The structures, which were built without tribal consent between 1912 and the 1960s, blocked salmon from reaching vital habitat and degraded the river’s water quality, contributing to toxic algae blooms in the reservoirs and disease outbreaks that killed fish.

Hillman is a ceremonial leader and former Karuk vice chairperson. He started his tribe’s fisheries department in 1990, and has seen populations of salmon decline over the years, while algae blooms have fouled the river at times when tribal members traditionally enter the water during ceremonies.

Hillman said that the dams had exacted a terrible cost on Native people’s livelihoods and cultures, and that their removal promises to revive the ecosystem and salmon populations, and help tribes revitalize their fishing traditions and their connection to the river.

Seeing the reservoirs empty and the river returning is like having “a weight off my chest,” Hillman said, “like I feel like I can breathe.”

The largest dam removal project in history, it’s being overseen by the nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corp., with a $500-million budget including funds from California and from surcharges paid by PacifiCorp customers. The utility, based in Portland, Oregon, agreed to remove the aging dams — which were used for power generation, not water storage — after determining it would be less expensive than trying to bring them up to current environmental standards.

Workers have been drilling holes in the top of the Copco No. 1 Dam, placing dynamite and setting off blasts, then using machinery to chip away fractured concrete. The dam, which has been in place since 1918, is scheduled to be fully removed by the end of August. The smaller Copco No. 2 Dam was torn down last year as the project began.

Two earthen dams, the Iron Gate and the John C. Boyle, remain to be dismantled starting in May.

If the project goes as planned, the three dams will be gone sometime this fall, reestablishing a free-flowing stretch of river and enabling Chinook and coho salmon to swim upstream and spawn along about 400 miles of the Klamath and its tributaries.

Meanwhile, teams of scientists and workers are focusing on restoring the landscape and natural vegetation on about 2,200 acres of denuded reservoir-bottom lands.

Crews from the Yurok Tribe have been walking in the mud and scattering the seeds of native plants, including grasses, shrubs and trees. This effort started several years ago, with workers collecting nearly 1 billion seeds along the Klamath and sending them to farms to be planted and harvested.

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