I would love to see some videos like this of the river delta as well to see how it transforms over the next couple of years. The ammount of sediment the Elwah moved was mind blowing and it is small compared to the Kalamath.
This river enters the ocean at a place called Remus. You can also google Yurok Tribal Klamath river restoration. There are quite a few videos out there.❤
The Klamath is kind of the opposite of most rivers in that it has a fan shaped wide and flat area at its headwaters and a pretty small delta that pops out of the mountains right into the ocean. Hopefully the headwaters will see salmon again one day and the river can heal
Thanks. Great footage. I love seeing the washed gravel in the main stream bed. I'm curious to see what happens after the 1st big wash. I would imagine the silt will shrink back as the water drains from it. I was there 3 weeks ago. I will come back in the spring.
When Nature reclaims it, its going to be magnificently Beautiful! The solid is extremely rich. Once it dries up some the transformation will be nothing short of amazing. What and see!
Can you elaborate? everyone is saying this but its simply not true. I can't figure out if everyone is perpetuating a falsehood or if they just comment without knowing the facts . Do you know there are still dams upstream that hold back far more acre feet that copco and iron gate combined?
@gisdp99 oh there wasnt one solution that would fix decades of ecological destruction? well then we better not do anything at all. after these dams are gone there will be hundreds of miles of river accessible once again to anadromous fish and much better habitat for trout "The four dams don’t provide flood control or irrigation. They generate a small amount of hydropower, which will be replaced using renewables and efficiency measures. In 2008, the Public Utilities Commissions in Oregon and California concluded that removing the dams, (instead of spending more than $500 million to bring the dams up to modern standards), would save PacifiCorp customers more than $100 million. It will also improve water quality - currently, toxic algae in the reservoirs behind the dams threaten the health of people as well as ecosystems. This dam removal and river restoration effort will be one of the most significant the world has ever seen. Never have four dams of this size been removed at once. These dams inundate many miles of habitat (4 square miles and 15 miles of river length) and block access to more than 400 miles of habitat for salmon and other species. "
Your stupid electric cars pull as much power as 1800 homes in the hour it takes to charge them. Your solar panels from China won't cut it. Plus they are far worse for the environment. You people are destroying the earth not helping it.
@@gisdp99 yes, that is correct, there are still dams up river controlling the amount of water supplied to the river. However, by reestablishing the river channels, the water flows will more closely reflect historical activities of the water patterns along the river drainage area. Hopefully, it reopens access to habitat for fish and native wildlife. I have looked at some studies where salmon producing rivers have been restored in Washington and the results over a 10 to 20 year period have been very impressive with unexpected wide area benefits for the overall drainage basin. And I have personally seen a couple of rivers where the returning native fish populations have occurred. And a couple where they have been decimated. There are policies in place which require those up river dams to provide water releases into the rivers to protect stream flows and protect the water temperature levels.
My brother has a place right near the Elwha . Huge difference between NW Washington and the upper Klamath, one is basically a rainforest and the other is basically a desert. Water is what restores these drainages, so if it takes 10 year in Washington I would expect 100 years around the Copco area. I am not exactly saying that the difference in time makes it less viable but it changes perceptions for sure. @@americanrambler4972
That silt is mostly decayed algae. I bet it's super nutrient rich, just like river bottom land everywhere. I bet the replanting efforts will work really well. I hope the native species can out-compete any invasive's.
Not necessarily true I rember when they dredged the klamath at keno oregon all that material was dredged and pumped on farm ground 50 years ago and the soil will not grow a thistle. To this date.
@@tomharris3486metals.... I think the mighty Alder can pull it off though! If Shasta erupted the river would look like this- it's only a geological event. Alder, lupine, fireweed, are going to be major players to watch...
@@JL-ln1gz Well I am not a soil scientist. I'm sure that material has been sampled and analyzed. I'm just speculating on the fact that the richest, most nutrient rich, best all around soil, doesn't occur on steep hillsides, it always occurs in river bottoms where the river has been depositing that rich soil for a long time. Why don't you do a little research into who has analyzed the lake bed, and what their findings were? I'd be interested to know.
Meant to be? Who dictated that? The house you may live in...was that "meant" to be? The roads you drive on or the power plant juicing your internet access device...were they "meant" to be? Or just everything that serves your personal purpose and desires?
A *huge* amount of land back in the open air again! In 2-3 years or so, after this land has had some revegetation and a couple of summers to dry it out a bit, it'll look amazing!
Looks to me like the lake was almost filled with sediment anyway. It was close to becoming a meadow. Sort of like the same thing that happens with beaver dams.
it had 300 year to go before sediment would have made it inoperable as a energy storage facility. Perhaps you should look at photos of the area prior to the lake being filled, it looks very similar
can you post a link? I was with the Pacificorp crew as well as the Swiftwater film crew when they blew the dam. I let them cross our property to access the viewpoint. Then engineer in charge of the copco power plant was there and he said they were literally making power as we watched. you could see the water leaving the base of the powerplant, and the turbines were spinning. @@chazman4461
We took out the Ballville dam in Ohio and within the first year we were catching fish above the oil dam area that hadn’t been in that part of the river for decades.
Growing up made alot of dams .i knew as a young boy dams were all temporary. Fish are so much more important than a dead lake i wish i could buy all the people land who are upset about what they think they lost but i cant i have been to walker tubed down the river before the fire i felt so many good souls there i wish to go there again with the fish
The lakes supported far more life than the river ever will. Many are of the belief that the lake life wasn't supposed to be there, and because of this in their (your) mind it has no value. Go knock on some doors and I am sure you will find people wanting to sell. If people really believed what has been told about how this will turn out then developers and speculators would be all over the place. They are not. The upper reaches of the klamath has always been a dirty little river, even before Keno and Link river dams. The lower klamath is a different story with the clean flows coming down out of the trinity's and such. Will it look better than this? of course. Will it be what most people have envisioned? no.
@@gisdp99 I believe the 2002 fish kill alone killed far more life than the lakes held and supported, and that was only one year of many that had massive fish kills and toxic river water from the toxic algae in the lakes and warm river water, also from the lakes. I fished the lower and middle Klamath from 95 until 2003. I largely stopped when toxic algae in the water started killing dogs. It was gorgeous above Witchipec where the Trinity comes in, and still crystal clean above the Salmon River confluence back in the day. If it’s a dirty little river these days, that’s more reason to pull the dams, not keep them. I do think part of the restoration funds should go to offer buyouts of any lake adjacent properties that want out…then make that public land. I think it would be short sighted to sell property adjacent to what should be a world class salmon River in under a decade, but the next few years will be unpleasant so I get it why some want out.
Adore this is happening. Beautiful to see what is hopefully soon to be planted with native species of groundcover, understory and lower, middle and upper canopy trees. It's high desert, so there is a far less vegetation than further west or northwest.
River is returning pretty quickly. Why is there no official statements from City of Yreka on this project? Why no statements from Congressmen LaMalfa and Bentz?
Seeing the amount of silt there, I wonder how the assumed volume of the reservoir compares to what was really held back. I think the actual would be way less than the calculated.
So happy this is finally happening.. my grandpa Charlie fought for the dams coming down his whole life! Fought so my son could see a flowing river like his grandparents saw.. time for the land to heal itself with our help shaping it how we use to!
It will erode very quickly wherever it can. This will all be green with grass and other low groundcover by spring 2025, the first wave of revegetation.
Hope you go back after this storm. I'm wondering how long it will take to remove a hundred years of sediment. I'm thinking it will be pretty quick. But that's just a guess. The river is going to be brown like the Mississippi for a bit.
Beautiful. Amazing. Going to be so wonderful when all the native grasses and shrubs grow back. Wish I owned land along that fake lake so I could bare witness to the rebirth of a fertile river valley. Glad it's in the history books now. Let's get the rest of them taken down.
Where did you get that information? Never heard that and we own property adjacent to wards canyon and on the former lake. My understanding is the state will own it and it will be mostly public land@@hallamphoto
@@gisdp99 It's just hearsay. I heard the land will be given to the state first then returned to the tribes. I don't have an official source for this information but it is what I've heard from multiple individuals. It may or may not be accurate.
@@hallamphotoOf course Commiefornia is giving land to people that don’t deserve it. I expect nothing less from that shit hole state. What they should actually do is regenerate the forest and eventually make it public land so people will have opportunities to fish, camp, hunt, and enjoy the outdoors.
@@ssvocals It actually does. It has been done multiple times. Within a year it will start to grow in and the banks will set up and harden. There are plenty of projects that occured where you can research this.
I mean, yes, but to the mostly retirees who live around the lake- a 20 year fishing moratorium is the rest of their lives. Lets not get too cavalier about the renewal process, or the time that it will take before any of this is a public recreation area again. Worth it- absolutely. Blip, no. There will be a few thousand people who will individually "pay the price" for all of us.
Sorry. I got ahead of myself. Sockeye salmon do spawn in lakes. But they are more likely to spawn in riverbeds. The point of this restoration is to get salmon above the dams in to rivers and streams that they have lost access to over the decades these dams have been built.
The same process happened at the Elwha dams near Port Angeles, WA, in 2011-2012. About a decade later the vegetation was regrowing and the river was running clear-- and the fish came back. czcams.com/video/ZO7JsfITQhE/video.html
Some fish are coming back but Chinook are still struggling. The hatchery on the lower river needs to be broodstocking some of those wild Chinook so the surplus hatchery fish can spawn with the other fish upriver and meet recovery goals.
@gisdp99 and 85% of the traditional Chinook spawning habitat on the Snake River happened between Hells Canyon and Shoshone Falls where migration ended naturally. Hardly a rainforest!
my point had to with recovery and dispersion of silt. Lots of flushing of the Elwha because of...lots of rainfall. Very different from the upper Klamath.@@brianjohnston4207
I might recommend czcams.com/video/PAHBr6yPPdU/video.htmlsi=RnQaUvykxJBL_o67 One piece that is a little out of date concerns pinks. The 2021 run was finally a little bigger. The 2023 run increased over that. Pinks in the Elwha only run in odd years. The original discussions about pinks were largely incorrect. Dam removal took a couple decades longer than originally thought. In the mean time the remnant pink populations largely collapsed. They now appear to finally be on an upward trajectory. Another pink salmon generation or two should make clear if this is really true.
There is a magical agate land up in those hills, where you can sit with a bucket and not move and pick up 50lbs in a matter of minutes. Those creeks should be amazing rock hunting.
This will be pretty ugly for probably 3 to 5 years, but as the new ground cover starts to become reestablished, this is going to return to being a beautiful valley. Question is, is it going to to turn into an area of urban sprawl due to the large amount of flat land now uncovered.
