Dams, Sand Supply Reduction + Habitat Recovery
May 27, 2025

These stunning photos show how nature came back after the world’s largest dam removal project – Fast Company
Excerpt:
Four dams and three large reservoirs were removed from the Klamath River in a project that finished last year—and acres of native wildflowers are now in bloom along the river’s edge.
It’s been less than a year since the world’s largest dam removal project was completed along 420 miles of the Klamath River, near the border of Oregon and California. But if you look at the river now, you might not know that four dams had ever been in place. Instead of concrete walls and aritifical reservoirs, the river is now free-flowing – and parts of the former infrastructure have been replaced by wildflowers that are in bloom.
“It’s been an incredible transition,” says Ann Willis, California regional director at American Rivers, a nonprofit that supported native American tribes in a decades-long fight to take out the dams. “It’s really strange and wonderful to stand on the bridge that goes across the Klamath River and look upstream where the Iron Gate Dam used to be. I used to imagine a river above it, and now I see the river…”
More on Dams and Sand Supply Reduction + Habitat Recovery

DOGE and Trump quash a Klamath River basin comeback – the Los Angeles Times
The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin…

Salmon return to the Klamath’s Oregon waters, but the river’s headwaters are still blocked – Jefferson Public Radio
After decades of conflict, farmers and tribes say they’re working in concert to restore salmon habitat in the Klamath Basin. But two dams remain…

How the Klamath Dams Came Down – Grist Magazine
Last year, tribal nations in Oregon and California won a decades-long fight for the largest dam removal in U.S. history.
This is their story…

Tearing Down Small Dams Is Helping Restore Northeast Rivers – Yale Environment 360
More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American eels.

Coastlines Around the World Are Losing Sediment – EOS
A new tool maps coastal sediments on the basis of water color. It shows that 75% of the world’s coastlines may be losing suspended sediment.

The Other Side of the World’s Largest Dam Removal – Hakai
Removing dams from the Klamath River in Northern California seems like a clear win for fish and rivers. Why do some locals hate it…?

First salmon swims all the way to Oregon after historic California dam removal – San Francisco Chronicle
The massive dam-removal project on the Klamath River began living up to its lofty goal of improving fish passage this week when at least one salmon was observed swimming upriver past the sites of four former dams that had long blocked fish….

A Radical Approach to Flooding in England: Give Land Back to the Sea – the New York Times
When a huge tract of land on the Somerset coast was deliberately flooded, the project was slammed as “ridiculous” by a local lawmaker. But the results have been transformative…

When dams come down, what happens to the ocean? – High Country News | Hakai Magazine
A long-term study of the Elwha River Delta reveals lasting change — and a healthier ecosystem.