0:12

Music: [Water rushing over river rocks, steady guitar begins to fade in, before a spash, after which, watery-guitar music

0:15

underscores the audio] Ryan Hilperts: You look at, restorationists look at the

0:39

landscape and they think, they dream on it, they dream about

0:44

ecologically what could be happening in that place. And so

0:47

it's this kind of foresight, you know, you do a visioning, you're

0:50

visioning something. So, if you could actually vision in

0:55

whatever place: What would you like to see in terms of human

0:58

relations on a place in 20 years? And then backcast and

1:04

think: What seeds do we need to be planting right now?

1:09

Music: [Bass tones break through, then music becomes more pensive] Ryan Hilperts: Part of, you know, part of how we know each

1:13

other is through telling stories from our lives and the way we

1:18

have stories to tell us that we have experiences. You know,

1:22

and-and we learn a lot through storied knowledge. When I was

1:28

doing interviews, I found that when people started speaking in

1:31

metaphor, that's when stuff got really interesting, because we

1:36

use metaphor to talk about things that have truth larger

1:41

than just the thing that we're talking about. And when people

1:46

started to describe stories in real detail, right, and their

1:50

emotion came into it, they get more creative with their

1:53

language. And when people use metaphor, or they start to use

1:59

that kind of language they're pointing to almost like a poetic

2:02

knowledge of the world that's rooted in wisdom, right? You

2:06

know, in that, in that we build a weapon, and a reciprocity,

2:11

with land and water when we when we know it in the way that it's

2:16

the character in our stories, and we're a character in it's

2:18

story. Music: [Guitar breaks through, strongly underscores following

2:22

dialogue] Ryan Hilperts: I realize I'm just so very into kind of the

2:24

symbolic, but I think dam removals are just the most

2:30

compelling restoration project, because it is-they are just so-

2:38

it's such pure symbolism; you know? In sort of a romantic way.

2:45

But it's just-I mean-terms of a, in terms of the kind of

2:50

restoration that can capture people's imaginations; I just

2:55

think that they're-they're so powerful for that reason.

3:01

Music: [Guitar cords play, building momentum, playing over

3:05

recorded dialogue] Adam Huggins: Ready? Mendel Skulski: Ready. Adam Huggins: 1-2-3: Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski: [simultaneously] Jump! [spalsh]

3:08

Music: [Stops, river water returns as soundscape] Adam Huggins: For a long time in North America, especially in the

3:13

West, we've told ourselves a singular, unshakeable story

3:18

about dams. In many ways, it's a love story...

3:22

Music: [Ride of the Valkyries enters and underscores] Adam Huggins: ...full of romance and conflict, usually pitting

3:25

the indomitable will of man, against the chaos of nature.

3:30

Wild rivers which epitomize the unpredictable, untapped

3:34

resource, are transformed by human ingenuity for the

3:37

betterment of all. By constructing dams, we can

3:42

produce clean energy for burgeoning communities, create

3:45

recreational areas for boaters and weekenders, and provide a

3:49

dependable water source for industry and agriculture.

3:53

Mendel Skulski: And construct dams we did. Beginning in the

3:56

1890s, accelerating through Roosevelt's New Deal, spreading

3:59

out to every corner of the world and culminating in the

4:02

monumental Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China,

4:06

humanity is smack dab in the center of a dam building craze

4:10

that shows little signs of abating. Even now, a new era of

4:15

dam construction has begun worldwide, fueled by the demand

4:18

for clean energy, and the hunt for the few remaining wild

4:21

rivers, yet to be tamed and harnessed. The controversial

4:25

Site C dam on the Peace River in Northern British Columbia is

4:28

just one example of the latest wave of mega projects across the

4:32

globe. Adam Huggins: This story of man's triumph over nature, and

4:37

the marvels of human ingenuity and audacity, is a powerful one,

4:41

deeply rooted in our collective imagination. But it isn't the

4:45

only story being told about dams here in North America.

4:48

Mendel Skulski: Right now, up and down the Pacific Coast and

4:50

beyond, there's a growing awareness of the ecological and

4:53

social costs of dam construction. Costs that, until

4:57

recently, have been overshadowed by the sheer marvel all of our

5:00

technological achievements. And little by little, bit by bit,

5:05

this second story is eroding away the foundations of the

5:07

first. Eating away of its themes, its plot points,

5:11

creating cracks, which then become fissures, until . . .

5:15

Adam Huggins: . . . [Warrior-like] The floodgates open!

5:17

Music: [Explosive water breaking free and spilling forth, Ride of

5:19

the Valkyries fades out beneath it] Mendel Skulski: And damn metaphors aside, all hell breaks

5:27

loose. Music: [Intense, pulsating music underscores] Media: [Someone overseeing a meeting] I think we've seen how

5:30

strong the passions are today about, uh, about water and . . .

5:34

water is our lifeblood. [Unspecified Speaker] What do I think of this? I think it's a dam[n] scam! [First speaker]

5:39

This has gone on, and on, for years. [New Unspecified Speaker]

5:43

This bright idea here, has the potential of destroying our way

5:47

of life and the economy. [News Anchor] Native American tribes,

5:49

farmers, fishermen and conservation groups battled each

5:52

other over access and control of scarce water supplies in the

5:56

region. [New Unspecified Speaker] Billion dollars of taxpayer and ratepayer costs, all driven, we're told, by the

6:01

best available science. [New Unspecified Speaker] It's really

6:03

a tragedy and-and it's government imposed. [New

6:07

Unspecified Speaker] Intentional falsification of scientific

6:09

data. [New Unspecified Speaker] Reliable, sustainable, low cost

6:14

power. [Protestor, through megaphone] 68,000 dead salmon can't be wrong. Dams kill fish! [New Protestor, through

6:18

megaphone] There's no salmon and our river. We all grew up eating

6:21

fish, catching fish, and now theres nothing! [New Unspecified Speaker, on the verge of tears] It's not getting any better!

