Bringing Salmon Home: The Story of the World's Largest Dam Removal Project

The Klamath River on the California-Oregon border was once the
third largest salmon river in the continental U.S. There were so
many fish, indigenous histories claim that you could cross the
river walking across their backs—which made the peoples who lived
in this remote, beautiful region some of the wealthiest in
pre-colonial North America. But, for more than a century, salmon
have been shut out of the Klamath: thanks to multiple hydroelectric
dams that blocked the river, these fish couldn’t reach miles of
cold, clear waters where they historically spawned. Their
population plummeted to the point where even catching salmon for
traditional ceremonies was banned, to help the few remaining fish
survive. In just the past couple of months, however, the dams have
come down, thanks to a scrappy coalition of local tribes,
commercial fishermen, and environmental groups who spent decades
fighting to free the Klamath—and bring the salmon home. Listen in
this episode for the epic tale of the largest dam removal project
in history—but also for the much bigger story of why these fish
matter, and what it will take to make the Klamath their home again.
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