The Klamath River passes through Northern California and South Oregon, with a long length of ~257 miles. In the river, there exists a dam of which its removal is necessary. For years, the dam has been extremely costly, and very inefficient considering it isn’t serving its intended purpose as well as it could be. However, that damage is just the tip of the iceberg, as the main problem of the dam is that it inflicts damage to wildlife and ecosystems. For example, fish might be unable to make their way back to their spawning grounds because of the dam, diminishing their numbers.
Removing all of the Klamath River dams is not an easy task, and requires very intelligent engineers and an excruciatingly painful amount of money. 500 million dollars isn’t easy to come by, and if you do happen to have the money, there is no guarantee it will serve the intended purpose rather than having it wasted. If done incorrectly, it may cause even more damage to the ecosystem. This shows us that some mistakes can’t be mended easily, and research must always be done before making a change that might hurt the ecosystem rather than fix it. In conclusion, what this 500 million-dollar dam removal project teaches us is the environment’s fragility, and we must do all we can to keep it safe and in the best version, it can possibly be.
Some communities already acknowledge this, and they are starting to remove as many hazardous dams in Europe as possible, and although these dam removal projects and ecological restoration acts will require a vast amount of resources, they can prove to be worth it for preserving the fish and other organisms in the environment. Healing the landscape is worth spending millions of dollars for the Klamath River.
RELATED STORIES:
- https://interestingengineering.com/culture/klamath-river-dam-demolition-project
- https://www.americanrivers.org/dam-removal-on-the-klamath-river/
- https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/final-step-klamath-river-dam-removal-opens-path-returning-salmon
- https://caltrout.org/campaigns/klamath-dams
- https://www.opb.org/article/2024/10/22/klamath-dam-removal-river-southern-oregon-northern-california-salmon/
TAKE ACTION:
- https://act.americanrivers.org/page/72615/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=bcd97ks7&_gl=1*14yb0q7*_gcl_au*MjU4NzQ1MzA0LjE3Mzk4OTE1NTA.
- https://giving.uniqueplacestosave.org/page/donate
- https://hafoundation.org/our-funds/klamath-river-fund/
