Document Actions
Restoring Balance to the Klamath Basin
Oregon Wild's Klamath Basin Campaign seeks to restore balance to one of the United State's most important areas for fish and wildlife.
Check out Klamath stories and updates on the Oregon Wild Blog!
Oregon Wild to sponsor additional restoration work in the upper Klamath! Check out the RFP to our Fremont-Winema Mitigation Fund (due 8/30/10).
What's Oregon Wild's vision for the Klamath?
Oregon Wild statement on the 2010 Biological Opinion for Klamath coho salmon.
The Klamath Basin
Stretching from the high desert in southern Oregon to the redwood forests of northern California, the Klamath Basin covers a vast area (map) over 10 million acres. The basin once contained over 350,000 acres of marshes, wet meadows and shallow lakes, major runs of salmon and steelhead, creating the third largest fishery on the west coast. 
Though changed, the basin continues to host an enormous number of migratory birds, and is the western hotspot for viewing major migrations along the Pacific Flyway.
Unfortunately, this unique basin's natural resources have suffered decades of abuse and mismanagement. A massive federal irrigation project drained eighty percent of the 
region's wetlands, and the once-mighty fish runs have collapsed. A series of aging dams on the Klamath River block salmon and steelhead from reaching over 300 miles of historic habitat. In September of 2002 the Klamath suffered one of the worst fish kills in US history.
For nearly two decades Oregon Wild has been a leading voice for conservation to this important region, working to bring resource demands back into balance with what the basin can naturally provide.
More Klamath Basin news
Oregon Wild's Klamath Basin webpages:
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges
The Wild and Scenic Klamath River
Vision for a restored Klamath River Basin
Still searching?
Explore the history of the Klamath Basin
Scientific reports and background information on the Klamath
All photos by Brett Cole
