On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we discuss the historic Klamath River dam removal and its significance for Yurok, Klamath & Karuk Native tribes in Northern California and Southern Oregon.
The Klamath River was once the third-largest salmon producer on the West Coast, but the construction of the dam led to a sharp decline in the salmon population. Water is now freely flowing for the first time in 100 years. Tribal activists began calling for the removal of four Klamath River dams in the late 1990s.
Guests:
Amy Bowers Cordalis, attorney, member of the Yurok Tribe, and principal of the Ridges to Riffles Conservation Group
Brook Thompson, member of the Yurok and Karuk tribes, and PhD student in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz
Resources:
High Country News: The familial bond between the Klamath River and the Yurok people
NPR: No turning back: The largest dam removal in U.S. history begins
The Washington Post: Nature, Undammed
San Francisco Chronicle: Nation’s largest dam removal marks milestone: the freeing of a major California river
