Inside the fight behind one of the largest-ever dam removals

The largest-ever dam removal in U.S. history is currently underway, a milestone in the nation’s reckoning over its past attempts to bend nature to human will. The challenge lies in what comes next. Subscribe to The Washington Post on KZbin: wapo.st/2QOdcqK
Follow us:
Twitter: / washingtonpost
Instagram: / washingtonpost
Facebook: / washingtonpost

[@lesliebreitsprecher1962]

It's gone as of two days ago!!!!!! Yaaaay

[@340wbymag]

I am thrilled that the dams are coming down and wish the tribes success in the restoration of the river. I wish I was young enough to help in those efforts.

[@mitchellmaytorena1137]

I’m in southern Oregon. We just blew a dam open a couple days ago and the landscape is literally changing in real time, right before our eyes. The reservoirs are shrinking into small streams, exposing landscape we’ve never seen before.

[@lazaruslazuli6130]

That moving blue river water looks so much better than the green, algae-filled, stagnant reservoir water.

[@gup8175]

I look forward to camping on that river once it is free.

[@georgehaydukeiii6396]

@gup8175 My too!

[@TheCommunicationCoach]

As soon as I saw the headline, I knew it had to be one of our local rivers and dams.

[@LovroRavbar]

Bravo!

[@ourv9603]

Oh, you dont want to be inside that dam when they remove it. !

[@billstoys8324]

This dam project did not open up 400 miles of river. The river is free flowing from the mouth of the river at the ocean to the first dam that is east of Yreka almost 300 miles away. Removing the dams opened up about 100 miles of river. The thing that no-one is talking about is that the water from the Upper Klamath Lake is not clean and cool. It is a shallow lake that a lot of algae in it and the water is warm. I hope that it all works out. The other problem that our government won't address is that China is overfishing our oceans and taking large quantities of our fish.

[@johnkilty1419]

Something you left out. Most of the water flowing in the Klamath comes from upriver streams, creeks, and rivers. The reason Klamath lake is green and not cool, is because the water is held in the lake and little of it enters the river. Maybe that is why it is not a big topic. Also, all of the restoration work is being done in California. Klamath lake is in Oregon. Different people and different regulations.

[@georgehaydukeiii6396]

​@@johnkilty1419 Klamath lake was a cool, clear spring fed lake with crystal clear tributaries like the Wood River, Williamson River, seven mile creek, four mile creek, and many more. When the white people came, The first thing they did was cut down all the trees around the lake. then they shot all the elk and put cows on every blade of grass! Then they started draining the lake and moving water around and flooding other areas. It's a total mess now! This is why the Klamath is so nutrient rich and warm. Farmers and ranchers!

[@johnluniewski1791]

So what is the alternative electric source for the community?

[@scott5803]

The entire region. The community is on a grid, it isn't dependent on what little power that's produced with Klamath River water.

[@user-fl6et9qi1q]

@@scott5803 So with the increasing demand for power, these little amounts of power are irrelevant?

[@user-fl6et9qi1q]

In other words, there are none.

[@johnkilty1419]

Solar. A 6 acre solar farm would easily replace what the dams produced. They were old an inefficient.

[@georgehaydukeiii6396]

​@@user-fl6et9qi1q Do you still drive a model T? Because that's what those damns were. old inefficient generators in silt-filled reservoirs needing tons of repair!

[@user-kl8tw8ww7g]

Now we can ban all gill net fishing on the river. Tribe can use fishing poles, like every buddy else.

[@johnkilty1419]

@user-kl8tw8ww7g So, you make the rules? Pretty sure you like to break rules, not obey them.

[@user-kl8tw8ww7g]

Your wrong I don't break rules. I bet you do. That why you got upset with message.

[@emoney7472]

The same tribe people when the river is back open to fishing will put up gill nets from bank to bank and take every single fish they can.

[@scott5803]

And if this doesn't happen will you acknowledge it?

[@user-fl6et9qi1q]

@@scott5803 So what you're saying is that the tribes will be federally regulated and only be allowed to fish under certain conditions or within rules and regulations imposed by the fed govt?

[@johnkilty1419]

Just stop! As it stand right now. The Salmon migration on the Klamath has been decimated for decades. Who did that? The tribes? No! It was done by people who lived in the past. You live now here in the present. Stop thinking like some good ole boy from the 20's.