Restoration: A Decades-Long Wait

Since 2020, through my work as Managing Director for Anna Deavere Smith and her projects, I have spent time getting to know members of the Yurok Tribe while working in their communities in Klamath, CA.

Culturally the Yuroks are known as great fishermen, basket weavers, canoe makers, storytellers, singers, dancers, healers and strong medicine people. The Klamath-Trinity River is the lifeline of the Yurok people because the majority of the food supply, (salmon, sturgeon, eel, and candlefish) come from these rivers.

There were two main conversations that permeated during my time there: one was joyful result of the Yurok Condor Restoration Program. The California condor, once plentiful in the west, was a critically endangered species by the 1980's. Now, after decades of work led by the Yurok Tribe in partnership with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program and the Redwood National and State Parks, three condors were released while I was there. They represented the first condors to fly over Yurok skies in more than a century and it was a glorious moment to witness.

The next anticipated moment of celebration will be the final dismantling of four dams along the California/Oregon border. This is the largest dam removal in U.S. history. These dams, part of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, blocked fish passage and altered river flows for over 100 years. Now, after two decades of persistent advocacy by the Yurok Tribe, one dam has already been dismantled, the other three are scheduled to be fully removed in 2024. 

The Klamath Salmon Festival of 2023 was the second time in its 59-year history where salmon was not served due to the fact that salmon populations were at a fraction of historical levels, according to the most recent report from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. I was fortunate to have attended the 2022 Festival at which salmon was celebrated and served (see photo)

I’m looking forward to returning to the Klamath region next summer to reunite with my Yurok friends and to bear witness to the full run of salmon along the Klamath river again.

The Yurok Tribe is the largest tribe in the State of California with more than 5,000 enrolled members. I encourage you to visit and experience all that the Creator has bestowed upon this spectacular region and its people.

For more information on the California Condor Restoration Program: https://undark.org/2022/06/22/how-the-yurok-tribe-is-bringing-back-the-california-condor/?fbclid=IwAR3eoAW-byWDycgAdeKTppBdm3HcVGBx28y2i2RP9bXqsP7Y2uUISpFl5ys