Swiftwater Films

30/10/2024

Last week, we had the opportunity to tag along with the Klamath post-dam removal fish monitoring crew from Cal Trout, NOAA, ODFW, and the Karuk Tribe. Crews caught and tagged the first two chinook and one steelhead with acoustic radio tags using a tangle net. There are 15 radio stations above Copco and into the headwaters rivers of the Wood, Williamson, and Sprague. The fish monitoring effort will be a fascinating study that will follow migration and re-population patterns post-dam removal using these radio tags, pit tags, the sonar at Iron Gate, EDNA, Redd, and carcass surveys that will collect genetics. While it’s the end of the dam removal, it’s just the beginning of some of the most fascinating salmon and steelhead science ever conducted. Photos: Katie Falkenberg/Swiftwater Films

23/10/2024

I checked in on this hen for 3 days in a row as she dug her redd at the base of where Copco 1 dam was. She chose heavy current and had 3 males fighting for a chance to fertilize her eggs in the giant redd she excavated. Her offspring will be the first cohort to come from this stretch in over a century and she made the ultimate sacrifice as the salmon is one of the few animals on earth that will never know their offspring.

21/10/2024

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-10-19/klamath-salmon-thriving?fbclid=IwY2xjawGDXIBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRK48XH0RblmOG2KIN7qHcGTIOHVBvMHM0lTRzkNkgLHwc2ivGCtv5Dpbw_aem_AIRVU27gKv2VRHTgr1evBg

The removal of dams on the Klamath River has enabled salmon to swim far upstream to spawn. Wildlife officials have found salmon upstream in Oregon.

20/10/2024

This is one of the first Klamath chinook salmon in over a century that made it to Oregon through all four removed dams and two very intense white water canyons and into a creek roughly 250 miles from the ocean. Thanks to ODFW for guiding us to these denizens of the river. It’s exciting to think that they are the first to start a new population, and they must have incredible genetics. They are in amazing shape but the journey definitely took a toll on them and they looked a lot more tired than the fish we saw above Iron Gate. We snapped a few pictures and let them rest and take cover in wood that RES put in the channel a few month back. In addition to these tributary spawners, fish were also seen rolling in the main river, signaling there are quite a few fish in the river above the dams and the eagles knew it.

18/10/2024

The first chinook salmon in over 60 years are officially spawning above the former Iron Gate dam on the Klamath, just two weeks after construction wrapped on dam removal. Two days ago, a pair was spotted in above Iron Gate and yesterday we saw 36. Word on the street is they have already made it to Oregon above the former JC Boyle dam marking the first time in over a century salmon have been there. The fish are bright, strong and beautiful. What an incredible few days and a testament to the resilience of salmon. 📸: Shane Anderson and Katie Falkenberg

02/10/2024

Klamath dam removal. That’s a wrap! Actually, a rip wrap as construction crews place the final boulders and begin decommissioning the haul roads. Restoration will continue for several years, and we will continue documenting the ecosystem’s regeneration.

The river directly above Iron Gate continues to actively cut down and find its path, which has led to increases in turbidity not construction activities. With colder water temps and dissolved oxygen improving, we hope to see a push of salmon soon.

16/09/2024

Our latest short film collaboration with RES.

12/09/2024

Standing at over 100 feet tall with 6 ft thick concrete walls. The gatehouse at Iron Gate was the last of the extensive infrastructure to be removed for the Klamath River Renewal Project. This structure opened a large Iron Gate that diverted the Klamath River through the 600 ft tunnel during construction and drawdown. Like falling a large tree, Kiewit crews made a backcut through the concrete, chipped out a wedge, MC Donegan drilled holes on the face cut and set off 125 lbs. of explosives, gravity did the rest. It was the perfect shot, and it landed precisely where it was supposed to. Photos: Jason Hartwick/ Shane Anderson/Swiftwater Films

03/09/2024

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of spending a week on the lower Klamath River, filming a sequence of the salmon and steelhead beginning their fall migration. The mouth was teaming with life, and for several days in a row, whales were swimming and breaching close to shore, eagles, osprey, and pelicans were fishing, and schools of salmon and steelhead were pouring in on the tide cycles while seals and sea lions strategically hunted their prey. Further upriver, we dove creek mouths, and for the first time in the past four years filming on this project, the thermal refuges were not stacked full of salmon and steelhead with the disease, only a few steelhead here and there and some juveniles at the confluences. This is excellent news because the fish are where they belong, migrating upriver. The coffer dam breach released a solid slug of sediment, and D/O crashed for a short time from Iron Gate to the Shasta confluence but has bounced back to 80% and the dissolved oxygen and sediment levels continue to improve downriver. We will continue to track the salmon migration as they get closer to the newly opened section of river over the next few months.

