On Wednesday, nearly two decades after Congress called for full restoration of the river and its fish runs, federal workers will turn off the generators at the 1913 dam powerhouse and set in motion the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

Contractors will begin dismantling the dams this fall, a $324.7 million project that will take about three years and eventually will allow the 45-mile Elwha River to run free as it courses from the Olympic Mountains through old-growth forests into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

See you holding a sledgehammer, Tom Chandler.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The Bush administration has announced a nonbinding agreement for removing four dams along the Klamath River, a key to resolving the basin’s long-standing trouble balancing the water needs of farms and fish.

While not a final answer, the deal represents a milestone toward what would become the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history.

It also would help resolve issues at the root of the 2001 shut-off of irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland under enforcement by U.S. marshals and the 2002 deaths of 70,000 adult salmon in the river after irrigation water was restored.

The agreement in principle reached in Sacramento, Calif., was to be signed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior, the utility PacifiCorp and the governors of Oregon and California.

The non-binding agreement apparently endorses the controversial Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which doesn’t enjoy universal support among stakeholders, but might represent our single best chance to get dams removed.

My concerns?

• Removal isn’t slated to begin until 2020, and a lot can happen before then – including an ongoing dwindling of the already-endangered salmon runs
• By then, the costs of dam removal will have skyrocketed (projected $450 million), and the agreement removes PacifiCorp from liability and limits ratepayer (I am one) liability to $200 million

There’s plenty more to be said on this issue, which I’ve admittedly done a poor job covering (a guy’s only got so much time).

For a fairly skeptical perspective on the whole Klamath Dam issue, visit Felice Pace’s excellent-if-high-voltage Klamblog.

[UPDATE: I just posted a brief history of the very, very contentious Klamath River salmon/dams/irrigators issue here. Worth ten minutes of your day if you're not wholly up to speed on the Klamath.]

What’s a Healthy Klamath Mean?

A healthy Klamath would likely turn into a sustainable economic bonanza for an economically despressed Sisikiyou County (home of the Trout Underground), though that reality didn’t stop our largely anti-environment, anti-sustainable-anything Board of Supervisors from fighting dam removal, often through scare tactics and lies about toxins in sediment loads.

Healthy salmon & steelhead runs on the Klamath River would likely see a mirror of the crowds of people fishing the Trinity River (now that a little water’s been put back in). Simply put, Northwest-based Undergrounders may soon have a whole new river to fish.

See you on the Klamath, Tom Chandler.

klamath, klamath river, dam removal, klamath salmon, pacificorp

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(He’ll be on the bluffs on the far side of the river from the Web camera).

I don’t know why they don’t organize these events as fundraisers; instead of tamely breaching the dam with heavy equipment, why not auction seats at the bombardier’s station of a B-52?

There — for a hefty added fee — you could even stencil your own message on a "dumb" bomb and push the button to drop it on the dam (the Underground votes for "Dam this, baby.").

Figure a dozen bombs would do the job at a nice, round $20K a bomb. Yeah, we’re talking revenue.

Once again, the Underground leads the way in innovative, environmentally related fundraising concepts.

You can watch it happen (10:30 PT, 11:30 MT) by clicking here.

In fact, I’ve seen way more snow than that, especially since I shipped a time-sapping project and finally have time to get out on the river.

With the Upper Sacramento running at 1300 cfs (and looking just a little off-color), tomorrow’s precip is critical; if it’s a warm rain that melts low-level snow, the Sac will rise and turn off-color.

If it’s snow, then I’ll simply take my own life. If you’re the Evil Weather God, that’s a win-win.

We’re Newsy!

Over the last few days, I’ve accumulated a sizable backlog of interesting stories that prove truth is far more interesting than fiction, and since I’m possessed of all the ambition found in your below-average stalk of celery, I’m not going to provide all the usual snarky insight*.

(*Not exactly true)

Instead, I’m just going to throw ‘em all down here for the perusal, judgement and amusement of the Undergrounders.

Spring Fishing

In Eastern Tennessee, Ian & Charity Rutter are back on the guide treadmill bigtime, and the hatches (and trout) are apparently ratcheting themselves up for what looks like a good spring.

Naturally, I’m envious; I first started fishing Tennessee because interesting things were happening there when damned little was going on here.

Today’s Spiritual Awakening: Rubbing people’s noses in good spring fishing is more fun when you’re doing the rubbing.

The Writer’s Code

In this inspired post, Alistair of the Urban Fly Angler rewrites a previous spring fishing post that didn’t quite fall within the guidelines promulgated by the Manly Fly Fishing Writer’s Association, which specifies (nay, demands) a certain minimum level of testosterone in every sentence.

Alistair responded in classic outdoor writer fashion; he simply invented a “shadow cast” of his own:

I decided on what is called a “Windmill” cast – you spin your rod tip around so fast that the line follows it in a circle – once you have done this for several minutes building up sufficient momentum to cast 10 yards of line you let fly – I let fly! I was glad I had been pumping iron on specifically that arm for the whole winter especially for this moment…

We applaud Alistair’s initiative.

Dam Stuff

MidCurrent clues us in to the removal of the Little Blackfoot Milltown dam this Friday, which will create a wall of water several feet high. Marshal even provides a URL to a webcam so you can watch it happen live (7 a.m. PST).

If you want to watch the event as it happens, tune in to the Clark Fork Coalition Web site at 8:00 AM (MT) on Friday morning and watch the “Milltown Dam Cam.” Should be quite a show.

Will I watch? Damn straight.

More Dam Stuff

While dams are coming down in saner locales, those wacky dam fans in Colorado want to put another one up. Via Ralph Maughan’s most-excellent Wildlife News blog, we discover a dam project threatening the Cache La Poudre:

The dam is said to be justified by projected growth of new homes. Instead it is a massive subsidy for the continuation of a bad idea and an economy destroying practice.

The governments in this country are having a hard time adjusting to the fact that the home building boom is over. Now they should take a “time out” and consider all they have done to facilitate the creation of an unsustainable hosing market directed at the upper class and the upper middle class* — how many resources were unnecessarily sacrificed. They also need to consider their ethics, or more likely lack thereof, and get out of bed with the developers.

Damnit

Aquafornia reminds us that California has one of the lowest Fish & Game Warden staffing levels in the country, a fact which is clearly not lost on poachers.

Despite the recent busting of a local poacher, it’s the wild west out there:

In California, a state of 37.4 million people, there are only 198 Fish and Game Wardens in the field working to prevent and prosecute polluters, and protect fisheries, wildlife, fauna, and the public. This staffing level is the same as in the 1950s in actual personnel. This state level of wardens per capita to the general populace is the “worst in America,” according to the “2007 California Fish and Game Warden Expose Update.”

More Damnit

If you’ve been wondering why so many clearly endangered species have escaped listing under the ESA, The High Country News blog reminds us; it’s because the Fish & Wildlife Service’s political appointees don’t want to:

You’ll have to read down the article a ways, but the juicy stuff is in there. For example, the Post reports that one memo read: Employees “can use info from files that refutes petitions but not anything that supports, per Doug” (That’s Douglas Krofta, head of the Endangered Species Program’s listing branch).

Let’s End on a Happy, Big-Dollar Note

You know those Nattering Naybobs of Negativity who say there’s no money in fly fishing? They’re wrong, damnit.

Why, the right person can make upwards of $110K a year, living large on the payroll of none other than the AFFTA — fly fishing’s trade association.

With past Prez Robert Ramsay headed for other pastures, AFFTA is looking for his replacement. Those who would rather administer than fish will find this is the job they’ve been waiting all their lives for.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

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