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The Klamath River (Karuk language: Ishkêesh, Klamath language: Koke, Yurok language: Hehlkeek 'We-Roy) is a long river in southern Oregon and northern California. Beginning near Klamath Falls in the Oregon high desert, it flows west through the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains before reaching the temperate rainforest of California's North Coast, where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Klamath River is the third-largest Pacific salmon and steelhead producing river on the west coast of the contiguous United States. The river's watershed – the Klamath Basin – encompasses more than , and is known for its biodiverse forests, large areas of designated wilderness, and freshwater marshes that provide key migratory bird habitat.
Native Americans have used the river as a source of food and trade for thousands of years, and it continues to hold great cultural significance for tribes. Most lands along the upper Klamath were settled by Euro-Americans following exploration by in the early to mid-19th century. Violent conflict and displacement of tribes occurred during the California Gold Rush as prospectors pushed into the lower Klamath basin, leading to a bitter fight over establishing reservation lands. In the early 20th century, the federal government drained the upper basin's once extensive lakes and wetlands for agriculture, while private utilities constructed Hydroelectricity along the river. As salmon runs declined in the mid-20th century, tribes pushed for legal recognition of their senior water rights to support Klamath River fisheries, which have led to controversial reductions in irrigation water supply.
In the 21st century, the Klamath River hosts a wide variety of uses, including tribal subsistence fishing and ceremonies, recreational fishing and whitewater boating, and agricultural and domestic water supply. Starting in 1981, much of the Klamath River and its tributaries have been designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers. Four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River were demolished by October 2024, following almost two decades of negotiations between local representatives, tribes, conservation groups and the utility company operating the dams. This enabled salmon migration to the Upper Klamath Basin for the first time in over 100 years, and established new guidelines for Klamath water use to achieve a compromise between agricultural needs and fishery flows.
Below Keno Dam (which controls the level of the upstream Klamath River and Lake Ewauna), the river flows swiftly through the narrow Klamath River Canyon, which cuts through volcanic rock of the southern Cascade Range. Entering Siskiyou County, California, it passes the former sites of four hydroelectric dams operated by PacifiCorp until their demolition in 2024. After passing under Interstate 5, the Klamath receives the Shasta River from the left then flows west into the Siskiyou Mountains (a sub-range of the Klamath Mountains), entering the Klamath National Forest. It receives the Scott River from the left, passing through Seiad Valley and Happy Camp. Turning south, it flows towards Somes Bar, where it receives the Salmon River from the left as it enters Humboldt County and the Six Rivers National Forest. After passing Orleans, the Klamath reaches Weitchpec, where it receives the Trinity River, its largest tributary, from the left. State Route 96 follows the Klamath River for from Hornbrook to Weitchpec.
Downstream of the Trinity River, the Klamath turns sharply northwest. The entire lower section of the river flows through coast redwood forests in the Yurok Indian Reservation. State Route 169 follows most of this section of the river, except for an unconstructed segment between river miles 8–23 (13–37 km) which is only accessible by boat. The river enters Del Norte County, where Highway 101 bridges it at the town of Klamath. The river empties into the Pacific Ocean at a tidal estuary near Requa, in an area shared by the Yurok Reservation and Redwood National and State Parks, about south of Crescent City.
Hydrologically, the Upper Klamath Basin is considered to be upstream from the former site of Iron Gate Dam, about from the river's mouth. Most of the Upper Klamath Basin is in Oregon, with some parts extending south into California. Situated between the Cascades and the Oregon high desert and northwest of the Modoc Plateau, it features a semi-arid climate and is characterized by large, flat alluvial valleys separated by long mountain ridges. Elevations range from in the valleys to in the Cascades. The mountain ridges are forested, while the valleys mostly consist of wetlands or farmland. Although many streams flowing into Upper Klamath Lake derive their flow from snowmelt, its largest sources – the Williamson and Wood Rivers – are predominantly fed by large springs.
