The Klamath is now running free. The largest dam removal project in US history was completed at the end of August, after crews demolished the last of the four dams on California’s Klamath River, marking a win for paddlers, environmentalists, tribal nations, salmon, and more.
Federal regulators approved the plan to remove the four dams in 2022, with the smallest, Copco No. 2, demolished later that year, removing the remaining diversion infrastructure, grading the river channel, and performing erosion control. The work prepared the river canyon for consistent river flows, something which the river canyon below the dam hasn’t seen in 98 years.
Restored flows in the entire reach will provide new whitewater boating opportunities on a section of river that has been dewatered and inaccessible to the public. Only a handful of boaters have ever been able to experience this run.
Copco No. 2 was located right below the Copco No. 1 dam in a steep river canyon, commonly known as Wards Canyon. The canyon is named after Kitty Ward, a full-blooded Shasta woman who was one of the last members of her tribe to live in their ancestral homeland valley. She was forcibly removed from her home to allow the reservoir to be filled.Completed in 1925, Copco No. 2 was a diversion dam that funneled the river’s flows out of the canyon and into a tunnel system that sent the water to the Copco No. 2 powerhouse located downstream, essentially dewatering the 1.9-mile-long canyon. In 2020, American Whitewater completed an on-water whitewater flow study of this canyon at anticipated summer flows and found a high quality Class IV whitewater section in a scenic basalt river canyon.
The Klamath’s remaining three hydropower dams, JC Boyle, Copco No. 1, and Iron Gate were all removed in 2024, with restoration work now beginning in earnest and expected to continue for years to come to ensure their success. “We expect river runners will be able to experience the Klamath’s 41-mile-long stretch of restored river in 2025,” says AW’s Tom O’Keefe.
Read more here:
A Klamath Undertaking: Trio SUPs Source to Sea on Cali’s Klamath
Images courtesy of Shane Anderson