The good news? With removal of four dams on the Klamath River completed in 2024, thousands of Chinook have wasted little time making their way back into Southern Oregon waters.
The not-so-good news? So too have poachers. Or at least two, anyway.
Details come from the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division’s October newsletter, where troopers reported on what’s believed to be the first criminal case of unlawful take of salmon on the Beaver State side of the Klamath Basin since the sea-going fish lost access to the area in the early 1910s.
Troopers say a witness phoned in a report about a man who was fishing on and had illegally kept a Chinook from Spencer Creek, which is about 15 miles west of Klamath Falls and had been closed to fishing at the end of September to protect spawning salmon.
While the man was gone when a trooper arrived, witnesses provided a license plate, and the vehicle was subsequently spotted and stopped on Highway 66 by the officer.
Inside the vehicle were two individuals. The passenger allegedly admitted to fishing claiming “he didn’t think wardens would be working due to the federal government shutdown,” per OSP.
Federal fish and wildlife enforcement officers remained on duty during the shutdown, as of course did state troopers.
Two Chinook and a rod and reel were seized from the man, who was criminally cited, while the driver was also warned about aiding in a wildlife violation.
Officials say that around 10,000 adult-sized fish were counted this past fall at a sonar station below the former site of Iron Gate Dam, the lowest of the four on the Klamath that were removed. That figure was 30 percent higher than the previous fall, the first that fish could go past that point.
