Coho Salmon Return To Upper Klamath After Decades Of Denial That They Ever Lived In The River

For many years, opponents of dam removal spread false claims that coho salmon were not present in the Upper Klamath River Basin before the construction of the dams, despite numerous records and tribal histories documenting their long time presence in the watershed. Well, the naysayers have been proven wrong. Coho salmon are now back in the habitat that they spawned and reared in for time immemorial before the four PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River were built.

In a historic event, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today reported the first returns of threatened coho salmon to the upper Klamath River Basin in more than 60 years following the completion of dam removal last month. “Not since the construction of the former Iron Gate Dam in the early 1960s has CDFW documented coho salmon occupying their historic habitat in the upper watershed,” according to a CDFW announcement.

On Nov. 13, seven coho salmon entered CDFW’s new Fall Creek Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County. The facility is located on Fall Creek, a formerly inaccessible Klamath River tributary about 7.5 miles upstream of the former Iron Gate Dam location, the CDFW said. “To see coho successfully returning this quickly to this new habitat post-dam removal is exciting,” said Eric Jones, a Senior Environmental Scientist who oversees CDFW’s north state hatchery operations. “We’ve already seen the Chinook make it back and now we’re seeing the coho make it back.”

“Of the seven coho salmon that entered the Fall Creek Fish Hatchery last week, four were male and three were female,” the CDFW revealed. “Two had missing adipose fins, identifying them as being of hatchery origin. The other five were natural origin fish, as all hatchery raised coho salmon in the Klamath Basin have their adipose fins removed for identification prior to release.”

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