6:25

[Protestors Chanting] Bring down the dams! Bring down the dams!

6:28

[Speaker overseeing meeting] I respect the strength of your

6:30

convictions. We agree that decisions like this must, must,

6:35

be done in tandem and in concert with Indigenous Peoples, but

6:39

those challenges have passed.

6:42

Adam Huggins: So, if restoring a landscape, or a river, requires

6:47

restory-ing that landscape, or river, what are the stories that

6:52

we're going to tell to ourselves, and to our kids, and

6:55

grandkids about dams?

6:59

Mendel Skulski: In this two part series, we're going to look at the stories of two rivers: one in Washington, and one in

7:04

Northern California. And what the decades long battles to

7:07

restore them can tell us about the future of rivers and the

7:10

communities that rely on them. This is part one, which we've

7:14

decided to call: Adam Huggins: Swimming Upstream.

7:23

Music: [Pensive, electronic music continues] Introduction voiceover: Broadcasting from Vancouver, British

7:27

Columbia, on the unseeded territories of the Musqueam,

7:30

Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples, this is Future

7:34

Ecologies. Where your hosts, Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski,

7:39

explore the future of human habitation on planet earth

7:43

through ecology, design, and sound.

7:48

Music: [Pensive electronic music fades out] Bill Tripp: [Voice tuned watery, eternal, above the sound of a

7:50

running stream] I'm from the spawning ground: it's the one

7:54

that we all know. At one time or another, we all swam from the

7:58

same hole. That's when my water broke, that's when my father's

8:02

broke. He said, when I was young, I was told know how the

8:07

water tastes, know which way it flows, feel the wind, know which

8:13

way it blows, learn from the animals, the birds and the bees.

8:19

Say a prayer for the homeground: the rivers, the rocks, the

8:23

mountains the oceans and trees.

8:31

[Indigenous Music

8:31

Music: [A thunderstorm break Mendel Skulski: Imagine for a second, that you are Pacific

8:39

salmon, far out at sea. You're King Salmon, also known as a

8:44

Chinook; Oncorhynchus , meaning hooked nose in Greek, chacha, a

8:49

Russian reference to Chinook. And I want you to imagine that

8:54

you're a king among King Salmon. You're five feet long, 100

8:59

pounds. And you've been terrorizing smaller fishes and

9:02

zooplankton in the North Pacific for over four years, since just

9:06

a few weeks after you hatched in a riffle, up some distant river

9:12

Every nautical mile you've swu has taken you further an

9:15

further from that river, ou into the unknown, the majesti

9:20

Northern Pacific Ocean. You'v spent years gorging on krill an

9:26

copepods, herring, and rockfish you've grown, you're plump, fat

9:32

and swimming free Music: [Indigenous Music fades out, replaced by tembling,

9:35

creeking music] Mendel Skulski: But something feels missing: you're the only

9:48

one of your hundreds of brothers and sisters who have survived

9:52

this far: most were eaten by something long ago. And your

9:58

parents died weeks before you hatched: you're completely

10:02

alone. But from the depths of that hole in your fishy heart,

10:07

there comes a faint remembrance. It stirs within you,

10:12

transforming your sadness, into conviction, your despondency, to

10:16

determination, your paralysis into motion. You are beginning

10:24

to great migration, the defining event of your existence, the

10:29

test of your strength and your fat reserves. You are returning

10:35

from whence you came. Adam Huggins: It's still a bit of a mystery how salmon do this,

10:54

but a recent publication on Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser

10:54

Music: [Tembling music resolves]

10:57

River suggests that salmon navigate their way towards the

11:00

river they were born in usi g, at least in part, the E

11:03

rth's magnetic field. From the e, it appears they use olfacto

11:08

y and other sensory clues t find their natal stream. But t

11:12

is is a mystery for anothe day. Today, I'm going to ask

11:15

ou to join me one more time n the Northwest corner of Cali

11:18

ornia known as the Klamath Kno . And this time, Senator Jeff M

11:23

rkley of Oregon is going to h lp me tell you all abo

11:27

Music: [Vibrant, "good-ol-days" fiddle music underscores] Media: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] Mr. President, I rise

11:31

tonight to tell you a tale about the Klamath Basin and share a

11:35

little bit of the vision. First, let me tell you about the

11:39

magical place that is the Klamath Basin. It's in Southern

11:42

Oregon and Northern California. It's an area of the country that

11:46

is rich with agricultural resources and exceptional

11:50

wildlife populations. Adam Huggins: And here to tell the story of the Klamath River,

11:54

local resident Erica Terrance. Erica Terrence: I'm Erica Terrence and I was born and

11:59

raised on the Salmon River, which is 15 miles from here, up

12:02

river. Adam Huggins: Erica is also the Outreach and Development

12:05

Coordinator for the Mid Klamath Watershed Council,

12:08

affectionately known as MKWC [Mik-wic]. Erica Terrence: The Klamath River Watershed starts in

12:12

Oregon, the headwaters are near Crater Lake and up in the Spray

12:18

and Williamson and Wood Rivers, near Klamath Falls area,

12:23

peloquin area, and it's really volcanic up there.

12:27

Adam Huggins: Volcanic as in, the Southern end of the Cascades

12:30

Volcanic Range, which extends from British Columbia in the

12:33

north, down through Western Washington and Oregon, to Lassen

12:37

National Park in California. Erica Terrence: Actually, that's part of what gives the water and

12:42

the upper Klamath is character, that was really good for Spring

12:45

Chinook Salmon. But mainly what you find is a lot of farming and

12:48

ranching communities up there. Media: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] The basin contains

12:51

approximately 1400 family farms and ranches encompasses over

12:56

200,000 acres of farmland irrigated with water from the

12:59

Klamath River and the Klamath Lake.

