Klamath River

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Klamath River in the high desert country of Northern California
Klamath River in the high desert country of Northern California
Klamath River and tributaries
Klamath River and tributaries

The Klamath River, approximately 250 mi (400 km) long, is a major river of the Pacific coast in southern Oregon and northern California in the United States. It drains an arid farming valley in its upper reaches, passing swiftly through the mountains in its lower reaches before emptying into the ocean. It is one of only three rivers that pass through the Cascade Range (the others being the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, and the Pit River in California), and one of the longest rivers in California.

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[edit] Description

It issues from the southern end of Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon just above the town of Klamath Falls. It flows roughly southwestward into northern California, passing through the Klamath Mountains and along the southern side of the Siskiyou Mountains. It enters the Pacific at Klamath in Southwestern Del Norte County, approximately 20 mi (32 km) SSE of Crescent City.

The watershed of the river above Upper Klamath Lake is fed primarily by the Williamson River and its tributaries, including the Sprague River, which stretch into south central Oregon west of the Cascades. In California, it receives the Shasta River from the south approximately 10 mi (16 km) south of Yreka, the Scott River from the south in central Siskiyou County, and the Salmon River from the east along the border between Siskiyou and Humboldt counties, and the Trinity River from the south at Weitchpec in northern Humboldt County.

Below Klamath Falls, Lower Klamath Lake and a large portion of Tule Lake were drained for agriculture and the the 230,000 acre (930 km²) federal Klamath Reclamation Project stores spring runoff in Gerber Reservoir, Clear Lake and Upper Klamath Lake along with several smaller reservoirs to deliver stored runoff water that would have flooded the lower Klamath Lake /Tule Lake area to the present reclaimed farmland.[1]

Much of the lower course of the river in California is within the Klamath National Forest. The lower course of the river in northern Humboldt passes through the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, the Karuk Tribe and the Yurok Indian Reservation.

Whitewater rafting is a popular recreational activity along the upper Klamath River below the J.C. Boyle Dam, and also along the lower Klamath River Downstream of the town of Happy Camp.

[edit] History

The name of the river comes from a Native American word klamet meaning "swiftness". It provided a significant passage for the nearby Native American tribes to pass through the Cascades. Archeological evidence in the valley suggests it has been inhabited for at least 7,000 years. The river and its fish are considered sacred by resident Native American tribes, which include the Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk tribes, as well a confederation of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin people known as The Klamath Tribes. The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum in Berkeley, California contains a collection of carvings from some of the tribes in this region.

An 11-mile section of the river in Oregon south of Klamath Falls to the California-Oregon border, including the Hell's Corner Gorge, has been designated as the Klamath Wild and Scenic River.

The river is considered a prime habitat for Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, steelhead trout, and rainbow trout. Once the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, the river has produced only a fraction of its historic runs since the construction of six dams built between 1908 and 1962. Coho salmon in the Klamath River are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In 1963 the largest tributary to the Klamath, the Trinity River, was virtually removed from the Klamath drainage with the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity dams, diverting 90% of the Trinity's flow to the Sacramento valley. Only 150 cfs was left to flow to the Klamath. [2]

The possible removal of the dams has been a controversial issue in the region in recent years. Despite intense lobbying by local Native American tribes, conservationists, and fishermen, the 2004 renewal application by PacifiCorp for another 50-year federal operating licence for the dams did not include any provisions for allowing salmon to return to over 300 miles of former habitat above the dams. In January 2007, however, the federal government ruled that PacifiCorp must equip four dams with fish ladders, a modification which would cost potentially more than $300 million, however PacifiCorp has offered 300 million to upgrade the JC Boyle fish ladder and offered trucking fish around the Copco #1 and Iron Gate dams after having had been denied a licence to build a power generator in Utah "The fact that the Klamath project is an emissions-free, renewable resource will make it more valuable to our customers in the future and reduce our overall carbon footprint," PacifiCorp President Fehrman said in a statement.[3]

A separate controversy surrounds the use of water in the Upper Klamath Basin for irrigated agriculture, which was temporarily halted in 2001 to protect endangered salmon and lake fish during a severe drought. The federal government, under Interior Secretary Gale Norton, reversed this decision in 2002, and provided full water deliveries to irrigators as the drought continued. This is despite the fact that Klamath area tribes have treaty rights that predate the settlement of the farmers. Norton argued for a "free market" approach by allowing farmers to sell the water to the Native Americans downstream.

According to biologists from the state of California and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the resulting low flows in the river sparked a kill of over 68,000 salmon in September 2002, who died before they could reproduce. The kill was all downstream of the Trinity inflow, and is attributed to high water temperature, low flow, and a late migration. [4]Klamath flows as measured at the river gauge in Keno show a low flow of only 800 cfs in September 1908 (before irrigation began) and during the 2002 fish kill flows of 475 cfs were recorded. During September of the 2001 irrigation shut off, 688 average cfs was recorded.[5]

In the 1960s, a project was proposed that would erect a dam twelve miles from the mouth of the river, creating a reservoir which would be used to divert water for consumption in Southern California. The dam was known as the Ah Pah Dam.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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