Fish biologists collaborate to track pioneering Klamath River salmon

Chinook salmon are spawning in streams above four former dam sites on the Klamath River in numbers that are astounding biologists. Now, a network of tribes, agencies, university researchers, and conservation groups is working together to track the fish as they explore the newly opened habitat.

Reservoirs behind three of the Klamath River dams were drawn down starting last January; by Oct. 2, the barriers were fully removed. Just days later, the first Chinook was discovered in Jenny Creek in California’s Siskiyou County. On Oct. 16, biologists from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Klamath Tribes spotted the first Chinook in a key tributary in Oregon, above all four of the former dams.

“We’re learning how these fish are recolonizing new areas,” says Barry McCovey, senior fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe. “This type of thing doesn’t happen very often. The more information we can gather about how fish are using these new areas, the better.” The data will help estimate the size of this year’s runs and predict future runs, which in turn will inform management of commercial, recreational, and tribal fisheries, says McCovey.

Related: Salmon return to Klamath Basin in Oregon after more than a century

The speed of the salmon’s return has caused the partners to scramble to get their teams and protocols in place.

“We don’t have a few years to collect this data,” says Morgan Knechtle, environmental scientist at California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We need it now.”

A coordinated effort

CDFW has boots on the ground, conducting spawning surveys in the river and several tributaries in California. They have also installed “video weirs” in key tributaries that capture images 24 hours a day. Crews have spotted over 100 Chinook in Jenny Creek; 27 female fish have also spawned at the hatchery at Fall Creek. This facility was relocated from the base of Iron Gate dam to a new location about seven miles above the dam earlier this year.

Returns to the hatchery have been low so far, but the spawning season is not over, says Knechtle. “Fish are still swimming into the facility,” he says. “The fish appear to be in very good condition; they are very bright for this time of year, very silver.”

Conservation group California Trout has installed a sonar monitoring station just upstream of the former Iron Gate dam. The station acts like a “fancy fish finder,” says Damon Goodman, Mount Shasta-Klamath regional director at California Trout. The station generates radio waves that can pass through even very turbid water, detecting any fish that passes by a certain point in the stream.

Related: Watch: Klamath River reemerges after the removal of four dams

Cal Trout is also leading a crew to live capture fish just above the former Iron Gate dam. By tagging salmon with radio tags and passive integrated transponders, or PIT tags, they will be able to track them as they explore new habitat upstream.

ODFW is conducting spawning surveys in the Klamath River and tributaries in Oregon. They have counted over 100 fish and 42 nests, (also called redds) in Spencer Creek, and dozens of fish and redds in the Klamath River above and below the former J.C. Boyle dam.

Another barrier?

Though salmon have easily made it up past the former dam sites, questions remain about whether they can successfully pass through the Keno and Link River dams, which are located in Oregon above the four dams that were removed.

Both of these small dams have fish ladders, but Bob Pagliuco, marine habitat resource specialist at NOAA Fisheries, says the ladder at Keno dam is “not up to snuff as far as state and federal fish passage criteria go.” In particular, the orifices that allow fish to pass from bay to bay and move up the ladder are too small for “large-bodied fish,” says Pagliuco. “That needs to get addressed.”

Studies have verified that adult redband trout can pass through the fish ladder at Keno, but adult Chinook are considerably larger.

NOAA recently awarded ODFW $1.9 million to fund a feasibility study on how to improve fish passage at the Keno dam. Ownership of the dam, which is used to manage flows in the Klamath River, transferred from PacifiCorp to the Bureau of Reclamation in August of this year. The options they will be studying include full replacement of the dam.

Personnel from Reclamation saw two Chinook in the Keno dam fish ladder on Oct. 25. No fish have been detected above the dam.

Excellent habitat awaits above both Keno and Link River dams, particularly in tributaries that feed into Upper Klamath Lake. This habitat is expected to especially benefit spring Chinook and steelhead.

Related: Salmon swim freely in the Klamath River for 1st time in a century after dams removed

More work to be done

Some of the tributaries that for decades were submerged by the dam reservoirs have been partially restored in anticipation of the salmon’s return. In some, “large wood”— logs with root balls still attached to them — have been strategically placed across streams to create habitat for young fish.

Resource Environmental Solutions, an ecological restoration company based in Houston, is working with several regional tribes to continue revegetating the reservoir footprints. Another round of planting is taking place this fall.

“This is a major milestone for the project and for the goals of the project, but it’s also by no means the end of the work that’s being done,” says Dan Chase, Director, Fisheries, Aquatics & Design for the Western Region at RES. “There’s significant restoration work that’s occurring in many of the tributaries that the fish are even starting to access at this point.”

The Chinook that are reaching new habitat above the dams are likely a mix of hatchery-bred and wild fish. It is not yet known how this year’s run compares with previous year. The fact that the salmon are finding good-quality habitat so quickly shows how adaptable they are; it also underscores how important it is for fish to have options, especially during drought years and as the climate continues to change.

Related: Willamette River seeing record numbers of coho salmon

The data the partners are collecting are a key aspect of restoration across the watershed. “These fish are helping inform managers on what restoration actions can be taken to help them,” says McCovey. “They’re telling us what type of habitat they’re using, and what type of habitat they’re lacking.”

The monitoring doesn’t stop with Chinook. Soon, the partners will turn their attention to steelhead and threatened coho salmon that return to the Klamath to spawn, as well as juvenile fish that are making their way to the ocean. What the partners learn will also help inform future dam removals on other rivers.

This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

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