Sustainable Northwest

This renewal grant would support efforts to implement a landmark agreement to remove four dams on the Klamath River by 2020. Implementation will open 300 miles of river for salmon recovery; ensure water supplies for tribes, ranchers and farmers; and sustain commercial salmon fishing operations. Sustainable Northwest will work with residents and decision makers to build local support for removing the dams; partner with conservation, Native American, and water interests to educate state and federal decision makers on ways to implement the agreement; and provide staff support for citizen groups promoting the agreement.

Sustainable Northwest works with rural communities in the Pacific Northwest to achieve economic development and environmental protection. This grant would support the organization's efforts to implement a landmark agreement to remove four dams. Implementation will open 300 miles of river for salmon recovery, ensure water supplies for ranchers and farmers, and increase community stability (tribal, fishing, and agricultural) in the Klamath Basin on the California-Oregon border. The goals of Sustainable Northwest include: (1) building local capacity to implement the Agreement, (2) increasing understanding of and support for implementation of the Agreement in Congress and the Obama administration, and (3) encouraging support for a new agreement that will provide additional water to farmers and ranchers in compensation for the water lost to them through dam removal.

This $30,000 grant to Sustainable Northwest will allow the organization to develop innovative approaches to managing Upper Klamath River and lake flows to the benefit of local farmers and ranchers. This work is designed to demonstrate that ranchers and farmers can receive adequate supplies of irrigation water without the four dams on the lower Klamath River that have impeded salmon spawning since the early 20th Century. The removal of the dams will not happen without agricultural support, or, at a minimum, assent.