Upper and Lower Klamath Lakes and Tule Lake were once part of of connected wetlands, over three-quarters of which have been drained for agriculture. The Lost River basin, situated east and south of Klamath Falls, was historically a closed basin terminating at Tule Lake. During high water events, the Klamath River overflowed into Lost River Slough near Klamath Falls and flow into Tule Lake. A topographic constriction occurred further west at the Keno Reef, a bedrock barrier where water backed up during flood events and flowed south along Klamath Straits into Lower Klamath Lake. Since the 20th century, the Lost River and Lower Klamath Lake basins – as well as the neighboring Butte Valley–Meiss Lake basin – have been artificially altered to discharge floodwaters into the Klamath River via diversion dams and drainage facilities.
The Lower Klamath Basin, consisting mostly of mountains and coniferous forest, is located almost entirely in California except for the headwaters of a few tributaries that flow south from Oregon. The Klamath Mountains include numerous sub-ranges, with the Siskiyou Mountains to the north and west of the river, and the Marble Mountains and Salmon Mountains to the east and south. These mountains experience heavy winter snowfall, while summers are warm and dry with little precipitation. Closer to the coast, winters are cool with heavy rainfall, while summer temperatures are mild and often foggy. About 88 percent of the Klamath River's total flow originates in the Lower Basin, even though it only accounts for 62 percent of the land area. The Trinity River is the largest sub-basin of the Lower Klamath; the main stem originates in the Trinity Alps west of Redding, while the South Fork Trinity River's origin at North Yolla Bolly Mountain is the southernmost point in the entire Klamath Basin. Much of the Lower Klamath and Trinity River basins are bounded on the west by South Fork Mountain, which forms one of the longest continuous ridgelines in North America. South Fork Mountain defines much of the boundary between the Klamath Mountains and the Northern Coast Ranges.
Most of the Lower Klamath Basin is remote and rugged, with limited access routes. In California, SR 96 provides access to the entire stretch of the middle Klamath River from Hornbrook to the Trinity River, while SR 299 runs along the Trinity River between Willow Creek and Junction City. SR 169 follows most of the lower Klamath below the Trinity, except for an unconstructed segment between river miles 8–23 (13–37 km) which is only accessible by boat. Although the Lower Klamath Basin is almost entirely covered by mountains, there are also several prominent valleys used for agriculture. Shasta Valley in Siskiyou County is the largest, and is characterized by volcanic features such as basalt flows and lava caves. The Shasta River flows northwest through the valley from Mount Shasta, the highest point in the Klamath River basin at . Yreka and Montague are located within Shasta Valley. To the west is the smaller Scott Valley, which includes the towns of Fort Jones, Etna, Greenview and Callahan. Hayfork Valley and the community of Hayfork are located in Trinity County, while Hoopa Valley and the surrounding Hoopa Reservation are on the Trinity River in Humboldt County.
| Link River/ Upper Klamath Lake | mi2 (9,767 km2) | ft (1,246 m) | |
| Lost River | mi2 (4,766 km2) | ft (1,230 m) | |
| Shasta River | mi2 (2,050 km2) | ft (617 m) | |
| Scott River | mi2 (2,079 km2) | ft (489 m) | |
| Salmon River | mi2 (1,939 km2) | ft (142 m) | |
| Trinity River | mi2 (7,610 km2) | ft (58 m) | |
The mouth of the Klamath and nearby sections of the river are also susceptible to oceanic tsunami surges, and fatalities have occurred there during the 1964 Alaskan and 2011 Japanese tsunamis.
Pre-Quaternary, Igneous rock and compose the Yonna Formation, which crosses much of the region and rises above the surface in large outcroppings of solid rock in many of the ridges. Underlying rocks are generally younger from east to west. The many ridges crossing the upper Klamath Basin divide it into valleys with up to of vertical relief, and drainage patterns generally follow the topography. An extensive geothermal system occurs deep underground within the upper basin, creating and , but is not well understood. Further south, in the Shasta River area in Siskiyou County, much of the underlying rock is composed of lava flows issuing from the Mount Shasta volcanic region.
