For our series Climate Watch, we are looking at the
largest dam removal project in U.S.
history. I'm talking about the thing that blocks water,
crucial goal here to help revive
America's salmon population. And it's all happening along the Klamath
River,
which flows
263 miles from Southern Oregon all the way to the
Pacific Ocean.
Well, last year, Pacific salmon season did not happen at
all,
and there are fears it may not happen again.
Senior National Environmental Correspondent Ben Tracy has more now on
this effort to keep salmon in our rivers for decades
to come.
It feels like I've always been telling these stories about
how it used to be.
For as long as he can remember,
Leaf Hillman has been telling his son Nick about a
river that only existed in photographs and memories.
All my life has been a struggle to sort of
bring this river back. Hillman belongs to the Karuk tribe,
Native Americans who have lived and fished for salmon along
the Klamath River for more than 10,000 years.
What does this river mean to you?
It's everything. It's our lifeblood,
an essential artery that for more than a century has
been blocked by concrete and dirt.
Between 1918 and 1962, four dams were built along this
stretch of the Klamath as Western settlers bent nature to
their will,
harnessing the river's power for electricity.
So we're standing on top of a lot of concrete.
It's a lot of concrete.
That's what it took to impound this river.
Mark Branson is CEO of the Klamath Renewal Corporation.
It recently blasted a hole in one of the largest
dams,
setting the Klamath free here for the first time in
more than 100 years.
All four dams along this section of river are being
torn down.
The reservoirs they created drained and the Klamath left to
run wild.
The dams were producing so little power it no longer
made financial sense for Utility Pacific Corp to continue operating
them.
By the end of this year,
every bit of this concrete will be completely gone.
How big of a project is this to take down
these four dams?
We believe it may be the largest dam removal and
salmon restoration project ever undertaken anywhere in the world.
The Klamath was once the third most productive Salmon River
on the West Coast.
The dams decimated their populations,
blocking their path upriver to spawn.
The once abundant Chinook salmon here became endangered species.
The warm, stagnant water behind the dams turned into a
toxic Stew of green algae.
When these dams were put up,
did we not know what we were doing,
or did we just not care?
The construction manager noted in his papers that the impact
of salmon was a real thing that would have direct
impact to Native American communities.
They would have known that had they asked us,
but nobody asked us.
Over the years, the various tribes clashed with federal agents.
Do you guys want to have war?
Let's have war. Who tried to enforce bans on fishing?
What was left in the river
then, In 2002, the federal government diverted water to farmers,
leading to a massive die off of an estimated
70,000 salmon, hundreds of dead fish,
hundreds of them. The tribes had seen enough.
They protested the various companies that own the dams,
demanding they be removed. The two year old boy in
this picture is Leif Hillman's son,
Nick. It's all we've ever known is to get this
river free.
We planted the acorns here.
As the dams come down,
billions of seeds are being spread to regrow plants on
land drowned decades ago.
There have also been setbacks.
Last month, the base of one of the dams,
thousands of tiny hatchery salmon were killed,
likely by high water pressure,
as they pass through a tunnel open to let the
river flow through.
But once the dams are completely removed,
native salmon populations are expected to return.
In your lifetime, I know that it's going to be
a different story that this river is going to tell.
And Leaf Hillman can hopefully leave behind those stories of
how things used to be.
Our bright future is ahead of us.
Our best times are yet to come.
For CBS mornings, I'm Ben Tracy on the Klamath River.
Geez, I mean, you watch that,
you understand the rationale for building the dam in the
1st place,
but those effects on the salmon and the people who
depend on the salmon,
huge. I think the point made if they had asked
us,
they would have known what the damage would was.
They may have done it anyway at that at that
time in place.
It's it's going to be amazing to see the effect
when this dam goes away.
But nobody asks. Nobody asks.