CHILOQUIN, Ore. — A team of researchers is testing the waters to revive chinook salmon in the Upper Klamath Basin.

In April, biologists released about 8,000 smolts in the Wood and Williamson rivers above Upper Klamath Lake as part of an ongoing experiment tracking their movement using tiny acoustic tags and passive integrated transponders, or PIT tags. 

Mark Hereford, Klamath Fisheries reintroduction coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the goal is to find out how these fish navigate the lake and its tributaries as they migrate to the Pacific Ocean.

The project comes in anticipation of removing four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River in 2024.

“We’re trying to mimic a hypothetical out-migration of chinook salmon,” Hereford said. 

Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved decommissioning J.C. Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2 and Iron Gate dams to open 400 miles of salmon spawning and rearing habitat. The first dam, Copco 2, is slated to be torn down in September. 

The Klamath Tribes assert that chinook were present in the upper basin for thousands of years, and the dam removal will allow the fish to return.

Conditions change

But conditions have changed over a century of development since the dams were built between 1911 and 1962, said Alex Gonyaw, senior fish biologist for the tribes. 

He pointed to a loss of riparian vegetation along streams and riverbanks, which has increased sedimentation and buried spawning grounds. 

Upper Klamath Lake and Lake Ewauna — impounded by Keno Dam — also suffer from harmful algae blooms in the summer. When the algae dies, decomposing bacteria sucks oxygen out of the water, which can kill fish. 

“We have different challenges here,” Gonyaw said. “It’s uncertain how the fish are going to respond to having that access restored.” 

The tribes and ODFW co-authored a salmonid monitoring and reintroduction plan for the upper basin in 2021. That has led to several studies examining how juvenile salmon progress through the area, and how they respond to changes in water quality. 

ODFW is leading the effort, in collaboration with the tribes, Trout Unlimited, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, National Marine Fisheries Service, Oregon State University, Cal Poly Humboldt and University of California-Davis. 

The fish were originally taken as eggs from the Trinity River Fish Hatchery in Lewiston, Calif., and brought to ODFW’s Klamath Hatchery near Chiloquin, Ore. Once the smolts reached about 6 inches, they were released into the Wood and Williamson rivers. 

It took just a few days for the fish to make their way from the rivers into Upper Klamath Lake, Hereford said. Scientists are now studying how long they remain in the 26-mile-long lake before making their way past the Link River Dam into Lake Ewauna.

From there, the salmon would need to pass Keno Dam into the Klamath River where they can swim to the ocean once the dams are removed. 

Keno and Link River dams have fish ladders that allow passage.

“As the years progress, we’ll be able to see how long they’re spending in the lake,” Hereford said. 

Depending on the results, Gonyaw said it could highlight areas of the upper basin that need to be restored to maximize the chances for salmon to survive. 

“It’s going to be a long-term effort, but the tribes are determined to get these fish back for the membership,” he said. 

Regulatory burdens

Paul Simmons, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said his organization remains wary about new regulatory burdens post-dam removal in the Klamath Project.

The original Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement initially included protections for irrigators as salmon moved into new habitat, Simmons said. However, those were lost after Congress failed to implement the KBRA.

When the revised Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement was signed in 2016 calling for dam removal, it included a sibling deal called the Klamath Power and Facilities Agreement.

According to the KWUA, that agreement called for protecting Klamath Basin irrigators from new financial and regulatory burdens, “including federal funding of facilities to limit regulatory consequences of the occurrence of new species in the Project area.” 

Specifically, Simmons said irrigators are hoping and anticipating they will get federal assistance with screening irrigation diversions to avoid impacting salmon.

But those safeguards have yet to be formalized or approved in federal legislation, Simmons said. 

“We’re waiting for the parties there to walk the walk on that,” he said. “It seems like a lot of commitments that have been made in the Project over the last 10 years have been relegated to the roadside.”