RENO, Nevada — Federal water managers are reopening endangered species and water-sharing rules in the Klamath Basin as salmon return to newly free-flowing stretches of the river and as the Trump administration pushes agencies to maximize water deliveries.
What happened: The Bureau of Reclamation formally asked federal fisheries agencies last week to help rewrite the endangered species rules that govern its dams and pumps that deliver water from the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border to farms and wildlife refuges in both states, Adam Nickels, the bureau’s acting California regional director, told a Reno-based conference of federal and local water managers Wednesday.
Alan Heck, the bureau’s Klamath Basin manager, told the conference attendees that he expected the new guidelines to represent a “fairly large shift in the way we do business” following President Donald Trump’s executive order to maximize water supply last year and an assessment earlier this month of endangered species protections in the region.
Heck also said that salmon have returned to the river in greater numbers than anticipated following the removal of four dams on the Klamath River in 2023 and 2024.
