Thursday - 01/21/2021 — Northern California is in the process of removing four dams on the Klamath River. The BBC interviewed a woman who is general counsel of the Yurok, California’s largest indigenous tribe:
“When I was growing up, there were still decent salmon runs,” she recalls. “On good nights, you could catch 100, 200 fish. We loved it. That's when you felt like you were like being your best Yurok self: you were doing what the creator made you for. You were going to be able to fill up your smokehouse and your freezer and not only just yours, but your grandma’s, your aunties’, your cousins’ – all the people you cared about, you could give them fish so that they had food.”
It would have been better not to have built the dams in the first place, but now at least there’s some hope for the salmon—and the people whose lives depend on them.
Photo credit Matt Mais - BBC Future News