked fish migration paths and altered conditions in many major tributaries, including the Mekong, Snake, and Xingu Rivers. A 2024 update to the Living Planet Index for Migratory Freshwater Species showed that between 1970 and 2020, migratory freshwater fish populations declined by an average 81%.
Setting a Precedent
The Klamath River teaches us that when outdated dams are decommissioned, nature can start restoring itself, and Indigenous communities can mend their fractured relationships with the environment and their ancestral heritages. While the victory on the Klamath is a watershed moment, 35,000 dams remain on our world’s rivers. Nearly 70% of those rivers are fragmented by dams and other infrastructure, threatening fish migration, Indigenous cultures, natural carbon cycles, and food systems. Following in the footsteps of Tribal nations who demanded the restoration of the Klamath by decommissioning other aging hydropower sites would restore food security for millions worldwide, support biodiversity, and help combat the consequences of climate change.
The movement to remove aging dams is gaining momentum. In 2023, Europe removed 487 river barriers. The following year, 108 dams were removed in the United States, and we’re seeing early successes in removing obsolete dams in Africa and elsewhere.
When rivers run freely, fish and other native species can too. And while the story of the Klamath is inspiring, it’s just the first chapter in an ever-evolving saga to restore the health of our world’s rivers and honor the rights of riverine communities.