The lakefront people that are pissed are going to get the best "riverfront" land ever.....just be patient. I would go cold plunge in that New River everyday.
I heard the resivoirs are already dry and it’s only March. lol claiming a lot about gold, it doesn’t rain for 9 whole months out of the year around here and some years there’s no rain at all. This is a strange idea
Disgusting ploy to enable gold silver copper platinums renditioning ecological science’ void from literature, out of the public’s eyes. There are none, it’s to enable a global monopoly on geopolitical settings that move vast amounts of gold across continents of which have massive die offs, granted the current status of their lands is only marginally better but yet is on the Atlantic and assume the right of Africas shadow, Africa being the birthplace of all life clearly, and has a gold deposit record and life abundance and experience that proves that. So all things considered only a couple countries rule the gdp gaps by 50% or more and approach scales of magnitude with the rest of Europe, basically it’s a vote and lifetime lost to 40 years ago and bizarre to say the least.😮
Thank you for posting this video. I wonder if the river is following it's original route. And that silty mud will take decades for vegetation to take hold.
@@DaggerMax1 I was referring to vegetation beyond just grass and shrubs. Native trees will struggle in this compact nutrient deficient muck. I love you
Um I get the free flowing river. But since the lake front property that I used to own is now at the edge of a nice little prairie type of land, can I claim it to the river bank? I don’t want a bunch of people thinking they’re gonna trot down the driveway and go fishing in a now owned by the city or county park type area.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those whose vacation cabins’ resale value has been affected, lol. In all seriousness, this is wonderful and a step in the right direction. I am looking forward to seeing the renewal of this area as time goes by.
really? I haven't seen that happening. For some reason they are paying tribe members to stomp around in the mud with sacks of seed hand casting it about. Seems super efficient. @@hallamphoto
@@gisdp99 hand seeding is about 2x as efficient as helicopter seeding in terms of germination success. That's why. Helicopters will be used for some hard to access areas, however.
Within a few years the area will be beautiful with greenery all around. Greatly improved from those mostly ugly dams that were there that did not produce that much power.
This river will someday be alive again. For now and many years into the future it will be dead from the gross amount of sediment released into it from erosion.
Floods do the same thing in a very short time period and fish still survive. It will come back a lot faster than anyone thinks. This has been proven on other projects.
There's already been Several properties that have lost their wells in Copco Lake There's No one stepping up to help these people with cost to redrill there Wells. It took Millions To tear it down. The least they can do help The residents get there water back. There won't be Fishing in the Klamath River for decades. This was a big mistake.
@@tombeno8746 keep preaching the environmental lobby's talking points Warren Buffet and his investors appreciate all that you do. Also when Oregon and Northern California start burning in the wildfire season and there is no water to fight the fires how will you feel?
All those people who built houses next to a beautiful lake now have a scene of ugly mud and maybe a tiny creek. There went the land value of your house.
Its amazing how many people don't realize the water ways have been moved a bazillion times. Man uses it for everything. Needs it. The cobbles under their houses show they live where the river once was. 😂 this in 15 years will be thriving. In 40 years have thousands of homes in thicket woods next to a pristine river. Its beautiful seeing the river carve its way. Finding bedrock. Leaving behind crevases of gold. #livetheadventure #goprospecting #miketheminer #dirtnerd
I would expect to see dying green underwater plants? Was that silt contaminated? All I see is remnants of trees, It looks like a barren muddy lifeless place
And the fossil fueled power plants that must take up the slack left by the absence of the hydroelectric installations will wreck the environment even MORE.
The concept is good but the implementation without removing the toxic clay sludge has now created an ecological disaster. In addition the water tested is toxic and has been tested and is above EPA levels on many fronts. This is also compromising wells downstream. The clay sludge is cementing the salmon reds and habitat from the source to the ocean, all being documented. This is not speculation. Weekly updates are discussed on the Bob Simms outdoor show.
Not true at all. Perhaps you should look at some photos from before the dams were built- topography is very much the same. Engineer in charge of the reservoir told me their calculations had it at 300 more years before silting would be an issue.
I am surprised that they are demolishing dams in the midst of droughts, lack of energy and population growth (they are embarking immigrants as in 1800). Do they have any plans to replace the water and energy they stopped storing when the river was released? I understand that the dike was soaked with silt and required maintenance and cleaning... but tear it down? Won't they need it later?
Newsom is fast tracking the Sites dam in the Sac valley, and coming up here to talk about how dams are terrible ect.... Just follow the money. Once this generation has passed and a new group of special interests and politicians are in place they will be celebrating the ground breaking of a new dam in this very spot- a proper modern dam that balances human needs as well as the salmon. These dams powered around 70,000 homes. There is a 3100 acre solar farm being proposed in Kansas that would supply 70,000 homes. If they replace this with Nuclear then maybe that is a good trade, solar or wind? Nope. We need a diverse mix of power generation. It will be interesting to see if they use the remaining dams upstream to regulate flows to help support salmon when the river dries up during drought years. For sure the farmers up in the upper klamath basin are going to get their water taken. Shorting the Upper Klamath (Klamath Falls) Economy would be a smart play.
@@tombeno8746 aren't you just repeating some propaganda that you heard from some environmental lobby? In truth the group behind this removal project has figured out a cheap way to remove dams ignoring environmental hazards so that they can rake in enormous profits. This is not about what is good for the environment it is what is good for making the super wealthy even more money.
Hey, it's Carson here. Who's going to pay to repair the old water bank erosion? also, the deeds say your property line is at the high water mark, does that mean your property extends to the river? Interesting to see. one last thing, are the tribes going to take control of the lake lands and are there plans to build? I see grasses are being planted, What is going to be done about fire mitigation?
Horrible they removed such a beautiful lake. Copco lake supported so much wildlife and the population in the area for residents, farming, tourists, etc. Why aren't the environmentalists in an uproar about all the countless species of fish (salmon, trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, carp, etc) and countless wildlife that died or was negatively affected in the process of removing Copco lake? I highly doubt that removing four dams will boost the salmon populations that much and they are spending 800 million to do it.
That's why they're doing this in winter; there aren't that many fish in the river right now, so it minimizes the damage, and all this rain will help clean out the silt that much faster. You know how it is with cleaning up messes; it gets worse before it gets better.
Why the sad music? The Klamath River runs free again. Al that silt will soon be grassy meadow as the forest creeps back to the river's edge.With a little help, the salmon will return as well. Rejoice1 What was once "impounded" is now freee and natural.
I would love to see some videos like this of the river delta as well to see how it transforms over the next couple of years. The ammount of sediment the Elwah moved was mind blowing and it is small compared to the Kalamath.
This river enters the ocean at a place called Remus. You can also google Yurok Tribal Klamath river restoration. There are quite a few videos out there.❤
The Klamath is kind of the opposite of most rivers in that it has a fan shaped wide and flat area at its headwaters and a pretty small delta that pops out of the mountains right into the ocean. Hopefully the headwaters will see salmon again one day and the river can heal
@@judithmccrea2601 ^Requa.
I imagine the blackberry picking will be outrageous in a few years.
@@TimeSurfer206 Nope! They have been planting millions of native seedlings.
The amount of silt that was deposited is incredible. All those trees are 3/4 buried.
Lots of nice top soil is now available.
Wait for the renewal of the beaches when this sediment is carried out to the Pacific.
Thanks. Great footage. I love seeing the washed gravel in the main stream bed. I'm curious to see what happens after the 1st big wash. I would imagine the silt will shrink back as the water drains from it. I was there 3 weeks ago. I will come back in the spring.
When Nature reclaims it, its going to be magnificently Beautiful! The solid is extremely rich. Once it dries up some the transformation will be nothing short of amazing. What and see!
Amazing? Compared to what?
what a load of horseshit.
Finally the river is flowing freely again. Can’t wait to see what it looks like in a few years.
Can you elaborate? everyone is saying this but its simply not true. I can't figure out if everyone is perpetuating a falsehood or if they just comment without knowing the facts . Do you know there are still dams upstream that hold back far more acre feet that copco and iron gate combined?
@gisdp99 oh there wasnt one solution that would fix decades of ecological destruction? well then we better not do anything at all. after these dams are gone there will be hundreds of miles of river accessible once again to anadromous fish and much better habitat for trout
"The four dams don’t provide flood control or irrigation. They generate a small amount of hydropower, which will be replaced using renewables and efficiency measures. In 2008, the Public Utilities Commissions in Oregon and California concluded that removing the dams, (instead of spending more than $500 million to bring the dams up to modern standards), would save PacifiCorp customers more than $100 million. It will also improve water quality - currently, toxic algae in the reservoirs behind the dams threaten the health of people as well as ecosystems.
This dam removal and river restoration effort will be one of the most significant the world has ever seen. Never have four dams of this size been removed at once. These dams inundate many miles of habitat (4 square miles and 15 miles of river length) and block access to more than 400 miles of habitat for salmon and other species. "
Your stupid electric cars pull as much power as 1800 homes in the hour it takes to charge them. Your solar panels from China won't cut it. Plus they are far worse for the environment. You people are destroying the earth not helping it.
@@gisdp99 yes, that is correct, there are still dams up river controlling the amount of water supplied to the river. However, by reestablishing the river channels, the water flows will more closely reflect historical activities of the water patterns along the river drainage area. Hopefully, it reopens access to habitat for fish and native wildlife. I have looked at some studies where salmon producing rivers have been restored in Washington and the results over a 10 to 20 year period have been very impressive with unexpected wide area benefits for the overall drainage basin. And I have personally seen a couple of rivers where the returning native fish populations have occurred. And a couple where they have been decimated.
There are policies in place which require those up river dams to provide water releases into the rivers to protect stream flows and protect the water temperature levels.
My brother has a place right near the Elwha . Huge difference between NW Washington and the upper Klamath, one is basically a rainforest and the other is basically a desert. Water is what restores these drainages, so if it takes 10 year in Washington I would expect 100 years around the Copco area. I am not exactly saying that the difference in time makes it less viable but it changes perceptions for sure. @@americanrambler4972
That silt is mostly decayed algae. I bet it's super nutrient rich, just like river bottom land everywhere. I bet the replanting efforts will work really well. I hope the native species can out-compete any invasive's.
Not necessarily true I rember when they dredged the klamath at keno oregon all that material was dredged and pumped on farm ground 50 years ago and the soil will not grow a thistle. To this date.
@@tomharris3486metals....
I think the mighty Alder can pull it off though! If Shasta erupted the river would look like this- it's only a geological event. Alder, lupine, fireweed, are going to be major players to watch...
