After the Largest Dam Removal in U.S. History, California's Salmon Are Back

For three painful years, California's salmon boats stayed in port. Drought, warming rivers and collapsing fish runs forced the closure of the state's commercial ocean salmon fishery in 2023, 2024 and 2025 — a blow to coastal towns, fishing families and the Indigenous tribes for whom salmon is woven into culture and survival. In April 2026, the California Ocean Protection Council confirmed the season is reopening, a turnaround driven by fish returning in numbers few dared to expect.

The forecasts tell the story. Scientists project nearly 400,000 adult Sacramento River fall-run Chinook returning this year, more than double last year's estimate, while the Klamath River fall-run forecast is roughly 176,000 adults, also more than double. The 2025 Klamath return had already stunned biologists, coming in at about 51,400 adults — roughly 180% of what models had predicted.

“Drought, warming rivers and collapsing fish runs forced the closure of the state's commercial ocean salmon fishery in 2023, 2024 and 2025 — a blow to coastal towns, fishing families and the Indigenous tribes for whom salmon is woven into culture and survival.”

Behind the rebound stands one of the most ambitious restoration efforts ever attempted in North America. In 2024, four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River were dismantled in the largest dam-removal and river-restoration project in U.S. history. Within a single year, scientists documented salmon reappearing throughout the basin, including Oregon tributaries where the fish had been absent for more than a hundred years. Removing the dams also cooled the river, reduced toxic algal blooms, and slashed levels of a deadly fish parasite.

The return carries meaning beyond economics. The Yurok Tribe, which had been unable to serve salmon at its 60-year-old Annual Klamath Salmon Festival since 2023, can once again connect a new generation to a food and a tradition at the heart of its identity. The recovery is not guaranteed to last — salmon remain vulnerable to drought and warming seas — but 2026 stands as powerful proof that taking down barriers and letting a river run free can bring an ecosystem, and a way of life, roaring back.