13:01

Adam Huggins: These farming and ranching communities live mostly

13:04

in what is referred to as, "The Upper Basin".

13:07

Erica Terrence: From a geographic perspective, I mean,

13:09

we often say the Klamath is-is an upside down river basin,

13:13

because unlike most river basins, it's, you know, pretty

13:17

flat and pretty deserty up in the top, and the further down

13:22

you go, the more densely vegetated, the wetter, the more

13:25

narrow the river canyon. Music: [Jumpy fiddle music is slowly overtaken by water

13:28

running over rocks] Adam Huggins: As the river flows out of the arid plateau of the

13:30

Upper Basin, it descends through a series of mountain ranges

13:34

known collectively as the North Coast or Klamath Ranges of

13:37

California. This includes the Marble Mountains, the Trinity

13:41

Alps, and the Siskiyous. This whole region is famous for its

13:45

incredible botanical diversity, and the lower basin is really

13:49

rugged, remote country. We've actually been there before in

13:52

Future Ecologies, in our recent mini-series "On Fire". So the

13:56

Klamath cuts its way through these mountains, until it

13:59

reaches the Pacific. Erica Terrence: And down near the mouth, you don't have a

14:03

really broad river delta, you have still a pretty tight little

14:06

bottleneck. Adam Huggins: When Erica says that the Klamath watershed is

14:10

upside down, what she means is that usually a river's

14:13

headwaters will be somewhere up in a mountain range, or

14:15

something, and begin as a narrow, winding stream, cutting

14:19

down through a canyon, before eventually winding its way

14:21

across a wide, flat plain, and emptying out in a broad delta

14:25

into the ocean. That's kind of the archetypical, hydrological

14:29

cycle version of a watershed. The Klamath sort of does the

14:32

opposite: that's one of the things that makes it special.

14:36

The plains are upstream, the mountains are downstream, and

14:39

smack dab in the middle: four major dams.

14:42

Music: [Running water is overtaken by a somber piano cord, piano continues underneath]

14:45

Erica Terrence: So then the Klamath River starts up in Southern Oregon and crosses the California/Oregon border, right

14:51

around where those large dams are in the system. So those

14:53

large dams bisect the whole watershed and block off more

14:58

than 100 miles of pretty good salmon habitat.

15:01

Adam Huggins: These four dams, Copco one and two, the J.C.

15:05

Boyle, and the Iron Gate, were constructed between 1918 and

15:09

1962, mostly to generate power for the region.

15:12

Erica Terrence: So it's about a 300 mile run of the Klamath

15:15

River, that's pretty long. Um, a lot of diverse interests, the

15:19

further down you come, you know, it starts out with all those

15:21

farming and ranching communities. Then you have the

15:24

Karuk Tribe's uppermost edge of their territory is Yreka

15:27

[wy-REE-ca], that's right around the border. And then, you know,

15:32

you get down to Happy Camps, ohms, Orleans, that's more the

15:36

center of our service area at MKWC, and that's a lot more

15:39

tribal communities, a lot more fishing communities, a lot more

15:43

watershed restoration going on. And that's really our economic

15:47

engine these days. And then when you get you know, out to the

15:49

mouth, that's Yurok Tribal Territory and a lot of timber

15:54

interests all down there. And out on the coast, you have

15:57

commercial fishermen, so when, you know, in the whole pitched

16:00

battle to remove dams, what you had often the narrative,

16:06

that-that came out about that was, you know, fishermen versus

16:09

farms . . .

16:12

. . . which is a pretty tough place to start.

16:19

Adam Huggins: So the long and short of it is, in the Lower

16:21

Basin, you have fishermen, the tribes: Karuk, Hoopa, and Yurok,

16:26

and small tight-knit communities of homesteaders and marijuana

16:29

growers in the mountains, and in the Upper Basin, farmers and

16:33

ranchers, and the Klamath Tribes as well, in between: dams. But

16:39

there's one more critical piece to this puzzle. Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] The Klamath

16:43

is sometimes referred to as the "Western Everglades". The basin

16:47

attracts 80% of the Pacific Flyway's waterfowl, and supports

16:52

the largest overwintering population of Bald Eagles

16:56

anywhere in the lower 48 states. It is also home to one of the

17:00

most productive salmon river systems in the country.

17:04

Adam Huggins: The Klamath historically hosted incredible

17:06

salmon runs, which the 49'ers and early settlers quickly began

17:11

capitalizing on, after giving up their search for gold.

17:13

Media: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] And of course, this region has a history long before settlers from the East came to

17:20

it. It was already inhabited by Native communities that had

17:23

lived in the Klamath Basin for 10,000 years, and who have a

17:28

deep connection to this amazing place.

17:31

Bill Tripp: Well, I mean, there's there's a lot to that.

17:34

Music: [Guitar joins deep, driving music] Adam Huggins: That, of course, is Bill Tripp, the Deputy

17:37

Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization for the Karuk

17:40

Tribe. We spoke to him in our mini series "On Fire". Before

17:45

the dams were built, all the tribes, up and down the river,

17:48

carefully coordinated the Salmon Harvest through First Salmon

17:52

Ceremonies. Bill Tripp: Before the Salmon Ceremony, at [Native Placename]

17:56

just up here and [Native Placename], before that no one,

18:00

no one else fished. And then you know, after that Ceremony was

18:04

done, then Runners would, would go down. And then the Yurok

18:10

would build their wier and then they would start fishing. But

18:15

that-that made sure that a lot of those first fish that could

18:18

make it farther in, through the system, could make it.

