The Open Rivers Fund October 2025 newsletter focuses on the wilderness and community benefits from the Rattlesnake Creek dam removal projects. We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you each month. Read the newsletter > Subscribe * indicates required Email Address * First Name Last Name Title Organization District
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The Open Rivers Fund August 2025 newsletter focuses on the threats and impacts of aging dams as well as the range of benefits that come with dam removal. We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you each month. Read the newsletter > Subscribe * indicates required Email Address * First […]
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There are over 550,000 dams and over 298,000 road-related barriers, such as culverts, that fragment rivers across the United States. Since these dams and barriers were constructed, storms and flooding have become more intense. At the same time, many of these structures are aging and in disrepair. They have outlived their purpose and are putting […]
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The Open Rivers Fund July 2025 newsletter focuses on culverts — what they are, why they’re important, and some common issues surrounding them. The newsletter features a recent culvert replacement project in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and highlights the important funding program addressing failing culverts nationwide and improving infrastructure and fish passage. We look forward to […]
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The Open Rivers Fund April 2025 newsletter focuses on PG&E’s plan to surrender its hydropower license and decommission the costly Cape Horn Dam and Scott Dam, known as the Potter Valley Project. We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you each month. Read the newsletter > Subscribe * indicates required […]
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The Open Rivers Fund February 2025 newsletter focuses on the hundreds of small dams and diversions that continue to obstruct streams feeding into the Rogue River and how removal of these dams is good for ecosystems, farmers, and the community. We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you each month. Read the […]
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The Open Rivers Fund January 2025 newsletter focuses on the community and environmental benefits of removing dozens of small dams or road culverts to reconnect vital fish habitat in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. We look forward to sharing more of these stories with you each month. Read the newsletter > Subscribe to our Newsletter […]
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The Open Rivers Fund November 2024 newsletter focuses on the restoration of Wildboy Creek through removal of Kwoneesum Dam. By removing this obsolete dam, we’re seeing improved habitat, elimination of safety risks for downstream residents, as well as reconnection to the river and its cultural significance for Tribal and nearby communities, in Skamania County. We […]
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The Open Rivers Fund October 2024 newsletter celebrates the historic removal of four dams from the Klamath River—the largest watershed reconnection project in U.S. history. It also highlights smaller yet equally vital restoration efforts nationwide, including 10 transformational fish passage and ecosystem restoration projects recognized by the Biden-Harris administration. We look forward to sharing more […]
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Earlier this spring, American Rivers and Resources Legacy Fund collaborated to stage a first-of-its-kind symposium on dam removal in Washington, DC. Attendees from federal, state, and local agencies; Tribes; nonprofits; and philanthropies came together for a spirited, two-day discussion on the movement to remove dams and restore our rivers. More than two dozen speakers made […]
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This Friday, March 22, is World Water Day. Each year, the United Nations marks the day, March 22, by highlighting the importance of freshwater and the need for more collaborative and sustainable water management. The theme for this year’s global observance is “Water for Peace.” That plea seems apt. Around the world, we see ample […]
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Over a period of several months, two dozen papers on dam removal and river restoration are being published in a single edition of the online journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. This tranche of papers represents a significant advance in the science behind dam removals. The timing is superb, as publishing coincides with removal of […]
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OPINION published in Capitol Weekly , November 7, 2023, by Julie Turrini – California has hundreds of outdated dams, small and large, that no longer serve a function. These obsolete dams litter our rivers and streams, block fish passage, and create costly liabilities to communities. We need to accelerate our pace of dam removal as […]
Read More »To celebrate its first five years of work, Open Rivers Fund—a program of Resources Legacy Fund, launched in November 2016 with a 10-year, $50-million investment from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—worked with film director Jason Jaacks to produce a documentary highlighting several dynamic dam removal projects and partnerships that are reshaping waterways across the American […]
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On November 17 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the Final License Surrender Order for the Lower Klamath River Hydroelectric Project. With this final regulatory hurdle now crossed, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation and its local Tribal and nonprofit partners can remove the four lower Klamath River Dams located on both sides of the […]
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For more than a century, four large dams on the Upper Klamath River have blocked spring-run Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, Pacific lamprey, and other species from their native spawning grounds. The absence of those species has affected the biology of the river and the culture of the communities along it in Northern California and Southern […]
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Nelson Dam, a century-old concrete structure that outlived its usefulness, spans the Naches River in Yakima, Washington. It blocks fish passage for much of the year and presents safety risks for the City of Yakima. After years of planning, Nelson Dam is coming down this fall. Earlier this year, when the dam’s fate was still […]
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Earlier this summer, I spent three days on an inspiring tour of the Bear River watershed, hosted by Open Rivers Fund grantee, Western Native Trout Initiative (WTNI). WNTI is a collaborative partnership of public agencies, conservation-minded organizations, and private individuals focused on protecting 21 species of native trout and char across 12 western states—including the […]
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Western Montana’s Rattlesnake Creek and its many relations – human and more-than-human – are at the heart of our ongoing research-practice partnership between Watershed Education Network (WEN) and the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science. As part of this partnership, I was fortunate enough to visit Missoula this past summer to collect data […]
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Two summers ago, I floated the Middle Fork Salmon, in the heart of Idaho’s Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness. The trip had everything, spectacular scenery, great fishing, wonderful companions. The only thing missing was abundant salmon and steelhead which, before the construction of the four lower Snake River dams, made the 800 mile journey […]
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A free-flowing river has an aura of inevitability. As creeks and small streams merge into one, the river finds its way. Left to its own devices, it goes where gravity says it must – scouring its own banks, starting course changes when obstructed, and moving material to rebuild its bed. On its way, gaining volume […]
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The opportunity for native westslope cutthroat and bull trout to move unimpeded up and down Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Mont., is close to reality. Contractors hired by Trout Unlimited, Montana Trout Unlimited, the City of Missoula and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, among other partners, have been working this summer to remove Rattlesnake Dam. The […]
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With work to remove Missoula’s Rattlesnake Creek Dam now underway, it’s a good time to call attention to the inspiring local partnerships that led to this. There are lessons that can apply across the West. The 60-foot-long dam, in place since 1904, will be removed and the creek restored, giving bull trout, westslope cutthroat and […]
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Columbia Land Trust today announced the conservation of 1,300 acres of forestland in the upper reaches of the Washougal River system in Skamania County, Washington. The Land Trust conserved the land surrounding Wildboy Creek with the goal of removing an outmoded 55-ft. dam on the property and restoring the watershed for salmon and steelhead. The […]
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