08/31/2026
Earth Win of the Week: The salmon came home.
There is plenty of discouraging environmental news, so we thought we’d start sharing something different on Mondays: real examples of people helping repair the natural world.
This week’s win comes from the Klamath River.
In 2024, four dams were removed in the largest dam removal project ever completed. The dams had blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of habitat for more than a century.
Now the first peer-reviewed results are in.
In just two migration seasons, Chinook salmon have already returned to 88% of their documented historical range above the former dams, reclaiming more than 200 miles of river and tributaries.
Sometimes environmental restoration requires incredibly sophisticated solutions.
And sometimes we understand what we broke, remove the barrier, and nature does something remarkable.
The salmon came home.
Less than two years ago, four dams on the Klamath River were removed. This week, the first peer-reviewed science is out — published in Scientific Reports, part of the renowned Nature portfolio of journals — confirming that Chinook salmon reoccupied 88% of their historical range within just two m...
