Private Lands Logging
KLAMATH RIVER
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| KLAMATH FOREST ALLIANCE | |
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| Public Lands Logging Private Lands Logging |
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Lake Elwana: The Klamath River begins below the Link River Dam at Lake Elwana, and flows south for approximately 250 mi to the sea. Treated wastewater, municipal runoff, and industrial pollution contaminate the river within the first few miles. Several old lumber mill sites, including one active mill site still float logs into the water, which causes decompensation and loss of oxygen for fish. Re-circulated water warmed by irrigation and high in nutrients, enters the Klamath River from the Klamath Straits causing poor water quality and algae blooms. MENU |
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Keno Dam: The Keno Dam was built to regulate the Klamath River for downstream power generation, recreation and irrigation, although it provides no power generation itself. Algae blooms and fish kills are not uncommon behind the dam, especially during the summer when temperatures are high and nutrient rich waters back up and stagnate. There is a fish ladder around the dam, but it is not sufficient to allow endangered sucker fish to move back upstream after passing through the dam. MENU |
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JC Boyle Dam: Nearly the entire flow of the Klamath is diverted at the JC Boyle Dam into a series of pipes and flumes, nearly de-watering a 6 mile stretch of the river, before running the water through turbines and dumping it back into the channel. Water below the dam suffers from algae blooms, which thrive in the nutrient rich warm waters and consume oxygen needed by fish to survive. The algae produce the toxic microcystin, a potent liver toxin and known tumor promoter, and often exceed the World Health Organizations guidelines MENU |
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Copco 1 & 2 Dams: When the Copco 1 Dam was constructed on the Klamath River in 1918, it permanently blocked access to more than 75 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in the main stem of the upper Klamath and its tributaries. Copco 2, was constructed just a quarter-mile downstream of the original facility in 1925. These dams not only blocked salmon and steelhead migration, they significantly altered river flows, as water was released or stopped (1,500 percent or more in a matter of minutes ) destroying salmon spawning beds below. MENU |
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Iron Gate Dam: The 173-foot-high Iron Gate Dam was constructed in 1962 to reregulate the wildly varying flows from the upstream Copco dams and run a 20 megawatt power plant. With the construction of Iron Gate, another seven miles of spawning habitat disappeared for salmon and steelhead. Water releases from above the dam contain warm water fish parasites, and cold water releases from below are very low in oxygen. This combination of disease ridden, nutrient rich, warm water, oxygen deprived waters led to over 34,056 fish being killed in 2002. MENU |
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Klamath Mainstem: Over a century of mining, grazing, logging, road building, damming and irrigation has had a huge impact on the health of the mid Klamath River, and the tribal communities that depend on it. The Klamath River was once the third largest salmon-producing river in America, but today salmon and steelhead runs are less than 10% of their historic numbers. Cool waters flowing from the mid Klamath tributaries are critical to the health of the Klamath River, and provide the last refuge for salmon and steelhead spawning and rearing habitat. MENU |
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Lower Klamath River: Starting at the confluence of the Trinity and Klamath Rivers downstream to the sea, the Lower Klamath River flows through the ancestral lands of the Yurok Tribe. Most of the river flows through private timberlands, and suffers from the impacts of intensive logging (clearcutting) and road building. Elevated stream temperatures from the removal of streamside vegetation along tributaries, and sediment pollution caused by roads and logging on steep hillsides, has covered salmon spawning beds with silt. MENU |
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