18:23

Adam Huggins: This way, enough of the healthiest fish made it

18:25

up river to spawn and ensure the future of the run. And then each

18:29

tribe would be able to harvest what it needed, ever mindful of

18:33

the needs of those tribes that were still upstream. At that

18:36

time, the salmon were so abundant that it was said you

18:39

could walk across the river- Erica Terrence: -on the backs of buffalo and that's a reference

18:42

to when people could walk across the rivers, you know, on the

18:46

backs of the salmon. They were so densely packed in the rivers

18:50

that . . . you could literally walk across.

18:53

Adam Huggins: It's hard to imagine today, that the salmon

18:55

were so thick, you could walk across the river on their backs.

19:01

And you can understand why, all of these tribes, all of these

19:04

people, relied heavily on salmon year-round. And even so, when

19:09

the settlers arrived, it seemed like there was just an unlimited

19:12

amount of fish. That is, of course, until the dams were

19:16

Music: [Deep driving music returns to running water] built. Erica Terrence: There were millions of salmon, right? And

19:19

now we're talking like, the number of salmon that are

19:24

supposed to get upstream and spawn is 29,000. And after

19:28

29,000, that's when they start allowing people to catch fish.

19:33

And so, you know, in a good year, you might have 60,000, or

19:36

something like that, but we often don't see good years. It's

19:40

such a small number, you know, tribal people can barely feed

19:44

their families and their elders are relying on fish from the

19:48

previous year from the freezer, sometimes which is so

19:52

demoralizing and demeaning and unjust. So it's it's really

19:57

quite a-quite a change. We've experienced the-the decline in

20:00

salmon populations is . . . affects everything here.

20:04

Bill Tripp: Just when I was a kid, it always just seemed like

20:06

we always had plenty, of salmon, but even then, from what I

20:11

understand, there's people told stories about, "I used to be

20:14

able to walk across the river on their backs", and-and I never

20:18

did-I remember seeing some really big fish caught, and they

20:22

end up like Alaska-size fish caught in the Klamath River,

20:27

[Indengious Placename] Falls and you just don't see that anymore.

20:30

I mean, but we did see a couple years there, I mean, when I was

20:34

young, I never did picture the whole walking across the rivers

20:38

on the backs thing. But there was a couple of years where I

20:42

saw you know, finally in my adult life, where-where, we saw

20:47

a one-one or two week window where-I was just-there were so

20:50

many fish-you can finally-I was like you can imagine what-what

20:54

that was, I mean, I try to . . . so many fish that you'd try to

20:59

dip 'em out of the falls and you couldn't even get your poles

21:01

down through them and it's like, you know, missing them all, and

21:04

you just wonder: how could I have missed that many fish? Yeah, you don't see that anymore.

21:10

Adam Huggins: And in the past few years, the bottom has fallen

21:13

out on those low populations. For their annual First Salmon

21:17

Ceremony, in 2017, for the first time, the Yurok tribe actually

21:21

had to purchase salmon for the event, from Alaska.

21:25

Music: [Fades to silence, then a deep, bubbly oceanic soundscape

21:30

rolls in] Mendel Skulski: It's been months out at sea, swimming slowly and

21:34

steadily towards your destination. And it hasn't been

21:37

easy avoiding roving pods of killer whales and the beckoning

21:40

hooks of longline fishermen. But at long last, you catch a

21:46

familiar scent. Music: [Rustic guitar cord, plays alongside the oceanic soundscape]

21:48

Mendel Skulski: Suddenly, you know this place, you've been here before, when you were just a smolt. And look, there's some

21:54

other salmon too! They look different; they must be Coho.

22:02

But over there, Chinook! They're all gathered in a big group

22:05

together at the mouth of the river, so you head towards them.

22:09

Music: [Soundscape and guitar are supersceeded by a frantic whirlwind] Mendel Skulski: But as you approach it becomes hard to

22:11

breathe-your gills seize up, and you start to overheat-frantic,

22:15

you struggle to reach the other Chinook, who are all gathered in

22:17

a pocket of cold, oxygenated water.

22:22

Music: [Whirlwind gives way to a steady, upbeat drumline] Adam Huggins: For most of the past few decades, stakeholders

22:27

in the Upper and Lower Basins of the Klamath River have been

22:30

locked in a series of caustic water wars.

22:34

Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] Now, let me tell you that the allocation of water in this basin has always

22:39

been a source of enormous tension between the farmers and

22:43

ranchers, the fishermen-both the in-stream fishermen and the

22:47

offshore fishermen-and the tribes. Tribes want to be

22:51

assured of their rights to continue fishing practices that

22:54

they have passed down from generation to generation for

22:57

thousands of years. Farmers and ranchers want to be sure that

23:01

they will have water they need to sustain their operations that

23:05

the families depend on for success. For decades, the

23:10

tension over water has been accentuated in times of drought,

23:15

culminating most famously in a standoff in 2001 that made

23:19

national news. During that 2001 drought, irrigation water for

23:24

the Klamath reclamation project was shut off [Sound of a valve

23:27

shifting] to protect endangered fish species. Thousands of

23:30

people gathered at Klamath Falls in sympathy with the farmers.

23:34

There was civil disobedience, and people were worried about

23:37

the possibility of violence. Vice President Cheney intervened

23:40

and guaranteed water deliveries, rather than fish protections,

23:43

and the result was the largest fish kill in US history.

