Klamath River Dams Are Coming Down, and Local Tribes Are Rejoicing

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC, held a final vote Thursday to decide on the removal of four dams on the lower Klamath River. The vote, which follows the agency’s final environmental impact statement in late August, was unanimous in favor of removal.

After a grueling 20 years of environmental impact statements, scientific studies, negotiations with stakeholders and advocacy from the tribes and their conservationist allies—people who, as Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Joe Davis said, “poured their blood, sweat, and tears into making this happen”—the vote is the final green...