The Klamath River watershed drains about 15,600 square miles in Oregon and California. Much of the watershed lies within the boundaries of the Six Rivers, Klamath, Shasta, and Trinity National Forests. The Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and Yurok Reservation encompass the lower 42 miles of the Klamath and lower 16 miles of the Trinity River, the largest tributary in the drainage. The Klamath River basin has historically supported large runs of chinook salmon and steelhead trout, which have contributed considerably to subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries in California. Generations of Indian people have utilized fishing grounds in the drainage and their fisheries for salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon which have provided the mainstay of the Indian economy in the area. In more recent times, extensive sport and commercial fisheries have come to rely on the Klamath River fishery resource. Concern about the fishery resource has emerged with the cumulative impact of logging, expanded fishing, dam building, road construction, and other similar developments. Many state, federal, tribal, and private groups are working to conduct field research programs on Klamath River fish populations. Through harvest monitoring, stream surveying, seining operations, and other programs, questions regarding timing and abundance of spawning, migrations, population age structures, habitat requirements, harvest patterns, and other subjects are being addressed. It is hoped that such information will better enable management to make sound decisions which will be to the ultimate benefit of the fisheries resource and all who depend on it.
