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There Are Salmon at Jenny Creek – But How Did They Get There?

Today I spent 30-minutes flying up and down Jenny Creek (Oct. 18th, 2024) with a very capable drone searching for signs of salmon. 

The verified news is that there are salmon in Jenny Creek for the first time in over 65-years. And they show signs of wear and tear. 

The question of importance is how, exactly did they get there? How many more salmon would be in Jenny Creek now and in other tributaries if the main-stem of the Klamath River wasn’t choked with toxic clay sediments?

Did these salmon somehow survive the swim through water with high-levels of deadly clay turbidity?  Or, were they trucked-in having been trapped at the mouth of the Klamath River and reintroduced into Jenny Creek as some people have conjectured?

I can see a good argument and value by trucking males and females (bucks and hens) in and dropping them into Jenny Creek which is not polluted like the Klamath River. This might allow them to spawn and create an ‘imprinted’ cohort of fry and a potential next generation, assuming the 180-miles (to Jenny Creek from the sea) of the Klamath River is restored from its current deadly sedimentation.

Given all the past serious ecological damage and ongoing issues related to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s (KRRC) failure to follow the CEQA/NEPA approved EIS Plan (I.E. Oct. 17, 2024 cow stranded in clay at Copco Lake because of failure to provide alternative water), KRRC is desperate for any good press and is arguably working in collaboration with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to develop the ‘fish swimming freely in the river’ narrative and imagery to drive propaganda to that end. And my video may help them in that regard. And having salmon suddenly show up in Jenny Creek served that outcome. But is that the truth? Did these fish somehow survive the 180-miles of clay-mud filled Klamath River? 

Credibility was lost for both KRRC and CDFW last winter over many of the narratives that were spun and proven highly questionable and/or false with rock-solid evidence of millions of dead native fish, which severely conflicted with what KRRC and CDFW was telling the public.

Now we have this, salmon suddenly appearing in Jenny Creek. 

Here is the highlight reel of what I filmed during an 8-minute flight (Jenny Creek Salmon)

I was excited to go do this after hearing rumors yesterday of now “20 salmon” spawning in Jenny Creek from an RES rep. who I will leave un-named.

Why was I excited to search for fish? Not because I want to prove anyone right or wrong, it was because I would love to fish for salmon and steelhead in Jenny Creek (or the Klamath River) since both are just a 1/4 mile from my cabin! And there is no doubt that I would personally benefit greatly from such a development.

So this development is the first genuine good news on the dam removal project to date. But there are still many un-answered questions about the salmon in Jenny Creek, which need to be answered.

As a United States Merchant Marine Officer, I have skippered numerous types of vessels, including dive charters, fishing charters, passenger vessels, commercial fishing vessels and even a medical missionary ship. I have spent hundreds of hours fly fishing in the Deschutes River when I lived in Bend, Or.  So I have to confess, that my son and I are what some people might call fishing junkies!

In addition to fishing many lakes, rivers and streams in Oregon, I have spent years at a time big game fishing and have a library of hundreds of photos. I won the Kona Elks Jackpot Marlin Tournament in Kona Hawaii in 1980 with the biggest marlin. I have also fished for record bass in the Sea of Cortez and catch and release marlin in the Sea of Cortez.

Here are just a couple photos:

At this point in the dam removal process, one can only hope that the main-stem of the Klamath River can recover from all of the reckless actions that have been perpetrated upon it by the people behind KRRC and those hiding in the shadows behind this disastrous dam removal project. 

Having some fish in Jenny Creek is not the end-all be-all. We still have a monster problem with a River that is lined with deep clay that is polluted. And we must keep in mind that most other rivers and tributaries up the coast in Oregon and Washington are having record salmon runs. This means that the number of salmon making a run at going up the Klamath River is likely at an all time high, which would result in some fish surviving the sediment gauntlet now present. That said, had it not been for the dam removal project, the salmon run in this year’s Klamath River and tributaries would also likely be a record breaking year. 

Sedimentation of a previously unprecedented level remains present in the Klamath River and at its estuary at the Pacific Ocean. And unlike the silt and sand sediment particulates behind the Elwah dam, the Klamath lakes sediment particulates are composed of 79% clay (Gethard Engineering – Seattle), which has a characteristic ‘sticky property’ making it very resistant to being moved along by the force of water once it settles and congeals, as it has in most, if not all the deep-pool refugia of the main-stem Klamath River, which are now plugged with clay.

Here is an excerpt from a scientific article addressing refugia:

“Imagine yourself stuck in traffic with the inability to move.  You’re tired and hungry, but unable to get to your house, restaurants, or stores.  Now imagine yourself on clear streets with easy access to anything you need close by.  Similarly, fish thrive in waterways where they can move freely and food, shelter, spawning grounds, and rearing habitat are readily available.  In rocky streams, channel complexity involves having abundant pools and riffles, logs offering shelter, clean gravels, streambank growth, and side-channel habitat.  Excessive fine sediment (clays, silts, and sand < 1 mm diameter) threatens this complexity, limiting habitat.  In fact, the US EPA classifies excessive fine sediment as a pollutant and streams identified as having excessive sediment are listed for remediation.  