The same age pattern is true in the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains that cover the western half of the Klamath River watershed. As the North American Plate moved slowly southwestward over the past 10 million years, successive oceanic dating from the Cambrian to the late Jurassic were added to the bulk of the North American continent. There are four distinct terranes from west to east. While the coastal mountains date to less than 3 million years ago, the farther inland High Cascades are as old as 7.5 million years. Granite , overlying sedimentary rock, and volcanic rock were crumpled into the massif of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California.
The Klamath River is a superimposed stream. That is, the river cut its way through rising topography and maintained a southwesterly course to the Pacific Ocean, instead of flowing to the south which would be the natural drainage path from the Upper Klamath Basin today.
Tribes of the upper basin were primarily hunter-gatherers, and did not depend on salmon as much as downstream tribes. The Klamath River's name was recorded by Europeans in the 19th century derived from the word klamet or the Klamath Tribe. Prior to European contact, the river was called by many different names, including Ishkêesh and Koke. The Klamath Tribe's name came from the Upper Chinookan word /ɬámaɬ/, The Funny 'ɬ' literally "they of the river".
The tribes along the Klamath River, in their hunting, fishing, and landscape stewardship practices, employed traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Traditional ecological knowledge describes the type of natural science information that indigenous people have gathered about the places they live in over the course of hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It encompasses knowledge, beliefs, and practices that native people have accumulated through their immersive stewardship of the natural world. On the Klamath River, tribes have historically used traditional ecological knowledge to care for and manage their landscape, especially the use of controlled burning.
The Klamath tribal land stewardship practice of cultural burning was first disrupted with the beginning of Spanish colonization in California in the 1780s. Spanish colonization led to diseases, genocide, forced removal of indigenous people, relocation to missions, and laws banning burning in the region. In the 1840s many white Americans started moving west into the region with the Gold Rush. Many more members of the Klamath tribes were displaced or killed in the destruction of villages and a series of wars over territory, among other threats. Into the 20th century, many Klamath children were separated from their tribes and families and forced to attend boarding schools which attempted to assimilate the children by forcing them to speak English and dress in Western clothing and eat Western foods. This led to a generational disconnect and loss of knowledge of many cultural practices.
Located along the river are various villages important to specific ceremonial practices of the Yurok, like the Jump Dance or the annual Salmon ceremony. Yurok culture and religion emphasizes direct connection and communication with the Klamath river. Yurok cosmologies and oral histories emphasize the importance of the Klamath river and its salmon as a gift from the creator to provide for the Yurok people. Like the Karuk, the Yurok language references the Klamath river in their descriptions of direction. The cycle of life in the Yurok culture is closely tied to the Klamath and those who have died are thought to take one last boat ride upriver.
For the Yurok people, the health of the river and the salmon is indicative of the health of the tribe, making the current policies surrounding river dams, and declining salmon populations deeply personal. Like with other Klamath Basin Tribes, an annual salmon ceremony takes place to honor and celebrate the salmon, which the Yurok people see as ancestors. The Klamath Salmon Festivals are usually in August and include games, meals, parades, and other ways of celebrating. The Yurok tribe’s ceremonies emphasize the Klamath River, and many traditional practices require close proximity to the river and include some type of bathing in or ingesting of the water. Recreational games are played on constructed "courts" along the river banks.
The Karuk language also revolves around the Klamath River, and the word "karuk" means "upriver". To indicate uphill, the word maruk is used, meaning away from the river. Conversely, the word saruk, meaning towards the river, is used to indicate downhill.
Shasta people celebrate the first salmon of the season, which they think of as "salmon medicine" with ceremonies similar to the other Klamath basin tribes. Their relationship to the Klamath and its salmon was, and continues to be, deep-seated in their culture.
Within a matter of years, the plentiful beaver in the Klamath Basin had been mostly wiped out. had previously been an important factor in stream habitat in the Klamath River watershed, helping to moderate the power of floods and creating extensive wetlands. The loss of the beaver dams resulted in detrimental consequences for watercourses in the basin, exacerbating the power of winter floods, and causing severe erosion. Despite the environmental implications, extensive and fertile meadows left behind by the draining of beaver ponds attracted many settlers to the region later on.
