Celebrating free flowing rivers

Removing obsolete dams helps restore access to key salmon, lamprey, and native fish habitat. Photo by Bonnie Moreland.

Victory! 15 years and counting: Crag helps restore access to key salmon habitat with removal of obsolete dams

For over fifteen years, Crag has helped clients advocate for the removal of obsolete dams that hinder fish migration. For millennia, wild salmon have made the journey from freshwater rivers to the ocean where they grow large and strong, until it’s time for them to return home to lay their eggs and complete their life cycle. But dams and other human-made barriers impede or completely block their access to freshwater habitat to spawn and rear. 

We have supported a number of different river conservation groups to remove dams and restore access to key salmon habitat. Here are some of the biggest cases:

2009

In 2009, we represented the Gifford Pinchot Task Force who supported the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to remove the Hemlock Dam along Trout Creek in SW Washington.

2015

In 2015, we helped our client Geos Institute secure removal of the Fielder Dam, which opened up 70 miles of river to summer and winter steelhead in Oregon’s Rogue River Basin.

2018

Since 2018, we have been representing a coalition of river advocates to hold Winchester Dam owners accountable for repeated botched repairs that pollute the pristine North Umpqua River and impact native fish populations.

2023

In 2023, we helped WaterWatch of Oregon remove the abandoned and 100-year-old Lovelace Dam on a tributary to the Applegate River in the Rogue Basin, a priority tributary for threatened coho salmon.

2024

This summer, our client WaterWatch of Oregon reported that crews completed the demolition of Williams-Whalen Dam on Evans Creek, a key salmon and steelhead spawning tributary of the Rogue River near Grant’s Pass.

Our latest win: Removing the Williams-Whalen dam

In July 2024, river conservation groups celebrated the removal of the Williams-Whalen dam on Evans Creek in the Rogue River, which opened access to 37 miles of upstream spawning and rearing habitat for salmon, steelhead, and other native fish.  Since 2015, we have worked with WaterWatch and its partners to remove dams in Southern Oregon’s Rogue River Basin. 

The five-foot tall, 150-foot wide Williams-Whalen dam is the third fish-impeding dam WaterWatch has removed from Evans Creek in the last nine years. Thanks to their work, Evans Creek is entirely free-flowing at this site for the first time in 128 years! In addition to the 37 miles of habitat reconnected, this project brought in some $500,000 of outside funding to rural southern Oregon in support of family wage construction jobs.

Williams-Whalen Dam: Before & After

Before and after removal of Williams-Whalen dam from Evans Creek. Photos by Rogue River Watershed Council, Crystal Nichols.

What’s at Stake

Our Clients

We are proud to have represented our clients in these dam removal cases:

• • Gifford Pinchot Task Force (now Cascade Forest Conservancy) is dedicated to protecting and restoring Cascade ecosystems through three avenues: conservation, restoration, and policy.
  • Geos Institute is a group of climate resilience practioners who has worked in partnership with WaterWatch of Oregon, American Rivers, and state and federal agencies to remove the Fielder and Wimer Dams in Oregon.
  • WaterWatch of Oregon  has worked since 1985 to protect and restore flows in our rivers to sustain native fish, wildlife, and the people who depend on healthy rivers. To ensure the legacy of healthy rivers in Oregon, they keep regulators accountable, speak for the public interest, pass balanced water legislation and go to court. 
  • Steamboaters works tirelessly to protect the fragile North Umpqua River in Oregon. Their mission is to preserve, promote, and restore the natural production of wild fish populations, especially steelhead, the habitat which sustains them, and the unique aesthetic values of the North Umpqua River for present and future generations. 
  • Native Fish Society exists to cultivate a groundswell of public support needed to revive abundant wild, native fish. Guided by the best available science, they advocate for the protection and recovery of wild, native fish and promote the stewardship of the habitats that sustain us all.
  • Umpqua Watersheds was founded in 1986 dedicated to the protection and restoration of the ecosystems of the Umpqua watershed and beyond through education, training, advocacy and ecologically sound stewardship.
  • The North Umpqua Foundation was founded in 1983 by anglers and concerned citizens that advocates river conservation. They inform, educate, and support research projects to protect and serve the North Umpqua River basin.