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 our federal funding was terminated.
In addition to the lost 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.
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.
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 and cover travel expenses. Thank you for helping to keep this critical aspect of the project going.
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