Is the proper term decayed?
@@jamesducey2685 Yes sir.
Thank you for pointing that out.
@@JL-ln1gz Well I am not a soil scientist. I'm sure that material has been sampled and analyzed. I'm just speculating on the fact that the richest, most nutrient rich, best all around soil, doesn't occur on steep hillsides, it always occurs in river bottoms where the river has been depositing that rich soil for a long time. Why don't you do a little research into who has analyzed the lake bed, and what their findings were? I'd be interested to know.
The drowned trees still standing at the rivers edge are a message of hope.
Grow up. They are dead trees.
@@dcpack I like those trees.
I did not expect to see the path of the river snake left and right through the valley. Hopeful for the future
Beautiful - in little time this place will show the beauty it was always meant to be.
Meant to be? Who dictated that? The house you may live in...was that "meant" to be? The roads you drive on or the power plant juicing your internet access device...were they "meant" to be? Or just everything that serves your personal purpose and desires?
Excellent videography by the way. Glad people are getting this footage.
What a beautiful valley it will soon be again.
A *huge* amount of land back in the open air again!
In 2-3 years or so, after this land has had some revegetation and a couple of summers to dry it out a bit, it'll look amazing!
Thanks for filming. I look forward to how the river will look in this area - after the native plants are established.
Thanks for documenting this..
Beautiful too see the natural water flow again. Just as mother nature intended for it to be.. free of any damn dams..
Looks to me like the lake was almost filled with sediment anyway. It was close to becoming a meadow. Sort of like the same thing that happens with beaver dams.
it had 300 year to go before sediment would have made it inoperable as a energy storage facility. Perhaps you should look at photos of the area prior to the lake being filled, it looks very similar
@@gisdp99 The powerplant was not operating. There are press releases and reports explaining this.
Dams=sediment
can you post a link? I was with the Pacificorp crew as well as the Swiftwater film crew when they blew the dam. I let them cross our property to access the viewpoint. Then engineer in charge of the copco power plant was there and he said they were literally making power as we watched. you could see the water leaving the base of the powerplant, and the turbines were spinning. @@chazman4461
When reservoirs fill up with sediment they become flood hazards in heavy rain. They become huge shallow catchment basins.
Given time to heal, this will be a stunning beautiful landscape once again.
it was a beautiful place with the lake as well. no difference.
It'll look just like it did for hundreds of thousands of years before the white invaders came and screwed it all up!
Beautiful. The best is yet to come.
I’m thinking it’s time to bust out the gold pan ! That’s some damn good mudd folks
Awesome to see. I'll guarantee salmon will be using those newly available channels in
We took out the Ballville dam in Ohio and within the first year we were catching fish above the oil dam area that hadn’t been in that part of the river for decades.
@russellstewart5414 I think there was one recently in Maine too (paper mill?) was almost immediate. So good to see
Growing up made alot of dams .i knew as a young boy dams were all temporary. Fish are so much more important than a dead lake i wish i could buy all the people land who are upset about what they think they lost but i cant i have been to walker tubed down the river before the fire i felt so many good souls there i wish to go there again with the fish
The lakes supported far more life than the river ever will. Many are of the belief that the lake life wasn't supposed to be there, and because of this in their (your) mind it has no value. Go knock on some doors and I am sure you will find people wanting to sell. If people really believed what has been told about how this will turn out then developers and speculators would be all over the place. They are not. The upper reaches of the klamath has always been a dirty little river, even before Keno and Link river dams. The lower klamath is a different story with the clean flows coming down out of the trinity's and such. Will it look better than this? of course. Will it be what most people have envisioned? no.
@@gisdp99 I believe the 2002 fish kill alone killed far more life than the lakes held and supported, and that was only one year of many that had massive fish kills and toxic river water from the toxic algae in the lakes and warm river water, also from the lakes.
I fished the lower and middle Klamath from 95 until 2003. I largely stopped when toxic algae in the water started killing dogs. It was gorgeous above Witchipec where the Trinity comes in, and still crystal clean above the Salmon River confluence back in the day. If it’s a dirty little river these days, that’s more reason to pull the dams, not keep them.
I do think part of the restoration funds should go to offer buyouts of any lake adjacent properties that want out…then make that public land. I think it would be short sighted to sell property adjacent to what should be a world class salmon River in under a decade, but the next few years will be unpleasant so I get it why some want out.
Nature will bring it back, bigger and better than ever.
The tree trunks left from before the dam was built show how the river was in the past.
Yay!!!! A great victory for Mother Earth and all her creatures…
Now the river can freely flow. And the fish can freely swim.
Adore this is happening. Beautiful to see what is hopefully soon to be planted with native species of groundcover, understory and lower, middle and upper canopy trees. It's high desert, so there is a far less vegetation than further west or northwest.
River is returning pretty quickly. Why is there no official statements from City of Yreka on this project? Why no statements from Congressmen LaMalfa and Bentz?
Wondering the same
Seeing the amount of silt there, I wonder how the assumed volume of the reservoir compares to what was really held back. I think the actual would be way less than the calculated.
This will look so much better after the trees grow back.
It will look awesome in a few years
What a lush beautiful Valley this will be. Quite Soon. The increased habitat for wildlife will be a benefit to Mother Earth.
