Klamath River Update: 70,000 Salmon Returned. Here's the Full Data

In 2024, the last of four dams came down on the Klamath River. Two years later, the data is in — and it stopped researchers cold. Nearly 70,000 Chinook salmon returned to the Klamath Basin in 2025, double what anyone predicted. A sonar station below the former Iron Gate Dam counted 10,000 adult fish in fall 2025 alone — 30 percent higher than the previous year. The preseason forecast predicted 19,417 adults. The actual return came in at 205 percent of that number. In March 2026, the Klamath Tribes documented the first naturally produced Chinook hatchlings in the Upper Klamath Basin since before World War One. The parent fish had swum 230 miles from the Pacific Ocean through water their species had not touched for a century. The river cleaned itself. The USGS confirmed water clarity returned within months. The toxic algae blooms that once plagued the reservoirs are clearing. 2,200 acres of former reservoir beds are being replanted with native vegetation — roughly the size of 1,600 football fields. But the spring Chinook run still sits at just a few hundred fish. Two dams remain standing at the headwaters. And wildfire now poses a threat no dam removal could solve. This is what happens after the celebration ends. The full 2026 data, explained. 🐟 New videos every week on nature's greatest comebacks. 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss what returns next. 📌 Sources: Pacific Fishery Management Council 2026 Review — https://www.pcouncil.org USGS Klamath Sediment Study May 2026 — https://www.usgs.gov Society for Ecological Restoration — https://www.ser.org Klamath Tribes Ambodat Department — https://klamathtribes.org 00:00 The numbers that shocked everyone 01:49 First natural hatch in 100 years 02:43 The sediment study — did the models work? 03:51 The new danger nobody saw coming 04:59 What the engineering world just said 05:43 The fish that reached Keno Dam 06:38 2,200 acres coming back 07:25 The honest assessment 08:28 Why Klamath matters beyond Klamath 09:12 The river knows what to do Follow Rewilded for more nature comeback stories: 🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/RewildedNow 📸 Instagram:   / rewildednow   #KlamathRiver #DamRemoval #rewilded