23:47

Erica Terrence: Those guys upstream really, um, control a

23:52

lot of what happens downstream. Farmers were so concerned that

23:55

their crops would die off in such a drought year that they

23:59

turned off the head gates at the top dam in the system and

24:03

prevented water from coming downstream. And then, of course,

24:06

what resulted was this 2002 fish kill. The mainstem Klamath River

24:10

was so warm-and stressful for them-that they were looking for

24:16

that little bit of cold water with oxygen in it. And they were

24:21

also packed in so close together that they-you know-one got the

24:25

disease and they all got the disease, and it was close to

24:29

80,000 adult salmon that died. And when you put that in

24:33

perspective with the 29,000 number, it's really a big

24:37

Music: [Fades to silence] impact. Bill Tripp: Meanwhile, agriculture was still damaged;

24:42

families saw major losses and some had to sell their farms:

24:45

there were no real winners. At the time, many people thought

24:49

these issues were intractable, that the arguments and lawsuits

24:53

would continue interminably, perhaps for generations to come.

24:59

But a number of years years ago, a group of leaders in the

25:03

community had the boldness to start rethinking how they framed

25:09

their quest for water and the water wars.

25:12

Music: [Funky, bubbly water enters then gives way to the ocean soundscape]

25:20

Mendel Skulski: After what seems like a lifetime, you make it to

25:23

the group of salmon, and you can breathe again. The water is

25:27

cool, and there's enough oxygen to catch your breath. But as you

25:31

look around at the other salmon packed into this little lens of

25:34

water, you notice that they look stressed and ill. Something is

25:38

wrong. Their gills: they're red and swollen with little white

25:42

dots, and there's dead brown tissue around the edges. Panic

25:46

starts to set in. When suddenly a wave of cool water flows over

25:51

you, and the group disperses, headed upstream. You follow,

25:56

feeling a sense of relief in this moment, but also

25:59

Adam Huggins: When cool river water sits in reservoirs, in the

25:59

trepidation. Music: [Bubbles pitch shift up and give way to deep piano

26:02

sun, it heats up and can't hold as much oxygen. And in a drought

26:02

notes] year, when less water is coming downstream in the first place,

26:10

and water is still being diverted for agriculture and

26:12

industry, well, the temperature and oxygen levels in the

26:16

mainstem of the river become lethal. Even for strong,

26:20

relatively temperature tolerant Chinook Salmon. The fish are

26:23

forced to crowd into the mouths of creeks, where bubbles of cool

26:27

water can form. But crowding decreases oxygen levels even

26:31

further, and increases the odds of parasite and disease

26:35

transfer, which increases stress which increases the odds o

26:38

parasite and disease transfer and so on. High temperatures

26:43

low oxygen and stressed fis , packed into small areas crea

26:47

e conditions that favor the rap d spread of a parasite known

26:51

s White Spot. [Latin Binom al] , often known as Ich [Ick]

26:57

or short. Ich is a ciliate prot zoan, whose adult stage feeds

27:02

n the gills and skin of stresse fish, resembling a white spot.

27:07

It can kill fish within 30 d ys, if secondary infect

27:10

ons of columnaris-a fre hwater flavobacterium-don't fin

27:13

sh the job first. And this is xactly what happened in 2002.

27:20

ow, as it happened, the 2002 fi h kill coincided with t

27:24

e FERC relicensing process. Bas cally, dams need to be periodic

27:28

lly relicensed by the Federal nergy Regulatory Commit

27:29

Erica Terrence: Basically, I would say that the effort the

27:31

ee in Washington DC, to remain in use. And the four dams on the

27:36

Klamath, they have some probl ms, like they don't have fish

27:39

ladders, which are required b law. So they're vulnerable

27:43

And the Lower Basin communi y senses that, and takes the o

27:46

portunity to make a mov campaign to remove four dams on the Klamath started in 2001 when

27:58

the dams-the license for those dams-was up for renewal with the

28:01

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And the way that

28:04

this campaign really catalyzed was a bunch of tribes overcoming

28:08

their differences in this basin and saying, we're going to get

28:12

dams out and we need to work together to do it. And so, all

28:14

four tribes-who had some significant differences-took

28:17

this trip, to send a delegation to Scotland-right?-when those

28:21

dams were owned by Scottish Power. Music: [Distant B

28:23

Bill Tripp: Yes, I did go over there. That was, um,

28:26

interesting. Yes, if there was one thing I did, was I came up

28:31

with the idea to use recycled scotch barrels to cook our fish

28:35

with, cuz you can-couldn't find firewood. You don't really allow

28:40

open wood burning. And so, there's a ceremony on Calton

28:44

Hill in Edinburgh, where they, there's a Celtic ceremony every

28:50

year. And so, we end up getting permission from the Celtic

28:53

people to build a fire on their sacred fireplace, and we got

28:57

permission from the Scottish government to build the fire

29:01

there, to cook fish and feed the people. And so we did. We had a

29:05

bunch of wild Atlantic salmon and we built a fire. But we

29:08

couldn't find wood, and so they're like, wow, what are we

29:11

gonna do? What are we gonna do? And so, I guess that was

29:13

probably my, my contribution was, oh, and it would seem like

29:18

there would be recycled scotch barrels around here someplace.

29:21

[Laughs] And sure enough, the whole truckload of these little

29:26

oak, scotch-scotch soaked oak blocks, turned out pretty good.

29:31

But just talking to the people there. Out in front of the

29:34

shareholders meeting for Scottish power, was you know,

29:39

people were coming up and taking our fliers and one person said,

29:44

he said, "You know what? I'm on. I want one of those". And he

29:48

said, "You know why I want one?". I said, "Why?". He said,

29:52

"Because these things happen all the time, but usually when they

29:57

do, this whole place is littered with flyers". He said, "I walked

30:02

up and down the street a couple times while you guys went out

30:05

here and I haven't seen a single one on the ground, so I want to

30:07

know what you have to say". And I thought that was pretty

30:10

interesting. So, it seemed like it was really, really well

30:14

received from the people in that place.

