Indigenous Youth complete first descent of undammed Klamath River from source to sea

Requa, Calif. – On July 11, several dozen Indigenous youth from the Klamath Basin and beyond completed a historic 310-mile, month-long source-to-sea “first descent” of the recently undammed Klamath River beginning in Oregon and ending at the mouth of the river on the Yurok Reservation.

“As the youths, ages 13 to 20, approached the sand spit adjacent to the Klamath’s mouth in their bright-colored kayaks, tribal elders, family members, friends and supporters waved and cheered them on,” according to a press statement from Rios to Rivers.

“I feel so proud to have completed this trip, and am feeling grateful for the support of my family and the fact that I got to honor my grandma’s legacy in her fight for dam removal,” said Ke-Get Omar Dean V, 18, a member of the Yurok Tribe. “We got to complete this journey because of the people that came before us and ensured a free-flowing river.”

The young paddlers trained up to three years to run whitewater with kayak instructors from the Paddle Tribal Waters program operated by the nonprofit group Rios to Rivers. The program includes youth from the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Quartz Valley, Hoopa Valley, Warm Springs and Tohono O’odham tribes. 

Four hydroelectric dams owned by PacifiCorp blocked the river for over a century, preventing once-abundant salmon and steelhead runs from ascending into their native habitat, as I have documented in a plethora of articles. I am the only journalist to have documented the dam removal process from beginning to end for over 20 years.

The last of those dams was demolished last year, completing the biggest dam removal in history — and opening up hundreds of miles of habitat to Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead for the first time in over 100 years. The dam removal campaign was spurred by the outrage by Indigenous activists, Tribal leaders, commercial and recreational fishermen and environmental activists over the Klamath River fish kill in September 2002, when over 38,000 salmon perished in low, warm water conditions on the lower river on the Yurok Indian Reservation.

The young kayakers set out June 12 to run the river, free-flowing for the first time in over 100 years, after the over 20-year long battle by a coalition of grassroots Tribal activists and their allies in the fishing and environmental communities to remove the four dams.

“During the final few days of the journey the paddlers were joined by other Indigenous youth and representatives from the Snake River and other river basins in the U.S., and members of kayak clubs and Indigenous communities in Chile and Bolivia and as far away as New Zealand,” the group noted.

“Dam removal has shown us that we can accomplish anything, even if it is hard. This trip was long but has shown me how strong I can be. I feel grateful for my ancestors and everyone who has been helpful. I am proud to be part of this experience,” said Melia McNair, 15, of the Klamath and Modoc tribes.

“Since it has ended it has been mixed emotions, joy to have completed the journey, and sad that this moment is coming to an end,” stated Autumn Goodwin, 18, of the Karuk Tribe. “But in a way, it is just the beginning. It is a bittersweet moment.”

A daylong public celebration featuring live music, cultural demos, youth speakers and food trucks was held in the nearby town of Klamath, Calif. on Saturday, July 12. 

On the following day, the first-ever Klamath River Accord was signed by Indigenous youth, Tribal leaders and allied organizations from multiple river basins around the world - including Chile, Bolivia, New Zealand, China, and the United States - as a call to action for dam removals and a halt to new construction of dams across the globe, according to a statement from Rios to Rivers.

The Klamath River Accord was the culmination of a two-day “Global Free Rivers Symposium” held at the mouth of the Klamath River, following the first source-to-sea descent of the Klamath by multi-tribal youth that celebrated the largest dam removals in history on that river.

Conceived and written by a coalition of Indigenous youth, the Accord’s preamble “recognizes these dam removals on the Klamath River serve as a model for future climate resilience efforts and acknowledge the urgent need to protect the world’s remaining free-flowing rivers, ensuring that the mistakes made on dammed rivers are not repeated elsewhere.”

“Seeing with our own eyes what is possible on the Klamath River fills us with energy,” said Ashly Jara Castro, a 15-year old member of the Mapuche-Pehuenche community and youth leader in the Kayakimün organization who was a member of the Chilean delegation to the Global Free Rivers Symposium.  

The nonprofit Ríos to Rivers “inspires the protection of rivers worldwide by investing in underserved and Indigenous youth who are intimately connected to their local waters and supporting them in their development as the next generation of environmental stewards.” 

For more information on Ríos to Rivers, go to: https://www.riostorivers.org/media-center  

Unfortunately, it must be noted that despite the promise that the dam removal process holds for the future of salmon and the Klamath River ecosystem, California salmon and Delta fish populations are currently in their worst-ever crisis — and face even more threats of destruction from both the state and federal governments. For an unprecedented third year in a row, commercial salmon fishing has been closed off the coast of California, due to the collapse of the Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations: www.pcouncil.org/...

Sacramento River winter and spring-run Chinook salmon, both listed as endangered under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, are even in worse shape. For example, spawner escapement in 2024 of Sacramento River winter Chinook was estimated to be only 789 adults and 578 jacks. Even after Shasta Dam was built, good numbers of winter Chinook salmon ran up the Sacramento River to spawn below Keswick Dam. In 1969, 117,000 Winter Chinook returned to the main stem of the Sacramento.

The fish populations have collapsed due to an array of factors, led by massive water diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the Trinity River, the largest tributary of the Klamath River. Over 50 percent of the water from the Trinity is still diverted from Lewiston Reservoir via a tunnel through the Trinity Mountains over to the Sacramento River watershed to irrigate pistachios, almonds and other export crops grown by corporate agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley.

The removal of the four Klamath River dams is a monumental step in the right direction that will hopefully lead to more big environmental victories, including restoring badly needed water flows in the Klamath, Trinity, Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems. 

We must also do everything we can to stop the salmon-killing Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and voluntary agreements that California Governor Gavin Newsom is trying to fast-track despite massive opposition by Tribes, fishing groups, Southern California water ratepayers, Delta residents and businesses, the five Delta counties, many elected officials and the people of California. 

The Delta Tunnel, if built, would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter, spring and fall-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon, white sturgeon, Delta and longfin smelt and other fish species, as well as imperil Trinity and Klamath River salmon and steelhead populations, by diverting an average of 22 percent more water from the Delta annually. 

In the latest battle in the California water wars, the California Water Impact Network has submitted written testimonyand a detailed report to a hearing of the State Water Resources Control Board blasting Governor Newsom’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) for being “overvalued, under-analyzed and a massive blow to ratepayers and the environment.”  

In 2024, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) estimated the cost of the project, also known as the Delta Tunnel, at $20.1 billion in undiscounted 2023 dollars. Water agencies and their ratepayers that receive water from the SWP are supposed to pay for the project costs.

But economic experts reveal that the real costs, if the tunnel was built, would add up to many times that estimate. In reality, the Delta Tunnel could cost anywhere from $60 to over $100 billion.

“Our testimony and full report were prepared by ECOnorthwest, a leading environmental economics research firm, and it documents how the DCP simply doesn’t pencil out,” said Carolee Krieger, C-WIN’s executive director. “ECONorthwest estimates that if it ends up getting built, the DCP could cost anywhere from $60 to over $100 billion.”

That is 3-5 times higher than the approximately $20 billion that the Department of Water Resources has been falsely claiming,

Economic losses from salmon fishery impacts alone would range between present value $1.1 and $2.6 billion over the lifetime of the DCP, according to the testimony and report. When you consider the loss of income from other fisheries dependent upon the health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem, the losses to the economy could be many billions of dollars more.