We need your support.
Since 2021, we have been working to expand understanding around the impacts of dams, dam removals, and water management on water quality, as well as socio-cultural perceptions of water quality and river health, in the Klamath River. Beyond the societally-relevant science, we have prioritized outreach and engagement, resulting in a short documentary that was viewed at film festivals, science pub talks across the state, an 11-episode podcast, a middle-school curriculum on water quality, an art-science collaboration, and more. In addition, we have prioritized supporting students in a variety of ways on this project, including 9 undergraduate research assistants, 6 MS students, 2 PhD students, and 5 Tribal high school interns thus far.
In April 2025, we were notified that expenses on our federal grant are forbidden.
We are at a critical juncture with the project as 2025 is the first year following dam removal and third year of field data collection. It is essential that we continue collection of the ecological and water quality data this summer. This is not the kind of work that can wait another year, and this dataset is invaluable as this dam removal is the first of its size and nature. Continuity is essential as the river undergoes transitions during the first year following removal of the dams.
What is at stake:
Beyond the personal costs associated with lost financial support for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty leading the science and outreach, the cancelled funding will interrupt our first post-dam sampling of water quality and plants and algae in the river. This work involves biweekly, three–day sampling trips from mid-June to mid-August to survey the river and collect samples to document how water quality and the basis of the food web are changing with the dams gone. Results are relevant to other river systems and landscape-scale changes, such as wildfires, flood regulation by dams, and dam maintenance and decommissioning.
Beyond data collection for ecological engineering and management, the summer of 2025 marks a critical socio-cultural inflection point for the basin as well. Community perspectives are actively forming in response to rapidly shifting environmental conditions and policy changes. If we don’t document these perspectives now, while decisions are unfolding and memories are still fresh, we lose the opportunity to understand this transformation as it’s lived. We need to conduct the socio-cultural survey in summer 2025 as planned, documenting the perspectives and experiences of conservationists, agriculturalists, coastal fishing community members, and rural community members on topics ranging from perceptions of river health, how and when water and the river is used by different groups, and priorities for the future.
We ask for your support to help fund a field crew to continue this essential dataset. Your support will be used to train and hire undergraduate field technicians, support graduate students, and cover the cost of travel to the Klamath River. Thank you for helping to keep this critical aspect of the project going.
Scale the QR code of click the button below to donate. Please add “25237G – DT” to the comment box so your donation will be routed to us, and feel free to share why this work matters to you. Many thanks.