30:17

Music: [Bagpipes fade away, a deep voice singing in an opera-like fashion fades in] Erica Terrence: And Scottish Power was so . . . uncomfortable

30:20

under the microscope that they sold off that, you know,

30:24

albatross as fast as they could, to MidAmerican Energy, which

30:29

owns PacifiCore, which is, MidAmerican energy is owned by

30:32

Berkshire Hathaway, owned, majority of the shares, owned by

30:35

Warren Buffett. Adam Huggins: This sale was a major early victory for the

30:39

tribes. But initially, the new owner, PacifiCore, isn't super

30:44

excited about the idea of taking out the dams. After all, they

30:48

just bought them. So it seems like to bring PacifiCore to the

30:51

table, the stars have to align, which isn't exactly what

30:55

happens. Instead, Hell freezes over. After the break . . .

31:00

Music: [Music reaches a conclusion and fades out, break]

31:10

Adam Huggins: So remember that FERC relicensing process? Well,

31:14

that process catalyzed a series of discussions between . . .

31:18

very unlikely bedfellows. [Escalating, industi Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] Individuals

31:21

representing parts of the community that had often been

31:25

bitter enemies together, and they were talking about sitting

31:28

down and hammering out a different vision for the future.

31:33

To replace the lose/lose water battles of the past with

31:37

something different. Erica Terrence: It was a large group of stakeholders-out of

31:41

necessity-that had to be at the table for that process. So it

31:44

was, you know, the four major tribes so, Yurok, Hoopa, Ka

31:47

Music: [Music shines through with electronic, stellar tones]

31:49

uk, Klamath tribes at the t ble, commercial fishing interest

31:53

, and sport fishing interests, h ndful of environmental gro

31:56

ps-or conservation groups-wha ever you want to call

31:58

hem, government agencies, State, Federal Bureau of Indian

32:03

ffairs, BLM, BOR, Bureau of Rec amation had a lot to say abo

32:07

t it, because they're so ent enched in how water is managed i

32:08

Erica Terrence: So that was a lot of pretty . . . diverse

32:10

the West, of course, the US Fis and Wildlife Service, they're r

32:13

ally involved in all the biolo ical opinions about what s

32:17

lmon need in rivers, and th n of course, agricultural inter

32:20

sts were at the table too so you had federal irrigatio

32:23

districts, and you had indivi ual farming and ranching inte

32:27

ests a needs and interests.

32:39

Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] Leaders from many different parts of the community, sitting down

32:42

together, because as they said to me, you know, Senator, the

32:46

only folks who are winning right now, are the lawyers.

32:51

Erica Terrence: A lot of things went out on the table pretty

32:54

quickly, right? I mean, for example, PacifiCore doesn't want

32:57

any liability for removing dams, and the US Fish and Wildlife

33:01

Service has legal obligations to protect salmon. But they're

33:06

also, you know, responsible for having created these federal

33:08

irrigation districts and kind of caring for those irrigation

33:12

districts' interests. And obviously, tribes had already

33:16

been fighting tooth and nail and had, you know, for more water in

33:19

the river: enough to prevent fish kills, like the one that

33:21

happened in 2002. Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] As we say, in

33:25

the West, "Whiskey: that's for drinking and Water: that's for

33:29

fighting". But these folks said, we are going to pursue a

33:33

different path. And I pledged that if they were able to

33:37

develop a solution, I would do everything I could at the

33:40

federal level to help implement it.

33:43

Erica Terrence: So when I got in there, even though I had grown

33:46

up here and was familiar with the place, in some ways, and the

33:49

communities in some ways, was just a whole new world of a lot

33:54

of lessons in politics, like a crash course in politics, and

33:57

you know, I spent a lot of time listening and kind of

33:59

interviewing people at the breaks, you know, we would like break for a caucus, for all the environmental groups to get on

34:04

the same page or the tribal reps or-or the Ag guys to figure out

34:09

how they wanted to respond to something and I would be busy,

34:12

like pulling people aside and just trying to understand their

34:14

perspectives to the point where I can form my own opinion about

34:17

is the settlement good? Is it bad? Is it good enough? Like I

34:21

said, they were not without contention. I ultimately raised

34:25

the money and hired a couple of hydrologists to analyze those

34:29

water models to make sure that there would be enough water in

34:32

the river for fish. And we're running these really complex

34:34

models to try to figure out how can we come up with water?

34:39

Additional water, basically. Right? And, you know, a lot of

34:43

the negotiating gets done at the bar, afterwards. It was a big

34:47

lesson. Yeah. I mean, you know, a lot of that is about building

34:52

trust, and you know, if you if you are going to the bar with

34:55

the guy that used to be your enemy, you can;t probably

34:58

completely hate him. You know, It's really about like, finding

35:03

the inefficiencies in the system, you know, you can't

35:05

like, make more water, and whether there's enough to go

35:08

around . . . it has partly to do with how much you trust each

35:11

other and how much you're willing to like, talk to your

35:13

neighbor and take less than you think you should get just so the

35:18

other guy gets by too. Adam Huggins: But even with the stakeholders willing to take

35:22

risks and come together to manage the system, collectively,

35:26

there was still no guarantee that there'd really be enough

35:29

water to support the salmon. Erica Terrence: You need a minimum flow, there's like a

35:33

floor number for fish to survive. And fish biologists at

35:38

the tribes were looking at that and saying it's really not about

35:40

the number, it's about getting the fluctuation in the

35:43

hydrograph. Right? So you need the big water years in the

35:47

winter to scour out the disease, the algae on the rocks, and to

35:52

rearrange all the gravels that fish are going to spawn in, and

35:55

to blow certain holes out, and build gravel bars and rock bars

35:59

and other places, and create structure and complexity in the

36:02

stream channel. That's really essential.