The Gold Rush was the first large incursion into the Klamath River region, and conflict soon broke out between tribes and gold seekers. As miners established claims along the river, they forced indigenous peoples from their settlements and fishing grounds; many natives were killed, while others died of introduced diseases. Several place names in the Klamath Basin originate from this era, including that of the Scott River, which is named for pioneer John Walter Scott. Gold deposits are still present in the Klamath River watershed even though it was mined far past the end of the gold rush.
After the establishment of California in 1850, the state government signed treaties with the Karuk establishing aboriginal territories, but the treaties were never ratified in the senate and so the Karuk never got their own reservation land. In 1864, the Native Americans of the Klamath Basin and surrounding area signed a treaty that had them cede of land to the United States and forced them to move to the newly created Klamath Indian Reservation. This reservation clumped the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa tribes into one small area. These reservation lands were created as a result of wars between American settlers and indigenous peoples including the Red Cap War in 1855. The US government wanted to stop these violent clashes and relegate the indigenous people to limited territory where they could be sovereign.
The reservation policy was reversed in 1887 with the Dawes Act which designated allotments to individuals of indigenous descent who could stake claim. However into the 1920s many of these individual land owners sold away their allotments to timber companies as they could not afford the taxes. Eventually, the tribes began to profit from the sale of timber produced on the reservation, although unfairly distributed because of the lack of consideration of the three differing tribes. In 1954, however, Congress removed their federal recognition and the reservation was no longer economically successful. The tribes won back federal recognition in the 1970s, but by then poverty was widespread among tribal members. Additionally more indigenous land was lost in the 1970s after the completion of the construction of a section of highway 96 which ran through traditional Karuk territory and paved over cemeteries, villages, spiritual sites and allotments.
In the early 1910s and 1920s, logging was a growing industry on the west side of the upper Klamath River valley, especially around Upper Klamath Lake. The Great Northern Railway and Southern Pacific Railroad built a joint-use line running along the eastern shore of the lake, delivering logs from the north side to a sawmill downstream from the outlet of the lake. Many of the seasonal marshlands surrounding the lake and rivers were diked in this period to host lumber operations. In 1919, the first Link River Dam, a timber crib dam, was constructed at the outlet of Upper Klamath Lake, raising it by about . Steamboats continued mail, passenger and freight operations on Upper Klamath Lake until about 1928, in a period when many of the lumber companies shut down due to drought.
The Klamath Irrigation Project includes of main canals, chief of which are the A Canal which delivers water south from Upper Klamath Lake, dividing into the B Canal which heads east towards the Lost River Valley and the C Canal which heads south towards Tule Lake Valley. A diversion channel was opened to carry floodwaters from the Lost River to the Klamath, and a tunnel excavated to drain the remaining waters of Tule Lake towards Lower Klamath Lake, where the Klamath Straits Drain conveys excess water back to the Klamath River near Keno. A cut was blasted through Keno Reef, the natural bedrock barrier that historically backed up floodwaters into Lower Klamath Lake. This enabled the near complete draining of both Tule and Lower Klamath Lakes.
Link River Dam (originally built as part of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project in 1921) controls the level of Upper Klamath Lake, creating the project's main storage reservoir. The dam did not actually raise the water level, but was built within an artificial cut made in the lake's outlet, enabling water to be released consistently from deeper levels. Prior to the cut, south winds sometimes pushed water out of the lake's shallow outlet, causing the Link River to run dry – a phenomenon reflected in the stream's native Klamath name, Yulalona, "back and forth". The project includes two other storage facilities at Clear Lake Dam on the Lost River and Gerber Dam on Miller Creek (a tributary of Lost River). Parts of Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes are designated as sumps, reserved for flood control and drainage.
In normal precipitation years, the Klamath Irrigation Project delivers of water to farmers, although this can be substantially less in drought years. The main crops grown on the Klamath Irrigation Project are grain, alfalfa, onions, potatoes and grass seed, as well as irrigated pasture for cattle. In 2011, crops grown on the Project were valued at about $204 million.