So happy this is finally happening.. my grandpa Charlie fought for the dams coming down his whole life! Fought so my son could see a flowing river like his grandparents saw.. time for the land to heal itself with our help shaping it how we use to!
I feel like that river was holding its breath ever since those dams were built. Now they're being demoed. i feel like the river is breathing again.
Its working as expected!
Will all that silt and sediment be eroded eventually, or will it stay there forever?
It will erode very quickly wherever it can. This will all be green with grass and other low groundcover by spring 2025, the first wave of revegetation.
It will harden up as it dries out and green up with plants. It happens pretty fast.
Hope you go back after this storm. I'm wondering how long it will take to remove a hundred years of sediment. I'm thinking it will be pretty quick. But that's just a guess. The river is going to be brown like the Mississippi for a bit.
the ghost trees are stunning.
Beautiful. Amazing. Going to be so wonderful when all the native grasses and shrubs grow back. Wish I owned land along that fake lake so I could bare witness to the rebirth of a fertile river valley. Glad it's in the history books now. Let's get the rest of them taken down.
Earth will heal.❤❤❤
Anybody got any used to be lakefront property for sale on the cheap?
In a few years, it's going to be an amazing transition of life . This needed to happen decades ago. I'm so grateful 🙏🏽 it finally has.
That is a giant pile of sludge...
I am curious about the houses on the edge of the old reservoir do they now own land to the edge of the river? Anybody know how that works?
My understanding is there will be no adjustment of existing property lines. The lake bed will be given back to one or several tribes.
nice, as it should@@hallamphoto
Where did you get that information? Never heard that and we own property adjacent to wards canyon and on the former lake. My understanding is the state will own it and it will be mostly public land@@hallamphoto
I imagine you will be giving your land back, assuming you own any@@MM-vx4ml
@@gisdp99 It's just hearsay. I heard the land will be given to the state first then returned to the tribes. I don't have an official source for this information but it is what I've heard from multiple individuals. It may or may not be accurate.
That looks like the Arkansas River does normally here in Oklahoma!
regarding the people who once had lakefront property, does their property now extend to the riverbank?
Nope. No adjustment of property lines.
So, now who owns all of the new lands to be?@@hallamphoto
@@hallamphoto Sucks for all those people.
@@frederickbooth7970 ultimately it will be returned to one or several tribes is my understanding.
@@hallamphotoOf course Commiefornia is giving land to people that don’t deserve it. I expect nothing less from that shit hole state. What they should actually do is regenerate the forest and eventually make it public land so people will have opportunities to fish, camp, hunt, and enjoy the outdoors.
A blip of Earth time will have this looking like there was never a dam, just like us humans….just a blip of time…..
No. It won't. But keep dreaming
@@ssvocals It actually does. It has been done multiple times. Within a year it will start to grow in and the banks will set up and harden. There are plenty of projects that occured where you can research this.
I mean, yes, but to the mostly retirees who live around the lake- a 20 year fishing moratorium is the rest of their lives. Lets not get too cavalier about the renewal process, or the time that it will take before any of this is a public recreation area again. Worth it- absolutely. Blip, no. There will be a few thousand people who will individually "pay the price" for all of us.
this is someone admitting they are anti human and that is their only reason to ruin a good dam
How are the fish breathing now in that brown shit water
And how are the salmon and steelhead going to spawn and reproduce in that crap.
@@GullyWasher837 salmon don't spawn in lakes. Keep researching little buddy.
Sorry. I got ahead of myself. Sockeye salmon do spawn in lakes. But they are more likely to spawn in riverbeds. The point of this restoration is to get salmon above the dams in to rivers and streams that they have lost access to over the decades these dams have been built.
Unfortunately animals are getting trapped in the mud and dying.
Fantastic. Seems like they should seed some native grasses on all that silt to slow down the inevitable wash out.
They are.
52,000 lb of native seeds (80 species) were collected and grown for 4 years. Already being planted.
The same process happened at the Elwha dams near Port Angeles, WA, in 2011-2012. About a decade later the vegetation was regrowing and the river was running clear-- and the fish came back. czcams.com/video/ZO7JsfITQhE/video.html
Some fish are coming back but Chinook are still struggling. The hatchery on the lower river needs to be broodstocking some of those wild Chinook so the surplus hatchery fish can spawn with the other fish upriver and meet recovery goals.
This area is nothing like the elwha. Its close to a desert, Elwha is in a rain forest.
@gisdp99 and 85% of the traditional Chinook spawning habitat on the Snake River happened between Hells Canyon and Shoshone Falls where migration ended naturally. Hardly a rainforest!
my point had to with recovery and dispersion of silt. Lots of flushing of the Elwha because of...lots of rainfall. Very different from the upper Klamath.@@brianjohnston4207
I might recommend
czcams.com/video/PAHBr6yPPdU/video.htmlsi=RnQaUvykxJBL_o67
One piece that is a little out of date concerns pinks. The 2021 run was finally a little bigger. The 2023 run increased over that. Pinks in the Elwha only run in odd years. The original discussions about pinks were largely incorrect. Dam removal took a couple decades longer than originally thought. In the mean time the remnant pink populations largely collapsed. They now appear to finally be on an upward trajectory. Another pink salmon generation or two should make clear if this is really true.
There is a magical agate land up in those hills, where you can sit with a bucket and not move and pick up 50lbs in a matter of minutes. Those creeks should be amazing rock hunting.
I wonder if all that lake bottom silt will be planted with willows & grass?
