Below the Former Dam Sites, Restoration Continues at McConnell Bar

When the construction phase of Klamath dam removal wrapped up in late 2024, nobody involved treated it as a finish line. The dams were the single largest obstacle between salmon and hundreds of miles of habitat. But deconstructing them was not enough to undo the damage that the dams themselves, 20th century mining, and the destructive impacts of the 2022 McKinney Fire had on this watershed. Essential restoration work to address those impacts is happening now, reach by reach. One of the most ambitious examples is taking shape just downriver from the former dam sites.

The Yurok Tribe and Karuk Tribe, working through their respective fisheries and natural resource departments, have begun a large-scale restoration project at McConnell Bar. The project spans 1.25 river miles and will involve up to 45 acres of land in the mid-Klamath region. The site sits about 7 miles northwest of Yreka and 3.7 miles downstream of the Klamath's confluence with the Shasta River. Humbug Creek, a known salmon-bearing tributary, runs into it, and the popular Tree of Heaven campground is nearby. The work is also supported by local landowner, philanthropist, and hospitality entrepreneur Lance Evans, along with the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, The Watershed Research and Training Center, and the Klamath Indigenous Land Trust.

The long shadow of early 20th century gold mining is still in evidence in the Klamath Basin. This stretch of the river is unnaturally straight and shallow, providing little to no fish rearing or spawning habitat, and it is surrounded on both sides by large piles of mine tailings. Those tailings, softball- to bowling ball-sized rocks deposited between 1910 and 1942, still prevent critically important native vegetation from taking root in the land along the river more than eighty years later. They are not only a scar on the landscape; the mine tailings have created a lasting change to how the river behaves. A straightened, disconnected channel cannot build the deep pools, side channels, and shaded margins that juvenile salmon and steelhead need to survive.

More recent history has compounded the damage. The July 2022 McKinney Fire burned more than 50,000 acres in its first three days. Torrential rains in the area then triggered flooding with heavy sediment flows in creeks and in the mainstem Klamath River that killed tens of thousands of fish, including suckers, lamprey, and juvenile salmon and trout. The influx of sediment from Humbug Creek and other tributaries has impacted fish passage, spawning grounds, and juvenile rearing habitat, and has significantly compromised the overall health of this part of the river and five of its tributaries.

Smaller, more historically typical wildfires, as well as prescribed and cultural burns, can add wood and coarse sediments to waterways, helping a river to build complexity. But the negative impacts of large-scale mining have made those benefits much less likely at McConnell Bar.

Funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Bureau of Reclamation, the McConnell Bar project will restore the land and river roughly to their pre-mining state and will address the over-sedimentation from the McKinney Fire. The approach includes reshaping the river channel, increasing the extent and frequency of floodplain inundation, removing tailing piles and other mining remnants, and introducing more wood features to the waterway. The wood, working with the river's own hydraulic pressure, will scour fine sediments onto the banks and create new deep pools with cover for fish. At a minimum, the project will double the fish rearing capacity of the site year-round, create cold pools where salmon and other fish can take refuge during summer heat, improve native amphibian habitat, and restore the native riparian flora that supports wildlife and a healthy river ecosystem. Planting native trees and shrubs will bring back shade for fish and habitat for terrestrial wildlife.

"We are excited to begin healing this long-neglected stretch of the Klamath," said Joseph L. James, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. "Once this project is completed, it will benefit fish and all other living creatures for generations."

Karuk Tribe Chairman Russell "Buster" Attebery, whose Tribe's ancestral territory includes the project site, framed it as both an immediate fix and a template. "We are hopeful that projects like the McConnell Bar project will continue throughout the mainstem Klamath River and serve as a model for future collaborative fish restoration projects," he said.

That model is already being tested nearby. The project complements ongoing work by the two Tribes and partners including Siskiyou County and the U.S. Forest Service to minimize further sediment inputs from Humbug, Little Humbug, McKinney, and Vesa creeks and other tributaries. Those fire recovery efforts have shown promising results in neighboring watersheds and demonstrate that post-wildfire restoration can be both fast and effective.

Since time immemorial, both the Karuk Tribe and the Yurok Tribe have relied on salmon as a primary food source, and the fish remain integral to tribal culture and traditions. The McConnell Bar project will recreate habitat needed for a thriving salmon population. The project will bring many additional ecological benefits as well. A river that can flood onto its own floodplain, sort its own sediment, and cool itself in August is a river with a future, better positioned to weather the fires, floods, and droughts still to come.