In Oregon, the Klamath Basin Adjudication (KBA) – legal validation of pre-1909 water claims – is an ongoing process. This has had significant consequences for water management in the Upper Klamath Basin, as the Klamath Tribes were guaranteed water for hunting and fishery purposes in the 1864 treaty establishing their reservation. Even though the Klamath were forced to surrender treaty lands in the mid-20th century, the tribes' water rights were upheld in a 1983 court decision ( United States vs. Adair), and Oregon formally quantified their share in 2012. The Klamath Tribes independently exercised their water rights for the first time in 2013, a drought year, when a "water call" reduced irrigation diversions to maintain sufficient river flow for fisheries.
During a severe drought in 2001, federal water deliveries to farmers were temporarily halted to satisfy Endangered Species Act requirements and tribal fisheries. A group of farmers sued the U.S. government for $30 million in lost income caused by the 2001 irrigation shut-off ( Baley v. United States). In 2017, the Court of Federal Claims ruled in favor of the government, as the water restrictions had been enacted, in part, on behalf of the tribes' senior water rights. Klamath Project customers were only entitled to receive water after the tribes' water rights had been met, so the government was not responsible for damages. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2020, thus cementing the lower court's decision.
The Rogue River Basin Project provides water for the Rogue River Valley around Medford, Oregon. The Fourmile Lake Dam and Hyatt Dam, which divert water from tributaries of the Klamath River into the Rogue River system, were originally built by private irrigation companies in the 1920s. In 1954, the Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to expand the project. Howard Prairie Reservoir, in the upper part of Jenny Creek watershed, was completed in 1959. The Bureau also constructed Green Springs Power Plant, which generates power using water diverted from Jenny Creek, and rehabilitated and expanded other existing reservoirs and canals. An annual average of are diverted from the Klamath Basin to the Rogue River Valley.
The Klamath's plentiful flow at its mouth has long been of interest to more populous parts of California, which often experience water shortages. In a 1951 report titled the United Western Investigation, the Bureau of Reclamation proposed building the enormous Ah Pah Dam that would have diverted almost the entire flow of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers to Southern California. It would have flooded most Yurok and Hupa lands along the river, but the government mostly ignored objections raised by the tribes. However, the dam was opposed by one of its chief beneficiaries – the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, representing Los Angeles and numerous other cities – who believed that the Klamath project would be used to pressure it into giving up its share of the Colorado River. As such, the project was scrapped due to lack of political support.
In the 1960s, the California Department of Water Resources also looked to the Klamath River as a supply for the State Water Project. Its own North Coastal Area Investigation in 1964 contemplated damming the Klamath, Trinity, Eel, Van Duzen and Mad Rivers to direct – comparable to the entire flow of the Colorado River – to agricultural and urban areas in central and southern California. About half of this would come from the Klamath River alone. As the environmental movement strengthened in the late 1960s, public pressure mounted to protect California's remaining undammed rivers. In 1972, the state designated the Klamath River downstream of Iron Gate Dam as a wild and scenic river, and in 1981 it was incorporated into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, making it off-limits to new dams.
In 1918, the Copco #1 Dam was constructed in Ward's Canyon, a steep and narrow stretch of the Klamath River just south of where it enters California. Copco #2 Dam was constructed just downstream in 1925. It diverted water into a penstock, bypassing and dewatering of the river. In 1920, Copco acquired another private hydroelectric plant at Keno, and in 1931 it built the Needle Dam there to regulate outflows from Link River Dam. Needle Dam was replaced by the modern Keno Dam after damage from flooding in the winter of 1964–65.
J.C. Boyle Dam, located between Keno and Copco #1 in Oregon, was completed in 1958. Its penstock and power plant bypassed and dewatered another of the river. In 1961, Copco merged into Pacific Power and Light (PP&L), now known as PacifiCorp. In 1962, PP&L constructed Iron Gate Dam, just downstream of Copco #2. Its main purpose was to re-regulate power releases from the Copco dams and provide a more steady flow downstream. Prior to Iron Gate's construction, discharge from the Copco dams fluctuated greatly due to peaking power operation, creating hazardous conditions for fishermen and other people using the river.