Figure 1.  Fish are happier with greater channel complexity.  

So how does excessive fine sediment impact fish habitat?  For rocky streams, excessive fine sediment impacts stream habitat by plugging the voids between gravels and cobbles and changing the streambed shape (Figure 2).  Plugging voids between gravels and cobbles eliminates vital refuge for juvenile fish to escape predators and is the home to many important insects. Pluck a rock in a riffle with “clean” gravels and cobbles and you will find mayfly and caddis nymphs and larva crawling around.  The insect buffet is open for a stay-at-home meal!  Do the same where fine sediment is filling the voids and you will see very few, if any insects present:  the cafeteria is closed.   

For spawning fish, the excessive fine sediment can “lock” gravels in place making it harder to move the gravels when forming a spawning bed or redd.  Once a redd is formed and eggs laid, excessive fine sediments can plug the voids reducing the oxygenated water flowing through the redd which nurtures the eggs within.  

Figure 2.  Gravels and cobbles: plugged (left) versus clean (right) of fine sediment.  

Broadening to the stream section, excessive fine sediment can change the streambed shape (aka stream channel morphology).  Over longer periods, stream channels act as a conveyor belt, moving water and sediment downstream, and have adjusted their shape to efficiently move this material.  Lane’s Balance is a great way to illustrate the balance between stream shape and sediment characteristics (Lane 1955).  For channels in equilibrium, the sediment load and size of streambed material are proportional to the water flow and streambed slope (Figure 3).  So, if water flow and streambed slope remain constant and more sediment is added, the scale tips to the left and the arrow points towards depositing sediment (aggradation).  Aggradation happens because the stream does not have sufficient power to move the increased sediment load.  The resulting deposition covers gravel bars, fills pools, and widens and decreases the channel width and depth, thus decreasing the complexity of the stream channel morphology.  In addition, these changes can increase stream temperatures as more water surface is exposed to the sun. “

Now that all the remaining polluted-toxic lakebed sediments are exposed (no longer underwater in the lakes) totaling around 12-15-million cubic yards of 79% clay sediment filled with toxins (according to CDM SMITH’s Study – See Attached), we still have a big opportunity to make lemonade from these lemons by using standard excavation equipment to scoop up the exposed toxic sediments and relocate them outside of the Klamath River ecosystem. 

Doing that would be a huge move in the direction of proper restoration and faster recovery for the main-stem of the Klamath River and eliminate the spread of the toxins in the lakebed sediments through the plants growing there and into the rest of food chain and ecosystem. That is the winning move for the River, but not for profit. 

With all the money being wasted on planting toxic polluted lakebed sediments and for heavy equipment smashing down the clay, which will re-congeal again as soon as its saturated with water and open-up again with huge cracks next summer, we could instead be funding big front-end loaders and other equipment to scoop-up that polluted clay lakebed sediment and get it the hell away from our Wild and Scenic River!  

IF you read this and truly want to restore the River, then rally behind getting the polluted sediments removed from the exposed lakebed, and condemn the concept of planting them.  Putting plants into polluted clay sediments is just idiotic because those plants will put toxins into all the herbaceous insects and animals and then bio-amplify those toxins into the entire food chain. Including into the fishes.  And even with plants, the tainted clay lakebed sediments will erode into the River, a slow-drip, toxic cocktail that will surely limit the productivity and recovery of the River.

Will KRRC and RES smarten-up and start doing what’s right for the River, instead of what’s fast and profitable for them and their partners in this massive conspiracy? Time and the environment will tell.


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4 Comments

  1. Once again William, You are on the forefront of developments regarding the Klamath River and the results of Dam removal. It is truly shameful how both you and Jay Martin at Siskiyou News are attacked and ridiculed for posting information vital to the people actually affected by the Dam removals. It is valuable to shed light on the deceptions and propaganda distributed by those who have a moneyed interest in the prolonged mismanagement of what once was a beautiful Natural Resource. The fact information is censored regarding any negative stories or outcomes is proof that accountability is yet to take place.

  2. RICHARD MARSHALL

    Perhaps they came down from the cohort being planted upstream by the Yurok. That was not widely reported but I remember that a project was being conducted on the Sprague River with fish plantings in anticipation of dam removal and hope that a cohort would be developed up stream.

  3. Thank you for another great article, Mr. Simpson!

  4. Thank you William for your Honesty, as I too hope one day that the Kalmath will return to the river it was. Reality is this Dam removal was not handled properly in my opinion. Salmon and Steelhead cannot servive/ spawn in these conditions. My guess is these were planted.

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