Yes. It is actively being reseeded right now.
@@hallamphoto Answered my question.
Nature will reclaim.
This will be pretty ugly for probably 3 to 5 years, but as the new ground cover starts to become reestablished, this is going to return to being a beautiful valley. Question is, is it going to to turn into an area of urban sprawl due to the large amount of flat land now uncovered.
Possibly.
No
I started to tear up watching this. I've seen this before and it takes a long time for that land to recover.😢
The lakefront people that are pissed are going to get the best "riverfront" land ever.....just be patient. I would go cold plunge in that New River everyday.
I heard the resivoirs are already dry and it’s only March. lol claiming a lot about gold, it doesn’t rain for 9 whole months out of the year around here and some years there’s no rain at all. This is a strange idea
Disgusting ploy to enable gold silver copper platinums renditioning ecological science’ void from literature, out of the public’s eyes. There are none, it’s to enable a global monopoly on geopolitical settings that move vast amounts of gold across continents of which have massive die offs, granted the current status of their lands is only marginally better but yet is on the Atlantic and assume the right of Africas shadow, Africa being the birthplace of all life clearly, and has a gold deposit record and life abundance and experience that proves that. So all things considered only a couple countries rule the gdp gaps by 50% or more and approach scales of magnitude with the rest of Europe, basically it’s a vote and lifetime lost to 40 years ago and bizarre to say the least.😮
Looks better already.
That was a beautiful lake ,I don't get a mud hole looks better.
I know the fish like it
Y'all have some trees to plant.
What are they going to do there? Grow more grapes?
The lake beds are being "rewilded."
Thank you for posting this video. I wonder if the river is following it's original route. And that silty mud will take decades for vegetation to take hold.
I doubt it will take decades
@@DaggerMax1 copy
@@DaggerMax1 I was referring to vegetation beyond just grass and shrubs. Native trees will struggle in this compact nutrient deficient muck. I love you
You'll be surprised how fast it recovers I think.
Give it 2 years & you will be surprised by the progress by mother nature.
Um I get the free flowing river. But since the lake front property that I used to own is now at the edge of a nice little prairie type of land, can I claim it to the river bank? I don’t want a bunch of people thinking they’re gonna trot down the driveway and go fishing in a now owned by the city or county park type area.
The lake bed will ultimately be returned to tribal ownership.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those whose vacation cabins’ resale value has been affected, lol.
In all seriousness, this is wonderful and a step in the right direction. I am looking forward to seeing the renewal of this area as time goes by.
2/2/23 Lakefront home for sale... $1M 2/2/24 Home half mile from mud and river. $100K
Yep. I hope the state is prepared for the lawsuits that will justifyably be coming their way.
@@elizabethbogle3533The state isn’t going to give anyone money. Liberals are greedy assholes.
What can they sue for? Nothing happened to their property
@@SD_HUNTING_FISHING how about lost value. Do you know anything about real estate?
2/2/30 House and land next to natural riparian meadow $1.5M
Be nice if they could spray that basin with a native grass seed to slow any erosion from forthcoming rains.
They are.
really? I haven't seen that happening. For some reason they are paying tribe members to stomp around in the mud with sacks of seed hand casting it about. Seems super efficient.
@@hallamphoto
@@gisdp99 I've seen that too.
@@gisdp99 hand seeding is about 2x as efficient as helicopter seeding in terms of germination success. That's why. Helicopters will be used for some hard to access areas, however.
who owns the land now that its not under water?
Within a few years the area will be beautiful with greenery all around. Greatly improved from those mostly ugly dams that were there that did not produce that much power.
Hiw will it look with a bunch of houses and other development on it?
Let it flow.
This river will someday be alive again. For now and many years into the future it will be dead from the gross amount of sediment released into it from erosion.
It will be pumping mud for a long time when a big run off comes.
I saw that horrid black water at the 163/96 bridge, all that toxic sediment is going all the way to the sea.
I think you'll be surprised how quickly the river recovers.
Floods do the same thing in a very short time period and fish still survive. It will come back a lot faster than anyone thinks. This has been proven on other projects.
Quick let’s go get all that gold now
time to be a healthy river
do this to the North Fork of the Clearwater and remove Dwarshak Dam!!
There's already been
Several properties that have lost their wells in Copco Lake
There's No one stepping up to help these people with cost to redrill there
Wells. It took Millions
To tear it down. The least they can do help
The residents get there water back.
There won't be Fishing in the Klamath River for decades. This was a big mistake.
Keep regurgitating those hydropower lobby talking points. They appreciate your fear.
@@tombeno8746 keep preaching the environmental lobby's talking points Warren Buffet and his investors appreciate all that you do. Also when Oregon and Northern California start burning in the wildfire season and there is no water to fight the fires how will you feel?
@@1eyedjacksRwild do you spin a wheel or throw a dart at a board to come up with this cr*p? 😄
@@tombeno8746 no I listen to informed people and use common sense. But if that technique works for you keep at it.
The river won't be any bigger then it is now
All those people who built houses next to a beautiful lake now have a scene of ugly mud and maybe a tiny creek. There went the land value of your house.
If you be trippin...here's mud in your eye
Watch what happens when people start panning out that silt.