Before their removal in 2023–24, the J.C. Boyle, Copco #1, Copco #2 and Iron Gate Dams had a combined generating capacity of 163 , representing about 1.5 percent of PacifiCorp's total energy portfolio. Following the dam removal, PacifiCorp would continue to operate the Fall Creek power plant, while ownership of the Link River and Keno Dams was officially transferred to the Bureau of Reclamation. As of 2024, the aging power generators at Link River Dam are planned to be decommissioned, although the dam itself will remain.
The Lower Klamath Basin is mostly within the Klamath Mountains ecoregion, which is "widely recognized as an important biodiversity hotspot" due to its location adjacent to Cascades, Sierra Nevada and Coast Range ecoregions. The area includes 3,500 plant species, including over 200 endemic species, many associated with serpentinite soils that are toxic to other plants. The area is known for its conifer diversity, with 29 identified species ranging from coastal redwood forests to inland mixed-conifer forests dominated by Douglas-fir, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, incense cedar, Jeffrey pine and white fir, while upper elevations include Shasta red fir, mountain hemlock, foxtail pine and western white pine. Oak woodlands and shrublands occur at lower elevations, while many exposed ridgetops are grasslands, locally called prairies.
Both the upper and lower Klamath River have resident rainbow trout, redband trout, brook trout and brown trout. Above Upper Klamath Lake, clear spring-fed river systems such as the Williamson and Wood Rivers provide cold water year round and good trout habitat. Bull trout were once widespread throughout both the Upper and Lower Klamath Basins, but today are limited to a few streams above Upper Klamath Lake. Eulachon and green sturgeon were historically common in the lower Klamath River, with much smaller populations today. The Klamath Lake sculpin, Klamath River and Pit-Klamath brook lamprey, Klamath tui chub and blue chub are common in the Upper Klamath Basin. The endangered shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker are endemic to the upper Klamath Basin. Reservoirs and lakes in the Upper Basin host many species of nonnative warm-water game fish, including yellow perch, brown bullhead, and pumpkinseed.
In California, commercial and tribal fishing in the Klamath were banned in 1934 as salmon runs declined. In 1972, following the controversial arrest of a Yurok subsistence fisherman, the Supreme Court ruled in Mattz v. Arnptt that the state did not have jurisdiction over tribal fisheries, as Indian reservations were created by federal executive order. In 1977 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs took over management of the tribal fishery and reopened the lower river to fishing, but it was closed again the next year after conservation groups objected. From 1985 to 2011, ocean fishing for Chinook salmon was also restricted off the California and Oregon coasts. In 1986, the Klamath Fishery Management Council was established to monitor fish populations and recommend annual harvest limits; the following year, it reopened the river to tribal and commercial fishing for adult fall Chinook. After another brief closure from 1991–1993 the Department of the Interior revised fishery allocations, setting the tribes' share at 50 percent.
Prior to its 2024 removal, Iron Gate Dam was the lowermost dam on the Klamath River and effectively cut off migration and spawning habitat of 675 to 970 km of spawning and rearing habitat in the Upper Klamath Basin.
By 1992, the fall Chinook run had collapsed to just 26,700 spawning adults. This was attributed largely to Central Valley Project diversions on the Trinity River, where salmon numbers had fallen 80 percent since 1963. The Hupa and Yurok Tribes contended that increased instream flows were needed to save the fishery. In 1991, Congress passed the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, directing the Bureau of Reclamation to increase minimum Trinity River flows over a five-year period. The Trinity River Restoration Program was established in 2000, solidifying plans for permanently increased flows. With restoration efforts, the fall Chinook run recovered to 150,000 per year by the 2010s, with the Klamath, Trinity, Salmon, Scott and Shasta rivers all hosting spawning populations.