36:06

Music: [Music fades out and is replaced by a river flowing over rocks] Mendel Skulski: You're swimming up river now, and the water is

36:12

just bearable. It's tough going, but this is what you were born

36:16

to do. And every fiber of your being is bent on working your

36:19

way upstream, back to that riffle where you first came into

36:22

the world. Music: [Weird synthy noises fade in] Mendel Skulski: Suddenly though, the water around you is filled

36:26

with big chunks of green goo, giving the water and ugly smell

36:30

and clouding up the way forward. As you swim, little bits of it

36:35

break off and hang on your scales, trailing behind you.

36:38

It's coating all of the rocks along the side of the river, and

36:42

even spreading into the central flow. Music: [Resolves with gentle gong noise, as ruminating, tonal

36:52

music backdrops] Adam Huggins: Toxic algae blooms have become a pretty common

36:55

occurrence in the Klamath River. Locals are used to being able to swim in the river in the springtime, but by June, the

36:58

algae builds up to levels they make the river pretty uninviting. Most folks will head to cooler tributaries to swim in

37:01

the summertime, the same places where Coho Salmon tend to find

37:05

refuge from the higher temperatures that exist in the

37:08

main stem of the river. Erica Terrence: And a water quality problem that became a

37:12

centerpiece of the campaign to get the dams out was this toxic

37:15

algae, this bright green-microcystis aeruginosa is

37:19

the Latin name for it-and it's an algae bloom that produces a

37:23

liver toxin, a hepatotoxin. And that can effect, a person, a

37:28

dog, a deer-drinking from the river-a fisherman, whatever, you

37:33

know, and it isn't something that will kill you right away,

37:35

but it bio accumulates in your liver and can take years off

37:39

your life. That algae species was found at levels 4000 times

37:45

higher than the World Health Organization said was a moderate

37:48

health risk. Because of solar radiation in those reservoirs,

37:52

it's just a bathtub environment, right? It's the perfect

37:55

conditions for that algae to thrive. You might get a little

37:58

bit of it in a free flowing wild river, you know, but a very

38:02

minimal amount and then it's-it's filtering itself a lot

38:04

more, right? Sometimes you look at that river and you know you

38:07

wouldn't want to get in it. You don't have to be a water quality

38:10

scientists or work with the World Health Organization to

38:12

know like, Nope! I should not swim in that.

38:20

Adam Huggins: After years of negotiations-almost a decade-in

38:24

2010, this large group of stakeholders come to an

38:27

agreement that they can all get behind.

38:29

Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] So these stakeholders have developed a collaborative agreement and

38:33

signed it, called the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, or

38:36

KBRA. The irrigators commit to reducing the total amount of

38:40

water they take from the river, through a variety of

38:43

conservation practices. They're working collaboratively with the

38:46

community and these tribes to restore habitat. In exchange,

38:50

they get certainty and predictability for guaranteed

38:52

amounts of water. The tribes, and conservation groups, and

38:56

fishing organizations agree to stop challenging these

39:00

irrigators' water allocations, in exchange, they get a

39:03

community partner to restore natural resources that are of

39:06

cultural and economic importance to the tribe, and to help them

39:10

reacquire some of the land they last 50 years ago; complementing

39:15

all of this and augmenting the natural resource restoration, is

39:19

a plan to remove four antiquated dams and open up new habitat for

39:23

fish. Adam Huggins: Around the same time, PacifiCore decides that

39:26

taking out all the dams is in its best interest as well.

39:29

Media: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] The private utility that

39:31

owns these dams, agrees that the best business decision is to

39:37

remove these dams. So this is a win-win situation, or actually a

39:44

win-win-win-win situation.

39:46

Adam Huggins: Everything is set, the agreements are made. All

39:49

that needs to happen now is congressional approval.

39:53

Music: [Fades out] Erica Terrence: So the agreements needed congressional

39:57

approval because some of the parties to the agreements were

40:01

federal agencies, right? Adam Huggins: This was in 2010, the year Republicans took the

40:06

house on the back of the Tea Party, and Congress decided to

40:09

obstruct pretty much everything.

40:11

Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] The development of the Klamath Basin restoration agreement is a

40:14

historic step forward for the region, and if it were already

40:20

in place, it would provide a powerful set of collaborative

40:25

tools for dealing with droughts, for dealing with years when

40:29

there is a shortage of water . . . But Congress has not yet

40:33

acted. And those tools are not in place.

40:37

Adam Huggins: So again, that was Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon

40:40

trying to convince Congress in 2010 to support the agreement,

40:44

but no dice. Erica Terrence: Some of the major roadblocks were these very

40:47

ideological, entrenched folks in Siskiyou County...

40:51

Music: [Ride of the Valkyires Returns] Erica Terrence: ...who support dams on principle and even

40:54

though these dams are hydroelectric dams, they don't

40:56

provide any irrigation water, they don't provide any flood

40:59

control, in fact, probably the opposite. They're kind of risky.

41:02

They're still very opposed to dam removal, and I don't see

41:06

that changing anytime soon. Some of them, their-their parents or

41:10

their grandparents worked on building those dams. And it's

41:14

just very hard to let go of dams representing progress, and, you

41:18

know, there's that myth of dam-I mean, there are good dams and

41:22

bad dams, for sure, on a much smaller scale, dams can be fine.

