For the first time in more than a century, migrating salmon have climbed close to the headwaters of the Klamath River’s most far-flung tributaries, as much as 360 miles⁠ from the Pacific Ocean in south-central Oregon. The achievement is the clearest indication yet that the world’s largest dam removal project, completed on the river a year ago, will yield major benefits for salmon, the river ecosystem, and the tribes and commercial fishers whose lives revolve around the fish.

“I’m thrilled,” said Jeff Mitchell⁠, a former chairman of the Klamath Tribes and a key participant in the long-running protests and negotiations that culminated in the dam removal project. “It’s been gratifying — 25 years of my life and all the thousands of thousands of miles and thousands of hours of sitting in meeti

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