Spring-run Chinook have continued to decline, averaging less than 2,000 per year in the early 21st century, and are considered at risk of extirpation. The only remaining spawning populations are in the Salmon and South Fork Trinity Rivers. Hybridization with hatchery fish has been a major concern for wild spring-run Chinook in the 21st century. In 2021, the state of California recognized Klamath spring-run Chinook as endangered. Klamath River coho, which spawn only in the fall, have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1997. While most of the natural range of Klamath coho has never been blocked by dams, they have been impacted more severely by habitat degradation related to mining and logging, as they spend more time in freshwater than Chinook.
After the controversial 2001 Klamath Irrigation Project water shut-off, Vice President Dick Cheney intervened to ensure water supply to farmers. In 2002, the government made water deliveries on the project despite the drought continuing. The lower Klamath River experienced a mass die-off of at least 34,000 adult Chinook salmon in September 2002, which was attributed to atypically low flows that delayed salmon migration and high water temperatures that allowed massive spread of ich and columnaris among the waiting fish. The House Natural Resources Committee investigated Vice President Cheney for having released extra water to farmers for political gain. In 2006, a federal judge ordered the Klamath Irrigation Project to maintain higher river releases to protect fisheries.
During dry seasons, the lower Klamath River also experiences elevated phosphorus and nitrogen levels from irrigation run-off, while toxic result in eutrophication. These issues were exacerbated by the river's dams, which by slowing flows and exposing more water to solar heating created ideal conditions for algae bloom formation. In 2005, PacifiCorp began the mandatory 50-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing process for its dams on the Klamath. Tribes and conservation groups opposed the relicensing, arguing that the dams should be removed. FERC ruled that as part of the relicensing, PacifiCorp must install fish ladders on the dams. In 2009 PacifiCorp terminated the relicensing process, remarking that retrofitting the dams would be too expensive and tearing them down made more financial sense.
In 2020, the states of California and Oregon, the Yurok and Karuk Tribes, PacifiCorp, and the newly created Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) signed a final Memorandum of Agreement to implement the project. This formally requested the federal government to transfer the dams' licenses to KRRC, which would oversee the removal with Kiewit Construction as the primary contractor. The project's $450 million cost would be borne mostly by PacifiCorp customers and the state of California, with Oregon contributing only to contingency funding.
The first dam to be removed was Copco No. 2 in October 2023. The reservoirs behind Iron Gate, Copco No. 1 and J.C. Boyle dams were drained in January-March 2024, and the dams themselves were demolished by August 2024. This represents the largest dam removal project conducted in the US to date. During and immediately after the removal process, the river experienced a temporary drop in water quality and increase in turbidity as accumulated sediments behind the dams were flushed out. In March 2024, a large die-off of hatchery Chinook salmon occurred when they were released upstream of Iron Gate Dam. The fish are believed to have succumbed to gas bubble disease when they passed through the temporary diversion tunnel used to drain Iron Gate reservoir; water flowing through the tunnel had a much greater level of turbulence than expected.
Restoration work was already ongoing prior to and during dam removal, and is planned to continue for several years afterward. Restoration is being conducted by Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) under the direction of KRRC. This involves revegetating of newly exposed land in drained reservoirs, stabilizing sediment to prevent erosion, restoring the river's main channel as well as of tributaries within the reservoir zones to improve fish passage, and monitoring water quality all the way to the river's mouth.search Klamath River restoration Resource Environmental Solutions On October 17, 2024, the first fall-run Chinook salmon was observed in the Upper Klamath Basin in Oregon.
Sport fishing is also popular on the Klamath River, with steelhead trout being the most popular, though Chinook salmon are also highly sought after when low salmon returns do not prevent fishing. A fly fishing guide said that the Klamath was one of the most productive steelhead rivers on the West Coast of the United States.
Recreational gold mining is popular along the Klamath and some of its tributaries, including the Salmon and the Trinity. Although simple methods such as Gold panning are still used, some methods use suction pumps—a practice involving turning over deposits of sediment and spreading them in order to find gold. Debates over the practice, which opponents contend damage water quality (mercury) and fish habitat, continue. Since at least 2016, suction dredge mining is banned in California.
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