Qualla: Klamath Project

Klamath Project: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US gov, Public domain. Every year, millions of migratory birds descend on the Klamath Basin along the Pacific Flyway, unaware they are landing in a battlefield. Below their wings stretches a patchwork of reservoirs, canals, and farmland that was once an immense network of marshes and shallow lakes. The Klamath Project - one of the first undertakings of what would become the Bureau of Reclamation - transformed this landscape beginning in 1906. Today it grows barley, alfalfa, potatoes, and wheat. It also grows conflict: a century-long struggle over water that has pitted farmers against fishermen, endangered species against economic necessity, and Indigenous rights against irrigation contracts.

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Image: US gov | Public domain

Klamath Project: Draining a World

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Public domain. Construction began in 1906 with the main 'A' Canal, and water first flowed to farmers on May 22, 1907. What followed was an engineering campaign to remake the land itself. The Clear Lake Dam went up in 1910, the Lost River Diversion Dam in 1912. By 1925, seven dams had been compl...

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Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) | Public domain

Klamath Project: The Link River Connection

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US gov, Public domain. The Link River Dam, completed in 1921, sits at the heart of a complicated arrangement. A contract signed on February 24, 1917, between the California-Oregon Power Company and the United States authorized the company to build the dam for both irrigation and power generation. Today...

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Image: US gov | Public domain

Klamath Project: The Fish Wars

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US gov, Public domain. In 1988, two species of sucker fish native to Upper Klamath Lake were listed as endangered: the Lost River Sucker and the Shortnose Sucker. Concerns for threatened Coho salmon runs added to the pressure. On April 6, 2001, a court order cut off irrigation water to Klamath Project ...

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Image: US gov | Public domain

Klamath Project: Troubled Waters

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US gov, Public domain. The conflict inspired books - 'Salmon is Everything' detailed the human cost of the fish kills, while 'River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin' explored the deeper tensions between ecology and economy. In 2010, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement attempted to ...

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Image: US gov | Public domain

Klamath Project: Land of Contradictions

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US gov, Public domain. From the air, the Klamath Project looks like order imposed on chaos: geometric fields and straight canals carved into volcanic soil, reservoirs glinting in the high desert sun. Yet this engineered landscape remains wild in ways its builders never intended. The Pacific Flyway stil...

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Image: US gov | Public domain