41:25

But that myth of, you know, clean, green energy coming from

41:29

dams of this size, and that, that power is easily replaceable

41:33

by energy that would be at least as clean and green, much cleaner

41:37

and greener, in fact. Adam Huggins: And so, these vocal constituents and their

41:41

Republican representatives in Congress, were able to prevent

41:44

congressional ratification of the deal in 2010, and 2011, and

41:49

2012, 2013, 2014, and finally, in 2015, time had run out for

41:57

the KBRA. The deal was set to expire completely if Congress

42:01

ignored it again. And just imagine this agreement, with

42:05

roots in a historic water crisis and fishkill, at the dawn of the

42:09

new millennium, that has been painstakingly hammered out, and

42:12

finally signed in 2010, nearly a decade later, this agreement

42:17

sitting for five years in Congress, while the original

42:20

stakeholders experienced drought year, after brutal drought year

42:23

on the Klamath, and with fish populations dwindling, this

42:28

agreement was about to fall apart. Here's Senator Merkley in

42:32

2014 making his final, desperate appeal:

42:35

Bill Tripp: [Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon] The Energy and Natural Resource committee voted the bill out of committee

42:38

on a bipartisan basis. The Klamath County Chamber of

42:42

Commerce has endorsed the bill, the Klamath County Farm Bureau

42:46

has endorsed the bill, the Klamath County Cattlemen's

42:49

Association, and the Statewide Oregon Cattlemen's Association

42:53

have endorsed the bill. The Klamath Falls City Council has

42:57

endorsed the bill, and the Oregon Water Resources Congress

43:00

has endorsed the bill, the Senate has been ready to act.

43:06

But the US House of Representatives has not. And so

43:11

here we are, in the last days of this Congress, unable to

43:15

complete this bill. They have done everything we could have

43:19

ever asked the group to do to prepare for this legislation to

43:23

be passed. But that cannot last forever, Congress has to act to

43:27

seal the deal. Without cooperation, this vision so

43:34

carefully, diligently, and painfully constructed over a

43:38

years of involvement by community stakeholders will fall

43:42

apart. This opportunity might not come again.

43:47

Adam Huggins: And Congress did nothing.

43:50

Music: [The final note of the Ride of the Valkyries plays [ before a quick fade to silence] Mendel Skulski: Muscles burning, you forge ahead through algae

44:02

filled water, you've avoided parasites, predators, and

44:06

suffocation. You are a King among King Salmon, after all.

44:11

And as you swim, you imagine the beautiful gravel beds in the

44:14

tributary stream where you hatched. You imagine the mates

44:18

that you'll find there, and the thousands of fertilized eggs

44:21

you'll produce together. Music: [Quick bubbly noise]

44:23

Mendel Skulski: You imagine- Music: [Silence] Adam Huggins: But you're gonna have to hold that thought,

44:30

because the dams are still there. Erica Terrence: Well, as I said, fish can no longer get to that

44:36

upper 100 plus miles of habitat. It's really great habitat,

44:41

especially for Spring Chinook, a lot of tributaries that they

44:43

would have utilized quite a bit. Adam Huggins: So for now, everything is hanging in the

44:48

balance. Erica Terrence: For right now, what we're doing is this kind of

44:51

stopgap, like keep Coho alive by building them these little ponds

44:55

that they can survive in! You know, but ultimately, what we

44:58

need is this bigger scale work, you know, that can only happen

45:01

with dam removal. Adam Huggins: But there is some hope on the horizon. And next

45:05

episode, we're heading up to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington

45:09

to see what might be possible for rivers like the Klamath.

45:12

Music: [Morphed bubbles, then an upbeat, confident jam fades in

45:18

Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski: [simultaniously] Jump! [Splash]

45:19

Adam Huggins: 1-2-3: Adam Huggins: Thanks for listening. We'll be back in a

45:26

couple of weeks. Please tell everyone you know, subscribe,

45:30

rate, and review the show, wherever podcasts can be found.

45:33

It really helps us get the word out. Mendel Skulski: In this episode, you heard: Ryan Hilperts, Erica

45:39

Terrance, Bill Tripp, and Senator Jeff Merkley via c-span.

45:44

Adam Huggins: This has been an independent production of Future Ecologies. Our first season is supported, in part, by the

45:49

Vancouver Foundation. If you'd like to help us make the show,

45:52

you can support us on Patreon. We have a whole series of

45:55

mini-episodes available to our supporters. To get access to

45:58

them, head to Patreon.com/FutureEcologies. Mendel Skulski: You can also follow us on Facebook,

46:04

Instagram, and iNaturalist. The handle is always Future

46:08

Ecologies. [Music relaxes into a gentle, guitar rhythm] Adam Huggins: Special thanks to Jose Isordia, Kirsty Johnstone

46:14

Munroe Cameron, Ilana Fonariov, and Andrjez Kozlowski.

46:18

Mendel Skulski: Music in this episode was produced by: Brian

46:20

D. Tripp, Loam Zoku, Kieran Fearing, Sour Gout, the Western

46:26

Family String Band... Adam Huggins: ...the Clan Stewart Pipe Band...

46:30

Mendel Skulski: ...and Sunfish Moonlight. You can find a full

46:33

list of musical credits, show notes, and links on our website:

46:37

FutureEcologies.net. Adam Huggins: Finally, we'd like to extend our extra special

46:43

thanks to Skyler Lindbergh and Vincent van Haaff for untangling

46:47

some seriously garbled audio for us. We could not have done this

46:51

episode without you. Thank you. Music: [Guitar plays out into the jumping-into-the-water audio

46:59

from earlier, people can be heard treading water] Adam Huggins: Oh Barnacles! Oh that was great

47:10

Unknown: Yeah! Adam Huggins: I feel so

47:14

Mendel Skulski: [Laughs] Adam Huggins: I feel so good

47:17

Female Voice: [Cries out as they leap into the water] Sorry! I

47:21

keep forgetting I'm not supposed to make noise. I think I've just

47:24

been introduced on your podca-[Laughs] Mendel Skulski: Did you scream during the jump?

47:28

Female Voice: Yes! [Unintelligible] Unknown: [All laugh] Adam Huggins: Oh my god.

47:34

Female Voice: We'll have to do it again then Mendel Skulski: I could do that one more. You've already done it

47:38

once Female Voice: Okay, I'll be quiet