Photo courtesy Shadi Rahimi Chook Chook Hillman and Dana Colegrove speared salmon at an Orleans camp for protesters the weekend before their protest in Portland. Awaiting Klamath Dam removal
By
Shadi Rahimi, Today correspondent
|
 Photo courtesy Shadi Rahimi
Hoop fisherman Virgil Bussell cleaned one of the three salmon he caught on a line after hours fishing on the Trinity River. |
Tribes, fishing groups, farmers and conservationists have long pushed for dam removal, a call that was taken up by the state governors in 2006 after commercial salmon fisheries collapsed. Many dam removal proponents have been citing in talks with PacifiCorp the hefty $300 million price tag in updates required in order for the utility to renew its federal operating licenses.
As talks dragged on for months, activists held benefits including the Oct. 17 “Un-Dam the Klamath” concert at Humboldt State University. They also placed public pressure on PacifiCorp at its Portland headquarters and shareholder meetings of its owner, billionaire Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway.
In September, Norris and a few hundred protestors marched to PacifiCorp’s headquarters after hanging a banner that read, “Warren Buffett Kills Salmon, Jobs and Communities” over Interstate-84. Protestors blocked the entrance of the building, disrupting business for the day.
“There will be no business as usual for PacifiCorp as long as there is no business as usual for Klamath River communities,” said Chook Chook Hillman, 24, of the Karuk tribe.
Buffet has been mentioned often by President-elect Barack Obama as a potential member of his cabinet. But despite Buffet’s lofty status, he is persona non grata in the Klamath Basin.
Here, reverence reigns for the river that had sustained the tribes for centuries before the dams. The Klamath River converges with one of its tributaries, the Trinity River, just beneath a small bridge where Hoopa territory ends and Yurok territory begins.
Atop this bridge, tribal members watched the White Deer Skin Dance this summer. Dancers and singers stood on canoes floating down the Klamath, aided by water flow controlled by operators at the lowest dam, Iron Gate.
PacifiCorp had argued its four hydroelectric dams, built between 1908 and 1962 by different owners, are a reliable source of renewable energy. But now that the agreement promotes favorable conditions for the utility, PacifiCorp officials are saying they are committed to removal.
 Photo courtesy Shadi Rahimi
A row of salmon caught by Hoopa fisherman Clyde Moon and his friend on the Trinity River. |
Under the agreement, PacifiCorp would be protected from liability and ratepayers would bear up to $200 million in removal costs. PacifiCorp would also commit to paying California $500,000 a year for fish habitat improvements until the dams are removed.
Thus far, the dams have impaired “a whole major salmon river on the West Coast,” said Mike Belchik, senior fisheries biologist for the Yurok.
On average, 880,000 adult wild salmon would return to the Klamath each year. Today, less than 30,000 return, according to Klamath River Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission. Coho are only 1 percent of their population before the seven dams, the first built in 1903.
Iron Gate is the first obstruction to the salmon’s spawn. PacifiCorp operates a fish hatchery instead that produces an estimated 25 percent of the river’s Chinook salmon.
“Hatchery fish are kind of junk; it’s not really what we’re going for,” said Hoopa Billy Matilton, 25, standing on the bank of the Trinity as his friends lifted up salmon they had snagged in their nets.
They lay the fish onto a wooden plank, where Hoopa fisheries technician T.R. Maloney scrapped samples of their skin as part of the Trinity River restoration program.
They have good reason to continue documenting fish health.
In 2001, the federal government denied irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland in the upper basin in order to maintain proper flows. The restriction came during a drought, and 20,000 people protested. In 2002, the federal government allowed Klamath water to be diverted for irrigation.
That created low river flow, allowing for the rapid spread of disease that killed 68,000 salmon.
“It was like a salmon holocaust,” said Josh Strange, Ph.D., biologist for the Yurok tribe. “It was really difficult to see that kind of unnecessary death and destruction.”
In 2006, commercial fishing of salmon off the Pacific Coast was cut by 90 percent mostly because of the lack of fish off the Klamath River.
This year, for the first time, the Bush Administration and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger closed commercial and recreational salmon fishing off Oregon and California after the collapse of Sacramento River’s Chinook fall run, once the coasts’ most robust.
Most in the basin believe if the dams are removed, the river would soon return to its natural state.
The dam removal agreement would also support a $1 billion environmental plan that would restore fish habitat and guarantee water and low-cost electricity for farmers, who could also continue using federal wildlife refuges for farming.
The deadline for the agreement is June 30, 2009. The federal government would next study whether dam removal would be feasible and cost-effective.
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Thursday, Jan 15 at 12:19 AM azwell wrote ...
hey I know where pacific power can get the money for dam removal.check out their blue sky renewable energy program they hit 64,000 customers for $1.95 per month to invest in renewable energy. these green customers if voting on where that money went.....might decide to divert these funds to the dam removal project. Lets do the numbers,round it off,60,000 times 2....$120,000 each month times 12 ...1,440,000 per year for no service only the promise of more environmentally created power 10 year 14m
14897984Thursday, Dec 11 at 7:57 AM Grammiedian wrote ...
Somehow my computer reading got diverted today to your article. I had no idea this was going on and how harmful it is to your tribes! I am outraged! My daughter and her family live in Alturas, go to Klamath to shop once a month since there are no stores in Alturas worth shopping at. They hunt, fish, live in communion with the land. We respect you and your rights. Is there anything we can do to help? Can we send letters to the Governor or President? Make phone calls? Anything? Let me know.
13451013Friday, Dec 5 at 12:18 AM askii' wrote ...
...I love frybread but I love salmon more... May the fight continue and pray for healthy salmon to return!
13176384Thursday, Dec 4 at 2:35 PM RidgebearWoman wrote ...
It would be nice to see the Federal Government support the traditional and cultural meaning of the salmon to all these tribes. Especially with the alarming rate of heatlh problems that our Native people have in these areas, to see them have this traditional and healthly right protected would only right.
13153319Thursday, Dec 4 at 12:47 PM Lando wrote ...
The goverment has done alot of harm to the enviroment, land, sea and sky, snd now they need to clean up their act, this is why our earth is in such a turmoil,the goverment always looks at what is good for themselves and not for whole.
13147164Thursday, Dec 4 at 12:05 PM Jay Dee wrote ...
For the tribal people participating in Klamath Negotiations, please do not sell out one necessary part of salmon restoration for another; do not surrender vital water for dam removal. Do not be afraid of the white man's greedy threats, stand up for the fish!
13144699Thursday, Dec 4 at 12:24 AM Ann wrote ...
YES! Good for the people, good for the land and good for the salmon! God bless you all.
13128429Tuesday, Dec 2 at 3:24 PM Modoc Warrior wrote ...
The farmers have stretched thier Farms into a "High Desert" where there isnt much water. Take it from us the government will go back on all of its promises.
13052269Monday, Dec 1 at 7:03 PM nosmokes wrote ...
I don't know why we're bending so far backwards to keep industrial farming in the upper Klamath basin. It's not as if that's premium black belt type soil or even has a long heritage of generations of farming. There may be value in having some small scale organic family farmers there but we certainly don't need more subsidized corporate agriculture killing our native cultures and natural resources which could provide us healthier and better food.
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