01/09/2024

Less than a month after the coffer dam breach,JC Boyle dam is gone! Sediment has pushed through and moonshine fall’s continues to reawaken. This new / old stretch of river had been diverted through a mountain for the past 66 years. Now many cold water springs are dropping river temps and adding several hundred cubic feet a second of clean water. Today water temps coming out of Keno dam upstream are currently 67 degrees F and temps below JC Boyle springs is 61 F. This reach will provide important cold water refuge for salmon, steelhead and trout. 📸: Jason Hartwick/Swiftwater Films

31/08/2024

Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River. A before and after from one of our long-term time-lapse cameras. This dam took 4 years to build and four months to dismantle. Over 1 million cubic yards of material was removed which will make for a very dynamic video. Over the past year and a half, these cameras have captured roughly 60,000 images each. Keeping these units running and consistent was one of the most challenging aspects of documenting the Klamath Dam removals. Between equipment issues, no cellular service to remotely check, and great distances between units,The team had to manually check the systems regularly, which was no easy task. We look forward to releasing the timelapse videos later this fall. Shout out to the timelapse team for a job well done.

30/08/2024

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new era for the Klamath River when it was reconnected at the former Iron Gate and Copco dams for the first time in over a century. undammingklamath

31/07/2024

Another milestone was reached in the Undamming of the Klamath when the river was returned to its historic channel at JC Boyle Dam. The original channel was buried in 1957 with the construction of the Big Bend project, which was later named the JC Boyle in tribute to the engineer of the Klamath Hydro projects. The earth portion of the dam was 68 ft high by 700 ft long, and Kiewit removed the earth and restored the original river channel in less than three months. At approximately 12:30 on July 30th, a long-reach excavator breached the coffer dam, and the river began to carve its way through the original course. It is a dynamic geomorphic area where Moonshine Falls was buried. While the volitional fish passage is restored, the remainder of the dam is scheduled to be entirely removed by September.

29/07/2024

Were honored that our short film collaboration, Undammed is a finalist for the 2024 Jackson Wild awards.

17/07/2024

17/07/2024

Dam removal at Copco 1 on the Klamath began mid-March with a bang. Over the course of 4 months, MC Donnegan set off 14 blasts with many tons of TNT. Kiewit then utilized hydraulic hammers on giant excavators to break up the concrete before hauling off 46,000 yards of concrete and debris, which is approximately 2000 haul truck loads. By mid-August, the river will be reconnected in this reach for the first time in over a century.
Photos: Whitney Hasset, Shane Anderson, Tyler Parker, Ren Brownell

21/06/2024

What remains of Copco 1 dam. Since mid March around 100 ft of concrete has been removed. One thing that struck me while filming and observing this process is the lack of rebar used in the dam and steel railroad tracks were used as rebar in the base and other random places. By early August the river is slated to return to its channel for the first time in over 100 year.

04/06/2024

Over 60 feet has been removed off the top of Iron Gate dam since breaking ground in early May. That’s 136,000 yards or approximately 3382 truckloads.

24/05/2024

Undammed our 17 min short film collaboration with Patagonia Films will be premiering at Mountain Film Fest in Telluride, Colorado this weekend.

After witnessing a massive fish kill on her ancestral home waters, Yurok tribal attorney Amy Bowers Cordalis dedicated her life to reversing the generations-long destruction wrought by the Klamath River dams. Undammed follows her journey to free the Klamath, from testifying before Congress to passing down fishing traditions within her young family. Now that the Klamath dams are finally coming down, she remains confident that the future of her tribe is bright. “It’s not a test,” Bowers Cordalis says of the largest dam-removal project in US history. “It will work.”

The film will be shown in the Terra-Shorts block

Friday night @ 8:45 @ the Bill
Sunday morning @ 9:15 at Masons
And Amy will be speaking at the Indigenous coffee talk Sunday morning at 8am.

17/05/2024

With approximately 400 truckloads a day coming off Iron Gate dam the earth moving has been remarkable to watch and appears that around 30 ft. of the dam has already been removed since breaking ground a few weeks ago. Full steam ahead. 📸: Hartwick/Anderson

22/03/2024

After witnessing a massive fish kill on her ancestral home waters, Yurok tribal attorney Amy Bowers Cordalis dedicated her life to reversing the generations-...

21/03/2024

We have been working on a series of shorts with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) about some of the work they are doing on the Klamath during dam removal. Restoration started last month in Jenny Creek, one of the key tributaries in the former Iron Gate reservoir footprint.
Shot and edited by: Katie Falkenberg

Sediment evacuation on the Klamath project now has an expanded role, with promising potential for salmon habitat downstream.

24/01/2024

Yesterday was a historic day for the Klamath River when a 12ft. diameter concrete plug was blasted with 800 lbs. of dynamite at the base of Copco 1 dam on the Klamath River, setting the river sediment-free after 101 years.

Personally, this was the most exciting and challenging shoot of my career and a life-changing cathartic moment as I felt the shockwaves move through my body. Since I started this project four years ago, this day has been on my mind constantly and kept me up many nights. There were 14 of us working under the banner of Swiftwater in 6 different film units over a 5-mile span, and I could not be more proud of the team for being very adaptive, agile, and talented.

Today, January 23rd, 2024, 800 lbs. of dynamite was packed into the base of the 101-year-old Copco 1 dam on the Klamath River and detonated, marking the begi...

17/01/2024

Another historic day for the Klamath!

On January 16, 2024, a tunnel stop log was blasted at the JC Boyle dam, one of the four dams being removed for the Klamath River Renewal Project. This blast ...

28/03/2023