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The Klamath River Watershed
The Klamath River was once the third most productive salmon river on the Pacific Coast with over a million salmon returning to spawn in its waters each year.
Now the Klamath River is only a shadow of its former self due to dams, diversions, agriculture, industrial pollution, mining, road building and poor forestry. The Klamath River is still a vitally important salmon river for Native American tribes and commercial fishermen. Because its human communities are primarily small and rural, the Klamath has a better chance for restoration then any of the West's major salmon-bearing rivers in rapidly urbanizing areas.
As the Klamath River flows from Crater Lake and the wetlands of Oregon’s upper Klamath basin to Northern California’s coastal redwoods, nine major rivers and hundreds of creeks feed into it. For detailed, interactive maps of the basin, please check out the Klamath Basin Web GIS.
- Upper Klamath Lake and Tributaries (Wood, Williamson, Sycan, and Sprague)
- Klamath Wildlife Refuges
- Scott River
- Shasta River
- Mid-Klamath and Salmon River
- Trinity River
- Lost River and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge