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August 27th Membership Meeting Time: 6:30 PM Social Time - Pizza & Softdrinks 7:00 PM Meeting Location: 4255 Sinton Rd - CPW Classroom Public is Welcome Our Special Guests are: Kate Klavon and Matthew Johnson who will be giving us the inside story of the removal of dams and recovery of the Klamath River.
Kate Klavon, PE ([email protected]) Kate specializes in stream restoration design, fish passage, and watershed studies. She always works to find solutions that provide the maximum potential benefits for both the natural environment and the community. She’s made a career out of helping clients understand their watersheds and enact strategies to address ecological degradation and contribute to healthier waterways, a career that has spanned terrestrial and marine environments and crossed international boundaries. She is currently managing the Stantec restoration design team responsible for restoring five previously inundated tributaries identified as having the highest fish bearing potential. Stantec’s engineers are working in partnership with RES who is responsible for the construction and performance of the restoration work. Matthew Johnson, PE ([email protected]) Matthew Johnson has over 12-years of experience focused on stream systems. He has a strong background in hydrologic, hydraulic, and sediment modeling used for planning, analysis, and design. He uses this skill set, along with extensive fluvial geomorphic training, to support watershed and stream restoration projects across the country. He has managed stream restoration projects and served as design lead on stream restoration projects up to 7 miles in length and on projects with construction budgets exceeding $7M. Matthew is currently RES’s restoration design lead for Klamath Dam Removal Project to restore five fish bearing tributaries. RES is responsible for the construction and performance of the restoration work and is working in partnership with Stantec’s restoration design engineers. Presentation Summary In 1918, Copco 1 Dam became operational, ending salmon runs into the Upper Klamath Basin. Over the next four decades, three more dams were built cutting off annual fish migration and drastically changing the movement of the river’s sediment. In the preceding decades, public support grew for the removal of the dams and the return of a free-flowing river that would reconnect hundreds of miles of salmon habitat. On the morning of January 26, 2024, a loud blast echoed down the Klamath River; following this century of damming, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation was beginning to dismantle J.C. Boyle Dam, one of four dams slated for demolition, and kicking off active construction of the largest dam removal project in the world. As the reservoirs behind the dams drained, they exposed previously submerged floodplains and once again free-flowing creeks. The work to restore the reemerging tributaries had begun. During the planning phase, five tributaries were identified as having high fish bearing potential and are the focus of active restoration efforts. This project presents unique challenges as the existing conditions of the tributaries were initially unknown and constantly changing in response to reservoir drawdown. This requires the design team to perpetually adapt in real-time. Kate and Matthew are working together to lead a team of national stream restoration experts to restore these previously submerged tributaries and improve the habitat and health of fisheries by allowing salmon, steelhead, and lamprey access to over 400 stream-miles of historic spawning habitat upstream of the dams. Kate and Matthew will discuss the challenges of this restoration endeavor and the techniques being applied to bring these systems back to life. Comments are closed.
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