Its amazing how many people don't realize the water ways have been moved a bazillion times. Man uses it for everything. Needs it. The cobbles under their houses show they live where the river once was. 😂 this in 15 years will be thriving. In 40 years have thousands of homes in thicket woods next to a pristine river. Its beautiful seeing the river carve its way. Finding bedrock. Leaving behind crevases of gold. #livetheadventure #goprospecting #miketheminer #dirtnerd
Well said my friend.
Damn dams😂
Time to go Panning!
I would expect to see dying green underwater plants? Was that silt contaminated? All I see is remnants of trees, It looks like a barren muddy lifeless place
All Reservoirs look like that when they're drained. Especially in the winter time.
Those dams were horrible for the environment and native people.
And the fossil fueled power plants that must take up the slack left by the absence of the hydroelectric installations will wreck the environment even MORE.
They were great for farmers and those who eat food. They also were great when water was needed to fight wildfires.
Let go
The concept is good but the implementation without removing the toxic clay sludge has now created an ecological disaster. In addition the water tested is toxic and has been tested and is above EPA levels on many fronts. This is also compromising wells downstream. The clay sludge is cementing the salmon reds and habitat from the source to the ocean, all being documented. This is not speculation. Weekly updates are discussed on the Bob Simms outdoor show.
Bob Sims outdoor show?😅😅😅
the lake was almost completely filled with silt
Not true at all. Perhaps you should look at some photos from before the dams were built- topography is very much the same. Engineer in charge of the reservoir told me their calculations had it at 300 more years before silting would be an issue.
@@gisdp99 Go there and walk to the new shore.
I have. My family has had property on the lake and the river for close to 50 years.
@@2flight
@@gisdp99 if you want lake front property move to MN or WI. no need to look like a fool defending these ecological disasters
@@toryhicks5147easy for you to say, it's not your money that just got flushed downriver.
I am surprised that they are demolishing dams in the midst of droughts, lack of energy and population growth (they are embarking immigrants as in 1800). Do they have any plans to replace the water and energy they stopped storing when the river was released? I understand that the dike was soaked with silt and required maintenance and cleaning... but tear it down? Won't they need it later?
Newsom is fast tracking the Sites dam in the Sac valley, and coming up here to talk about how dams are terrible ect.... Just follow the money. Once this generation has passed and a new group of special interests and politicians are in place they will be celebrating the ground breaking of a new dam in this very spot- a proper modern dam that balances human needs as well as the salmon. These dams powered around 70,000 homes. There is a 3100 acre solar farm being proposed in Kansas that would supply 70,000 homes. If they replace this with Nuclear then maybe that is a good trade, solar or wind? Nope. We need a diverse mix of power generation. It will be interesting to see if they use the remaining dams upstream to regulate flows to help support salmon when the river dries up during drought years. For sure the farmers up in the upper klamath basin are going to get their water taken. Shorting the Upper Klamath (Klamath Falls) Economy would be a smart play.
They never think ahead. 50 years from now they'll probably be talking about building another dam.
@@elizabethbogle3533 Repeat some more FUD you heard from the hydropower lobby.
@@tombeno8746 aren't you just repeating some propaganda that you heard from some environmental lobby? In truth the group behind this removal project has figured out a cheap way to remove dams ignoring environmental hazards so that they can rake in enormous profits. This is not about what is good for the environment it is what is good for making the super wealthy even more money.
@@tombeno8746 take your meds and go to bed, tough guy.
Nice the valley floor can breathe again.
What a mess ..
Hey, it's Carson here. Who's going to pay to repair the old water bank erosion? also, the deeds say your property line is at the high water mark, does that mean your property extends to the river? Interesting to see. one last thing, are the tribes going to take control of the lake lands and are there plans to build? I see grasses are being planted, What is going to be done about fire mitigation?
Needs beavers.
Undoing Grandpa’s mistake!
Horrible they removed such a beautiful lake. Copco lake supported so much wildlife and the population in the area for residents, farming, tourists, etc. Why aren't the environmentalists in an uproar about all the countless species of fish (salmon, trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, carp, etc) and countless wildlife that died or was negatively affected in the process of removing Copco lake?
I highly doubt that removing four dams will boost the salmon populations that much and they are spending 800 million to do it.
So much fertilizer and toxins in that mud. It's going to be gorgeous in a few years though.
Klamath River, heal our hearts for what we have done to you...
I wonder if they made much effort to save the fish
That's why they're doing this in winter; there aren't that many fish in the river right now, so it minimizes the damage, and all this rain will help clean out the silt that much faster. You know how it is with cleaning up messes; it gets worse before it gets better.
The fish in the lake? No. those are still in other lakes for you to fish.
People who are for this either dont live in the area or just completely stupid...or both
I first stayed a week at Lake Copco in 1963 at age 5. Great job screwing so many over for a fish….Anyone wants to be ignorant let them be ignorant
Why the sad music? The Klamath River runs free again. Al that silt will soon be grassy meadow as the forest creeps back to the river's edge.With a little help, the salmon will return as well. Rejoice1 What was once "impounded" is now freee and natural.
Finding music for these quick films that pleases everyone is the hardest part of production.
Beautiful work!
Music worked for me. Thanks.@@hallamphoto
I didn't think it sounded sad
@@hallamphoto There's always Beethoven's Ode to Joy. :D
It was always meant to be a river, not a lake. Now it's free.
😅
However, the electrical capacity of the area has been greatly reduced, and electric bills will sharply rise.
All I see is mud where's the river?
Go find your reading glasses Bill!